Milwaukee Bucks NBA Draft Prospect Watch: Zeke Nnaji

TUCSON, ARIZONA - JANUARY 04: (Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)
TUCSON, ARIZONA - JANUARY 04: (Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)
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Milwaukee Bucks
TUCSON, ARIZONA – JANUARY 16: (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Zeke Nnaji was incredibly productive during his lone year at Arizona, but will he catch the interest of the Milwaukee Bucks this draft?

All throughout his path to the 2020 NBA Draft, Zeke Nnaji has long held a chip on his shoulder.

A late bloomer in high school in Minnesota, Nnaji eventually worked his way into becoming a four-star recruit in his class, per 24/7 Sports. But despite that development, Nnaji was largely an afterthought to scouting services and wasn’t offered any significant roles from schools that had given the 6’11” big man scholarship offers.

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One of the lone exceptions to that was the University of Arizona and Nnaji took an unbelievably thorough approach to his schooling and preparing for his freshman season under head coach Sean Miller.

The hard work and preparation paid off for Nnaji as he immediately blossomed into the Wildcats’ most productive player and leading scorer this season. That eventually led to him being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year as well as First Team All-Pac-12.

As Nnaji told Jace Frederick of the Pioneer Press last month, becoming a one-and-done player was all part of his plan, even when those that overlooked didn’t believe he would be:

"“That was always a goal of mine to be a 1-and-done, and I had headed in there hoping that would happen, but not knowing for sure,” Nnaji said. “I knew I’d been working really hard for it and doing everything in advance before even coming to college, so I was pretty confident that my plan would reflect how hard I’d been working.”"

In his 32 appearances with the Wildcats, Nnaji averaged 16.1 points on .570/.294/.760 shooting splits, 8.6 rebounds, 0.9 blocks and 0.8 assists across 30.7 minutes per tilt.

So without further ado, let’s break down Zeke Nnaji’s game by evaluating his strengths and weaknesses, see where draft experts currently rate him and examine his potential fit with the Milwaukee Bucks.