Zach Edey may be the piece that pushes the Grizzlies past the expectations hanging over them in the Western Conference.
A lot of the attention around Memphis is going to land on Cam Boozer and Cedric Coward, and for good reason. Both bring plenty of intrigue, and the roster has some encouraging depth behind them. But if there’s one player who can swing the Grizzlies from interesting to genuinely surprising, it’s Edey.
The buzz around Boozer is deserved, but Edey was already making real progress before his season got cut short. The No. 9 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft started to knock down some of the doubts that followed him into the league, including questions about whether he could handle bully ball and whether his defense would hold up.
In 11 games, Edey put up 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.5 stocks in 25.8 minutes before he was forced to miss the rest of the season. There’s no way around the health concerns, either. Multiple injuries and surgeries to his left ankle make durability a real issue, and he’ll have to prove he can stay on the floor.
Still, the on-court impact he had before the setback is hard to ignore.
When Edey was playing, Memphis looked like a different team. The Grizzlies posted the third best defensive rating in the NBA during that stretch, and the offense showed signs of life too. The team was 4-9 before turning things around to go 7-4 after Edey returned, including the November 25 loss against the Nuggets that he exited just a few minutes in.
That kind of two-way influence is what makes him so important to Memphis’ outlook. Edey wasn’t just padding the box score; he was helping shape the team’s identity.
There’s also room for more on offense. Edey’s scoring average jumped by 4.4 points, but the bigger story is how much more efficient he became at the line and from 3-10 feet. Those are the kinds of gains that hint at a bigger scoring role still waiting to happen.
And the pieces around him should help. With Cam Boozer in the mix and Ty Jerome and Cam Spencer already on the roster, Memphis should have a more dangerous pick-and-roll attack. Edey should also get better entry passes into the post than he did a year ago.
The safest bet is that he remains a dependable defensive anchor and a major factor on the glass. But the offensive ceiling is there too.
It was a small sample, sure, but the signs point to another leap as he heads into his third season. If the scoring balance breaks the right way, Edey could wind up as a top 3 scorer on the team.
The Grizzlies are still early in their rebuild, but Edey has the tools to make Year 1 better than most people expect.
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Peyton Watson would bring the kind of developmental appeal that can tempt a team looking to build beyond the moment, but he also figures to come with a steeper price in both assets and salary. Cam Johnson, by contrast, is the steadier option, the more established scorer whose lower acquisition cost could make the mechanics of a deal far easier to manage. For a Grizzlies team trying to balance present needs with future flexibility, the decision may come down to how aggressive it wants to be when the right conversation finally starts. [Read more 🡒]
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For the Pelicans, the possible appeal is less about adding a piece right away and more about the flexibility a deal could create as they chase bigger options on the market, including Bennedict Mathurin. Memphis, meanwhile, is not locked into a direct Hawkins swap and has other avenues for Johnson, so this is one of those situations where the framework of the deal may matter as much as the players involved. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Fans Just Got Another Reason To Wonder About This Draft Pick
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The broader second-round market is still moving slowly, with only 19 of 30 picks signed so far as teams work through injuries, roster limits and the possibility of draft-and-stash arrangements. For Memphis, the bigger picture is the same one facing plenty of clubs right now: deciding which young players are worth standard deals, which ones fit better on two-way contracts and how much flexibility to preserve while the rest of the board settles. [Read more 🡒]