Yanic Konan Niederhauser transferred to the Penn State men's basketball team as a junior for the 2024-25 season. His time as a Nittany Lion was short-lived as Konan Niederhauser opted to enter the 2025 NBA Draft following the season.
It was unsure whether the seven-foot center would remain in the draft. After an invite and a surprising performance at the combine, Konan Niederhauser decided to stay put. His professional fate will be determined on Thursday, June 26 for the second round of the draft. Both nights, Wednesday and Thursday, the draft starts at 8 p.m. EST.
Who might draft Penn State men's basketball's Yanic Konan Niederhauser?
Konan Niederhauser has potential to be an early second round draft pick. Yahoo! Sports has the center getting drafted the earliest by the Boston Celtics. He would be the No. 2 pick in the second round and No. 32 overall. Konan Niederhauser was compared to DeAndre Jordan and is thought to be a good development project for the Celtics if they were to draft him:
"Konan Niederhauser would make for an excellent developmental project in Boston’s center-needy rotation. He is an elite athlete who lives above the rim as a finisher and shot blocker, and he displays some intriguing upside as a 7-foot shot creator. But he needs to improve his fundamentals to make it all click."
ESPN, though, has the Celtics picking up a center in the first round, Maxime Raynaud from Stanford, and drafting Drake Powell in the second. However, its mock draft didn't throw Konan Niederhauser much lower. Instead, ESPN put him going 35th overall to the Philadelphia 76ers. Before this morning, ESPN initially had Konan Niederhauser going No. 34 overall to the Charlotte Hornets.
NBADraft.net has the center being picked up by the Brooklyn Nets, going No. 36 overall. NBA Draft on SI has him going to the Phoenix Suns as a late second-rounder, No. 52 overall.
CBS Sports Adam Finkelstein's mock draft has Konan Niederhauser actually sneaking into the first round. Finkelstein has the former Nittany Lions going No. 30 overall and drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers. He wrote:
"No veteran college big man had a stronger May than Niederhauser, culminating with a strong showing at the Combine. He blocked 2.3 shots per game at Penn State last season and looks the part of a late-blooming center who can provide real impact at the center position."
Finkelstein is the only one that has Konan Niederhauser going in the first round. It's unlikely that he ends up being a late first round draft pick. However, he entered the draft not being on any teams' radars, so it's impressive that Konan Niederhauser is being considered to get drafted that early on now. It should be expected for the former Penn State center to be an early-to-mid second round pick.