Ohio State basketball: How high could E.J. Liddell get drafted?

The Ohio State basketball team has a National Player of the Year candidate in E.J. Liddell. Liddell is clearly the best player Ohio State has. He carries the team when they play the toughest teams and is their bailout guy when the shot clock runs low and they need to get a bucket.

Liddell’s numbers have been good. He’s averaging 19.2 points per game, 7.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 2.5 blocks. He’s shooting 51.7% from the field and 40.2% from three. All of those numbers are higher than they were a year ago when the Buckeyes were a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Even though he is just a junior, there’s almost no chance Liddell comes back for a final year of college. His stock will likely never be higher to head off to the NBA. With that in mind, how high could Liddell possibly get drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft?

The highest I’ve seen Liddell projected is 14th at the moment, which is right at the end of the lottery. If Liddell ends up carrying Ohio State to a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, I think he might be able to crack the top ten. That’s probably his ceiling though.

The reason I don’t see him getting drafted any higher than 10th is because of his athleticism ceiling. While Liddell is athletic, he’s not the freak that some of the guys at the top of the draft are. NBA scouts love players that have athleticism over talent.

Ohio State basketball fans would love if Liddell gets drafted as high as possible because that means that he helped lead the Buckeyes further into the postseason than they’ve ever been since Chris Holtmann has been the head coach.

I don’t have any doubt that Liddell will keep playing his best basketball late into the season.