Positives: Pavel Podkolzine is simply enormous. He has great size; his frame is thick and well built. Unlike other NBA giants such as Gheorge Muresan or Slavko Vranes, Podkolzine actually has decent mobility. He moves well for a man of his size, his mobility has drawn some comparisons to Yao Ming. Has a decent midrange jumper and surprisingly ball handling skills for a man of his size. Has good potential based on his size and decent skills.

Negatives: Podkolzine is very very raw. He has little basketball experience and needs to polish up his game a lot. Almost never plays for his Italian team, and has only played organized basketball for four years. Lacks basic fundamentals such as rebounding and shot blocking. Although he has enormous size, he does not affect the game on the defensive end. In fact, defense is his biggest weakness. He has horrible shot-blocking instincts, and is a bad rebounder. Needs to work on boxing out for rebounds. On offense he has no post up game. Has awkward footwork that can make him look very uncoordinated. There are injury concerns because of his great size. He had to drop out of the draft last year to remove his Pituitary gland.

Pavel Podkolzine is a very intriguing prospect with great potential. Although he is very raw and unpolished, he could still be picked in the top 5 because of the NBA’s lack of quality centers.