This would have been so much easier if Zach Edey had just gone pro.
To be ABSOLUTELY clear: Edey is not going to improve his draft stock in any measurable way by returning to Purdue. He could win National Player of the Year again, send Purdue on a deep tournament run, even win the national title, but unless Edey spends all summer shooting threes and showcases flashes of latter-day Brook Lopez come November, his absolute ceiling as a draft prospect is the mid-20s.
Don’t mistake that for thinking Edey won’t or can’t hack it as a pro basketball player; of every skill a player can have in their toolbox, only a handful are selected by God to have ‘be 7-feet, 4-inches tall’ in the arsenal. Aside from being simply too large to allow, Edey has more fluidity than he’s given credit for, softer touch than most his size and a pretty innate understanding of the game. He won’t make anyone forget Hakeem Olajuwon, but every variable is in place for Edey to have a productive decade-long career in the NBA.
But again: nothing that happens in the next college basketball season is likely to have any bearing on that. Unless Edey hits 38 percent from three on a half-dozen attempts per game. Which, if that comes to pass, good Lord y’all. Zach Edey pulling up above the break and swishing a three to force a furious Juwan Howard into calling a timeout is almost too beautiful to contemplate. The spiritual equivalent of Nate Robinson swatting a shot into the third row. I digress.
But Edey returning to West Lafayette is good for Matt Painter, Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and the rest of the Boilermakers because it gives them a chance at redemption. They had better not screw it up, because this doesn’t happen often, and if they do screw it up the nights might get cold quickly.