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Clippers Select Yanic Konan Niederhauser With the 30th Pick in the 2025 Draft
With the 30th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Clippers selected Yanic Konan Niederhauser, a 22-year-old Swiss center from Penn State who played in Germany prior to coming over for college.
Yanic averaged 12.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in 25.1 minutes per game last year at Penn State while shooting 61.1% from the field (1/11 on threes) and 66.4% from the line (4.5 attempts per game). Prior to Penn State, he played at Northern Illinois for two years, playing limited minutes his freshman season and then serving in a low-minute center role his sophomore season.
I’ll be honest, I think this is unfortunately another really bad pick by the Clippers. Niederhauser was projected by most mock boards in the mid-40s, so I think the Clippers could have got him sometime tomorrow if they really wanted him – and there were a handful of much higher rated players on the board, notably Rasheer Fleming, Adou Thiero, and Ryan Kalkbrenner.
Let’s start with the good. Yanic is huge (6’11 without shoes) and very athletic for his size. He’s an above-the-rim threat who will feast on rim runs with NBA-level playmakers, and James Harden in particular should be able to develop a nice chemistry with him. The size and athleticism also helps on the offensive glass, and makes him a potent rim protector on defense.
Now for the bad. Niederhauser is an extremely low skill player with no shooting touch, playmaking, or handling. His only real value on offense is the rim-running and a bit of offensive rebounding. Despite the block numbers, he’s also a very, very poor defender with limited awareness and no ability to defend in space. There are the outlines of a modern NBA big man, but right now he’s essentially just a taller Kai Jones.
Niederhauser is also 22, so while he’s not as old as Kobe Brown or Jordan Miller were on draft night, he’s also further along in years for a guy as raw as he currently is. The best bet for Yanic is that he’s able to become an energy offensive big man off the bench who can come in and get some easy buckets against opposing reserves without getting punished on defense.
While this pick isn’t quite as unfathomable as the Daniel Oturu (sorry for still taking shots at you five years later Dan!) selection in 2020, I’ve also heard nothing but negative comments about it from all of the draft people and scouts I talk with on Twitter. There is some upside there, but it’s not much, and there were several significantly better prospects on the board. Oh well, there’s always pick 51, and the Clippers select better late in the draft anyway. Rooting for Yanic – he seems like a good kid who plays hard. Hopefully he proves me wrong!
Clippers Select Yanic Konan Niederhauser With the 30th Pick in the 2025 Draft
Robert Flom