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Flory Bidunga 2026 NBA Draft Profile
Featured Image: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The 2026 NBA Draft is all-around talented, with great prospects across the board. The class is filled with excellent freshmen, but there are plenty of talented sophomores as well. One sophomore who has had a great campaign this year is Kansas Jayhawk big man Flory Bidunga. The six-foot-nine center has proven himself to be a prospect with high-end athleticism and physical tools, which he uses to be an effective rim protector and play-finisher. Coming from his freshman season, Bidunga has shown great improvement as an overall player. He is one of the better center prospects in this year’s draft. Let’s dive into an evaluation of Flory Bidunga in this 2026 NBA Draft profile.

Flory Bidunga 2026 NBA Draft Profile

College Career

Bidunga has spent his entire collegiate career with the Kansas Jayhawks under head coach Bill Self. As a freshman, Bidunga stood out as an athletic, defensively-minded center who can be a rim deterrent in the paint. Though limited offensively, he has also shown himself to be an effective play-finisher who scores well around the basket. While he didn’t receive any awards for his freshman season, Bidunga showed his potential as a center prospect.

As for this past season, the 20-year-old sophomore demonstrated major growth as an overall player. He became more effective as a play-finisher with higher volume, with his added strength and improved footwork helping his finishing in the paint. He also demonstrated more passing flashes. However, the larger improvement in his game is on the defensive end. Despite his height, Bidunga is a formidable defensive presence in the paint this season. He significantly improved as a shot-blocker and rebounder, while also showing great defensive versatility. Combined with his motor, Bidunga has shown major growth as a defensive prospect. His improvement assisted in helping the Jayhawks make the NCAA Tournament as a four seed, making it to the round of 32.

On the season, Bidunga averaged 13.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 2.6 blocks in 31.5 minutes per game. He shot 64% from the field and 65.4% from the free-throw line. For his contributions this past season, Bidunga made the All-Big 12 first team, received Big-12 All-Defense honors, and was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Strengths

Offense

Despite his limited offensive skill set, Bidunga is extremely effective with the skills he does have. Specifically, Bidunga excels as a play-finisher who scores well around the basket, where he is shooting 72.5%. He operates well in the pick-and-roll as the screener, and his athleticism allows him to be an amazing lob target. Bidunga is also reliable as a dump-off target, letting him finish at the basket with authority. His motor and mobility also help him beat opposing bigs down the floor in transition. Bidunga’s improved strength and footwork have also helped him be a better scorer in the paint. Additionally, he is a skilled offensive rebounder who can keep possessions alive for his team. Besides his interior scoring, Bidunga has shown flashes of improved passing. While his passing isn’t the best, he has gotten better at making the right reads against opposing defenses.

Defense

As a prospect, defense is Bidunga’s true calling card and is where he is the most skilled. At six-foot-nine with a seven-foot-plus wingspan and excellent athleticism, Bidunga is easily one of the most defensively versatile center prospects in the draft. He can legitimately defend up and down the lineup, switching between the five positions. His athleticism, length, and mobility allow him to defend against opposing guards, while his aforementioned length and improved strength help him deal with other big men.

His defensive versatility isn’t the only thing that Bidunga brings as he is truly a talented paint defender. Despite being undersized, Bidunga is one of the best shot-blocking prospects in this class, averaging 2.6 blocks per game this season. The combination of length, athleticism, and great timing instincts allows Bidunga to be a formidable rim protector for his team. Even if he doesn’t block the shot, his length is enough to negatively alter shots from the opposing team. He has strong instincts as a weakside rim protector, and Bidunga knows where he needs to rotate for him to have an impact.

Weaknesses

Strengths

The most obvious weakness of Bidunga’s offensive game is that he just possesses a limited offensive bag. While Bidunga is extremely skilled as a play-finisher and lob threat, he can’t do much else outside of that. Bidunga is very reliant on others to create great shots for him, showing little in the way of self-creation. He isn’t a shooter in any shape, way, or form, despite showing some willingness to take mid-range shots. He is also a poor free-throw shooter, even with his jump in percentage from 53.3% last season to 65.4% this season.

Bidunga has shown improvement in terms of his footwork in the post, but he isn’t as advanced as other post-scoring big men who have a bevy of moves and tricks up their sleeves. It should also be noted that Bidunga can have some difficulties finishing over taller defenders. Additionally, Bidunga has demonstrated passing flashes, but his reads are not anything special, and he doesn’t manipulate defenses with his passing. Plus, his assist-to-turnover ratio is only neutral. Bidunga doesn’t necessarily need to be able to shoot or be a tremendous passer. However, finding a way to expand his game would boost his ceiling significantly as a player.

Defense

As for weaknesses on the defensive end, the big issue with Bidunga is that he is undersized for his position. To be fair, Bidunga has shown he can be effective despite that limitation. He is still a great rim protector who leverages his athleticism and physical tools to be impactful. Not only that, but he can still rack up blocks and rebounds at a high level. However, stronger and taller centers can give Bidunga issues defensively, where they can finish over him. Also, Bidunga can get caught biting on fakes when going for blocks. If Bidunga wants to better contend with bigger centers, he must get stronger to improve his post defense.

NBA Comparison

In terms of NBA comparison for Bidunga, two clear names that he shares similarities with are Clint Capela and Adem Bona. All three of them possess extremely similar skill sets and physical gifts. In particular, each of them is undersized for their position, but possesses great athleticism and physical tools. Offensively, they all are elite rim-runners and lob threats who thrive in transition, but can’t do much else. On defense, they utilize their athleticism and length to be great rim protectors and rebounders.

2026 NBA Draft Projection

Late first to early second-round pick.

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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