The Sixers could afford to add a big this offseason and the 35th overall pick feels like a good place to do it.
Before the 2025 NBA Draft, we’ll take an in-depth look at different prospects here at Liberty Ballers and try to figure out which players would be the best fit for the Sixers at Nos. 3 and 35. Next up in this series is Creightion’s Ryan Kalkbrenner.
We mentioned this in our Johni Broome profile, but the Sixers would be wise if they prioritized their front court in the second round. Philadelphia has long struggled to improve the non-Joel Embiid minutes and the draft seems like a better bet to change that than continuing to sign washed-up veterans. Adem Bona seems to be trending in the right direction, but some more youth off the bench up front certainly couldn’t hurt.
Like Broome, Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner seems polished and ready to make some kind of impact in the NBA. He’s projected to go in the same area as Broome so it will be interesting to see if the Sixers are attracted to these college veterans who played a ton of minutes in the frontcourt and achieved at a high level in power conferences. Without further ado, here’s the rundown on Kalkbrenner.
Profile
2024-25 Stats: 35 games, 34.4 minutes, 19.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.5 steals, 2.7 blocks, 65.3 FG%, 34.4 3P%, 68.1 FT%
Team: Creighton
Year: Super Senior
Position: C
Height and Weight: 7’1’’ 270 lbs.
Born: January 17, 2002 (23 years old)
Hometown: Florissant, Missouri
Strengths
There’s nothing fake about Kalkbrenner’s size. Sure, how much of his interior presence on both ends translates to the NBA will be a question mark, but he spent five years in college eating opposing Big East teams alive in the paint on both offense and defense. Kalkbrenner won the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award an astounding four times as a member of the Blue Jays. Scouts also seem to like his ability play drop coverage and communicate well with his teammates on the perimeter.
While his defense is particularly stellar, the outside shooting ability is what’s inching Kalkbrenner towards the first round on some boards. He only attempted two threes in his freshman season at Creighton. By his fifth year in Omaha, Kalkbrenner was a 34% shooter from deep which isn’t that far off from the NBA league average. His free throw percentage did decline a bit in his final collegiate season, but Kalkbrenner did reach a career high of 79.5% from the charity stripe in his third season at Creighton. There’s certainly reason to believe the right NBA team can get enough shooting consistency out of Kalkbrenner and he can block enough shots to be a viable backup center in the NBA.
Weaknesses
With suboptimal quickness, Kalkbrenner’s not someone you want switching onto guards all that often, if at all. He’s just not agile enough for that kind of defensive adjustment to be a net positive for his team. Unsurprisingly, he’s also not a high leaper which will likely reduce his ability to block shots on the interior against better athletes who are used to playing above the rim.
There’s also not a lot of shot creation in his game offensively. Granted, the team that drafts him might be OK with that if his three-point shooting continues to trend upward, but it puts more of an emphasis on him being able to steadily make those jumpers in the NBA.
While his development into enough of a shooter to keep defenses honest was a nice step in the right direction, Kalkbrenner never really got there as a passer in college. In his five-season college career, Kalkbrenner averaged just 1.1 assists per game. This is at least a minor red flag because if he’s not going to be able to score enough inside in the NBA, you’d like for him to be able to find shooters or make a play out of the low post every now and then. But, for now, that doesn’t seem to be in his arsenal.
Potential Fit with the Sixers
I was in on Broome becoming a Sixer, so I’m going to also approve of Kalkbrenner as a potential selection in the second round. Broome’s a better passer than Kalkbrenner, but Kalkbrenner is a better shooter than Broome and both are good defensively. The chief difference between the two though is that Kalkbrenner is undoubtedly a center in the NBA whereas Broome profiles as a bit of a tweener, perhaps better suited at power forward.
That does make it somewhat difficult to play Kalkbrenner with Adem Bona in the front court in games Embiid is not available in. Bona has no semblance of a floor-stretching game on offense and is a good shot blocker himself which makes him a center. Kalkbrenner would provide the floor-stretching ability next to Bona, but would get exposed rather easily by stretch fours if he was drawn out on the perimeter by one.
Having said all of this, a fair argument could be made that Kalkbrenner is just better than Bona and makes for a better option as the team’s backup center. Kalkbrenner was very available in college for Creighton which is something we’ll continue to stress when looking at backup center options at 35. If he can get his free-throw shooting back up to where it was a couple years ago, and add a few more percentage points to his three-point shooting, Kalkbrenner could certainly be a 15-minute per night option for the Sixers.
Draft Projection
ESPN Mock Draft: No. 33 to Charlotte Hornets
It does seem like enough teams are buying the outside shooting ability from Kalkbrenner to get him close to the end of the first round. For now, he’s still slated as an early second-rounder and ESPN had him landing in the Queen City. For what it’s worth, the same mock draft had Charlotte selecting another center, Maxime Raynaud out of Stanford, at 34th overall as well.
The fact of the matter is at this point in the draft, teams are likely selecting based on what they can mold these players into down the line and not what they are right now. Outside shooting is always going to be an attractive skill for big men to possess in today’s NBA and so when you couple Kalkbrenner’s shooting with his shot-blocking tendencies, he may not even make it to 35 for Philadelphia. But it’ll be close and he’s a prospect to monitor.