Rocco Zikarsky: A big project with big upside

• Australian big man Rocco Zikarsky was selected with the 45th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft
• He played two seasons in the NBL as a Next Star with the Brisbane Bullets
• Zikarsky had 16 points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block against Guangzhou

Rocco Zikarsky is enormous.

Not just tall, but enormous.

At 7'3", he moves through spaces differently than most humans, and when you stand next to him, the scale becomes difficult to comprehend. But what's remarkable about Zikarsky isn't just his height, it's that he moves well. For a frame that large, he has a fluidity that can catch you off guard.

The Minnesota Timberwolves noticed and with a rumoured promise ahead of the NBA Draft this June, Zikarsky set up shop in Minnesota preparing for the draft.

The Timberwolves had noticed something broader happening in the league - the NBA is once again trending bigger.

For years, the league obsessed over ‘small ball’, spacing and shooting that necessitated spreading the floor. Smaller lineups became fashionable, led by the Golden State Warriors who won multiple championships with Draymond Green at centre in crunch time minutes.

But two seasons ago the Timberwolves reached the Western Conference Finals with Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, two massive frontcourt players, sharing the floor. And again last year, with Gobert being paired alongside Julius Randle.

When teams saw that work, when they saw that size could still be effective, the priorities began to shift. Now, across the league, teams are hunting for big men who can do more than just stand in the paint.

That's the strategic context for why Minnesota selected both Rocco Zikarsky and Joan Beringer in this year's NBA Draft. Two young bigs, both projects, both the kind of calculated risks that made sense as the game moved back towards valuing size.

Beringer, an 6'11" 18-year-old from France, has less experience playing basketball, only about four years, but he's more athletically fluid.

"The key to going bigger is you still have to have skill," The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski told basketball.com.au.

"The team does see both of those guys as skilled players along with the size that they have.”

Zikarsky, a Queenslander, unsurprisingly comes from a taller family.

His mother, former Australian ironwoman Kylie Zikarski is 6'8", while his dad is a German Olympic-medallist swimmer Bjorn and is 6’10”.

Besides his height, the young centre brings different gifts and in the Timberwolves' calculation, he brings time. He's a longer-term investment, still early in his basketball journey that may be slow to develop due to a logjam of big men ahead of him on the roster.

Gobert is still one of the league's premier defenders, Randle is a primary option in the frontcourt, while Naz Reid serves as a third centre option if they were to go small. And then there is fellow-rookie Beringer who is ahead in the pecking order.

Minutes at the NBA level for Zikarsky as a result may be scarce, possibly non-existent.

"Barring injury and some other things, I would expect the vast majority of his time to be in the G-League," Krawczynski said.

"Because those three guys, Rudy, Randle, and Naz Reid, they eat up so many minutes that it's really going to be hard to give minutes to a fourth big."

This is the reality Zikarsky faces as a rookie. His pre-season debut against superstar and MVP Nikola Jokic was encouraging with nine points and eight rebounds in limited minutes, but it shouldn't be mistaken for a pathway to regular rotation minutes.

The Timberwolves have restructured their Iowa G League operation with new coaching and management, and Zikarsky will get substantial playing time there. He'll develop, he'll learn. But in Minnesota, he'll mostly watch.

After his pre-season debut, Krawczynski spoke to him about the moment, about playing against Jokic, about the scale of what he's achieved getting to this level.

"He was really thoughtful about what it means to him to reach this point," he recalled.

"Playing an NBA pre-season game against Nikola Jokic, and kind of pinching himself a little bit. But also trying not to get swept up in the moment, understanding that, 'hey, I'm not here to be a fan, I'm here to compete.'"

He also played a starring role in Minnesota's pre-season clash with CBA team, Guangzhou.

That's the tone Zikarsky carries into his first professional year. He's got competitive fire, "a spiciness to him," as Krawczynski describes it.

He likes to crack jokes, he's competitive, he fits the group, but he's not delusional about his role. He knows he's a project, he knows the path to playing time is measured in years, not games.

Joe Ingles, the veteran Australian also on the Timberwolves roster, has already become a resource for Zikarsky. They can speak to the transition from an Australian perspective, to what it means to settle into life in an American city, to navigating the league as an outsider. Ingles knows that journey. He's lived it and now he's helping Zikarsky do the same.

What makes Zikarsky intriguing longer-term is exactly what attracted the Timberwolves to him - the combination of size and skill. He's not going to revolutionise his rookie year, he's not going to push Gobert out.

But in time, as the Timberwolves think about continuity beyond Rudy's peak years, Zikarsky represents a possibility. He represents someone they can develop, someone they can mould, someone who might one day be ready.