Liddell is coming off a 1st Team All-Big 10 season as a Jr, where he led Ohio State in scoring with just over 19 ppg and anchored their pretty tough defense. He has always been a sturdy-bodied post player, but his steadily improving skill level has pushed his NBA Draft stock as high as it’s been in his career. Measured: 6’5.5” barefoot, 6’7.0” in shoes, 8’7.5” standing reach, 243.0 lbs, 6’11.75” wingspan at the 2022 NBA Draft Combine.
Has the measures of a typical NBA do it all forward, and will enter the league with a body already built to bang up inside. Displayed his ability to play in a switching defense throughout the last 2 seasons, where he played some time at center and this year impressed with his ability to stay on the perimeter with some other prospects in the upcoming draft. It's easy to find videos of Liddel on guys like J. Davis, McGowens, Banchero, K. Murray, etc. When you see something like that, it's hard to not be dumb and compare this kind of quality to Draymond. Hard to say how good he'll be on switching into elite guards in the league, but the flashes and pieces of evidence are there.
On defense, his best trait is not only having the versatility to defend on-ball, but he is a threat at blocking shots from the weak side at all times. He uses a combo of great anticipation + motor to make off-ball rotations and contest shots all over the floor, and that's a thing any team in the league can't have enough of. He lacks elite athleticism, which coupled with the fact of being an upperclassman makes him a late first-round prospect. He had strength both for the college level, but how will his ability to challenge vertically be in the NBA? As a guy that's mainly a defensive prospect, it's good that he avoids fouling and knows how to contest shots and when to go for the swat.
It's always hard to figure it out how an upperclassman player that had a big scoring load will translate to being a role player with few touches in the NBA. He doesn't have the package to be a high-usage guy in the league, with handles and decision-making on drives demanding a lot of work to be more than a role player. Still, that won't be his job in the league. The fact that he has average tools on the ball on offense will make him a good X-factor guy in a few years. Even if that's not fully utilized, his ability to stretch the floor will make him playable on offense.
Even though small sample sizes make it tough to judge too much of a college player's career, it's undeniable his abillity to stretch the floor and work as a great pick and pop option. On that front, it's impressive his consistent improvement over his college years. When he sat with ESPN's Schmitz, he said that the most important for him on that leap was keeping a good and consistent mechanic throughout the game.
With a diminished role, his good post-up game probably won't translate into the NBA. His ability to play off others as a short roll man or an inside-out playmaker is still up in the air. At the next level, decision-making and quick thinking will decide how good he can be as a ball mover. Still, with his shooting and passable handles/passes for his size he can carve out a similar role to a guy like Grant Williams, Jae Crowder, PJ Tucker, or our beloved PJ Washington. Being on a smaller role will also hide his main weaknesses, complete inability to create room for a shot, and being a bad driver at the rim.
Main questions going into the draft:
Does he have room to keep growing on the offensive end, is worth it for a team to give him more touches to develop that?
Will his stretching big abilities translate to the NBA so that he can make an impact on a roster from day 1?
Can he play the 4 full time or he will be an undersized C at the next level?
Best Fits:
Nuggets (better player than the Greens atm, can help them a lot on D)
Bulls (should take this guy at 18)
Spurs (Keldon-Liddel-Poeltl frontcourt = win)
Heat (could use a player like that for the future, nice duo for Bam)
Warriors (another small 5 prospect for them to rejoice)
Blazers (option if they trade down)
Bucks (depending on how well he does on corner 3s, can bring back some PJ Tucker magic)