The San Antonio Spurs at the moment have a number of first spherical picks to make the most of within the 2022 NBA Draft. A type of later picks might flip into E.J. Liddell from Ohio State. The junior out of Illinois has labored extremely laborious on his physique and totally different components of his recreation for the three years he’s been in Columbus, Ohio.
The 6-foot-7, 240-pound ahead has performed himself into severe first spherical consideration as a result of he simply does every thing for the Buckeyes. He’s their main scorer, main rebounder, and main blocker. A fairly good mixture for a workforce that made the NCAA Event and obtained to the second spherical. Listed below are his stats from his 32-game season.
- 19.4 PPG, 2.5 APG, 2.6 BPG, 7.9 RPG
- 49.0 FG%, 37.4 3P%, 76.5 FT%
- 30.5 PER, 120.6 ORtg, 100.0 DRtg
Liddell has been a wonderful supply of buckets for the Buckeyes this previous season and that’s regardless of garnering all of the defensive consideration from groups. He posts up nicely, hits midrange pictures constantly, and is a risk from past the arc. His solely drawback is that he isn’t a fleet-footed ahead who stands 6-foot-9 or taller. In any other case, he does the entire little issues and a number of the greater issues groups wish to see.
Defensively, Liddell might be finest served enjoying on the 4 and guarding the larger forwards. He’s robust to battle within the paint with them and shouldn’t be too gradual to remain in entrance of them. If he’s requested to protect a small ahead or a faster large man, he could possibly be in bother. He’s most of the time going to be taken off the dribble and discover himself in bother. Nonetheless, he’s nice on assist aspect and publish protection as that’s the place he racked up his blocks.
Regardless of being the focus of the offense, he nonetheless discovered his teammates and in the event that they hit pictures extra repeatedly, he would have had extra assists. He’s a prepared and in a position passer, particularly out of the publish. He’s an ideal late first spherical choose who has some clear NBA abilities, however can even want some work in defining the place he most closely fits and the right way to get there.
