Why the Los Angeles Clippers Drafted Penn State's Yanic Konan Niederhauser

The Los Angeles Clippers began scouting Yanic Konan Niederhauser when he was 6-1, 15 years old and playing in Switzerland. Less than two years later, Niederhauser had grown nearly eight inches, grabbing the attention of international scouts before heading to the U.S. to play college basketball.

After three years in the U.S., including one season at Penn State, Niederhauser became a first-round pick of the Clippers, who selected him at No. 30 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. Niederhauser is the first Penn State player of the modern draft era to go in the first round. What did the Clippers see?

"His best basketball is ahead of him," Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations, said at a post-draft press conference. "He's got great positional size, he's a terrific athlete north to south, he's one of the fastest centers [in the draft] and he's a very good screen-setter, roller and vertical lob threat."

Frank and Trent Redden, the Clippers' general manager, introduced Niederhauser as a player of the team's future. They envision the 7-foot Niederhauser shadowing center Ivica Zubac on the roster next season as he continues to grow his game. That was a large part of Frank and Redden's prospectus on Niederhauser.

"He's so thirsty to learn, and he's super coachable," Frank said. "He understands the areas he has to get better, and he's very, very motivated to be really, really good."

Niederhauser, who transferred to Penn State after two seasons at Northern Illinois, increased his impact for the Nittany Lions as the season progressed. He led the Big Ten in blocks per game (2.31) and averaged 12.9 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds. Niederhauser also led Penn State in field-goal percentage (61.1 percent) and grew into the offense by February.

Niederhauser scored 19 points against Nebraska and 24 vs. Minnesota in late-season Big Ten wins. Niederhauser had 15 points and 11 rebounds in the Nittany Lions' season-finale upset at Wisconsin. His future really took shape at the combines. By then, the Clippers already had a solid view of Niederhauser.

"At 15, he came onto the scene to our international guys," Redden said at the press conference. "... He played on an under-16 team and he was still 6-1. Two years later, Yanic was 17 and 6-9, growing eight inches in less than two years. You can see it with his play that he's still learning how to play with this massive frame that he has that's a freak of nature."

Redden also credited Penn State's coaching staff, led by Mike Rhoades, for helping to develop Niederhauser. The Clippers general manager said that Niederhauser "grew immensely" in his move from the MAC to the Big Ten, primarily in learning how to play with his size. Redden really emphasized that aspect of his game.

"We think there's plenty of upside," Redden said. "He's still learning and growing into this frame he hasn't had his whole life. ... He's pretty impressive as a human being. We think we have a chance to have someone learn from [Zubac]."

Redden said that Niederhauser is coming off an ankle injury that is "not serious" and should not hold him back too much this summer. But the Clippers don't have immediate plans for Niederhauser, and Frank didn't appear ready to name him as the backup center.

"Even though he's 22, he's basketball young," Frank said. "He didn't start playing center until 17. His best basketball really is out in front of him."

Redden added that, for Niederhauser, "playing with this frame is a little new to him, so the physical parts of the game that you would see a normal center have is still a work in progress." Which means that the Clippers are scouting Niederhauser at least a few years in the future.

"The draft is so much about projection," Frank said. "... Why we decided with Yanic is, he's got terrific positional size. He also has some definite traits in the short term that will carry over. His ability to run the floor, his ability to play behind the defense in the dunker spot, his ability to play screen-and-roll and be a vertical threat, those are things that will carry over pretty much from day one. Some of the other things — the different pick-and-roll coverages the nuances of defensive rebounding — he has to get better there. He has a knack for getting offensive boards, but in terms of him getting used to playing with his big frame, he's strong but it's just how he applies that functional athleticism going forward.

"... I think with all these guys, what you have to try to do, and why it's such a challenge, is, what do they look like 12 months from now? What do they look like 24 months from now? And can you project them when they're in their prime? When they're 26 years old, what are they? Are they rotation players, are they key players off the bench, are they just roster players? And the goal is when you draft, especially at 30, I think there's a 15-percent chance that the player will still be in the league in five years as a rotation player. You're just doing your best to try to beat that math, and we feel he has a really good chance to be that type of player."