Zach Edey finished fifth in the NBA's Rookie of the Year voting and made All-Rookie First Team in his inaugural season in the NBA. The Memphis Grizzlies selected him with the ninth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft to become their starting center of the present and future, and he delivered in the capacity they wanted.
He led the team in rebounding and became a physical force down the stretch of the regular season after the coaching switch from Taylor Jenkins to Tuomas Iisalo. Edey did what the team asked of him during his rookie season, but there is more he can do that the team will likely want displayed to vault itself into legit title contenders.
Memphis needs Edey to score more
The 7'4" big man was dominant as a paint scorer in college as he won back-to-back national player of the year awards, averaging 22.3 points and 25.2 points, respectively, in his junior and senior seasons at Purdue University. It remains to be seen if he can translate that level of scoring in the modern NBA, which promotes spacing.
He was challenged to attempt threes under Taylor Jenkins and shot 18-47 (38.2%) in his first 58 games. However, his role switched to being a screener and lob threat under Tuomas Iisalo, leading him to only attempt five threes in his last eight regular-season games under the Grizzlies' new head coach.
While moving his game to the outside isn't necessary, especially when playing next to a floor spacing big in Jaren Jackson Jr., the team will need him to be better in the post. After a dominant career at the collegiate level, Edey struggled with catching and holding on to the basketball in the post during his rookie season.
Also, the Grizzlies as a team struggled making post entry passes outside of Ja Morant, so it is give and take with Edey's production in that department. Edey finished last season shooting 58% from the field, including 61.2% on twos, so he was efficient when getting shots up at the rim.
His ineffectiveness came from the volume due to his role and his inability to gain control of the basketball when given opportunities. Having Edey up his scoring average from 9.2 points to about 14 points would do wonders for a team that is searching for a third scorer after Morant and Jackson Jr. in the starting lineup.
Edey's teammates will have to recognize when he has mismatches and adequately feed him the basketball when he has position in the post. He will also need to improve his hand strength to help the team improve in their half-court offense, which they have struggled with for a while now.