[Highlight] Zach Edey (32 PTS, 17 REB, 5 BLK) sets a career-high in points and becomes the third player in Memphis Grizzlies history to record 30+ points, 15+ rebounds, and 3+ blocks in a game.
I really hope he puts together a long productive career. The people calling him a bust on draft night were weird as hell. Dude has tons of talent and height you can’t teach.
Some people are just thrown off with him doing so many years on the college level and also lacking the “dazzle” of other young guys. But he’s always been tough and fundamentally sound. Edey has a bright future.
Yeah, also losing as the #1 seeded team to a #16 team who only got in because of technicalities to the NCAA tournament left a lot of people thinking bust.
Yeah, but he went to the natty the very next year
Yeah but the narrative had been decided. Zach Eddy is gonna be one of those guys like Brook Lopez who in 15 years we’re gonna be like “Damn how did no one see him being this guy?” when it was clear all along he had the skills and work ethic.
He played solid that game. The guards were mia
AND THIS RIGHT HERE IS BIG EDEY, AND HE IS 7 FEET TALL, AND YOU CANT. TEACH. THAT.
Haven’t thought of Enzo and Big Cass in a while
first cfb Reddit now here is giving me so much wrestling crossover content
His post/down low touch is genuinely great. I get that he’s not the quickest guy but it’s so bizarre that someone similar to Gobert in build but with a refined offensive game was written off so quickly.
2 time college player of the year. Tho i think luka garza was also that once
Yeah 6 inches shorter with 8.5 less inches of wingspan tho, not even close to the same
The concern there is does he read the court as well as Gobert does because tbh that’s by in large Gobert’s best skill. I think it’s safe to say Edey reads the floor pretty damn well. He’s an incredibly skilled decision maker off of his own screens and in the post. He also has incredibly fast processing speed which comes in handy for grabbing errant passes and contesting shots and his own shot is great and he has very soft touch around the rim. He’s going to have a VERY productive career.
Similar build to gobert? Edey weighs nearly 50 pounds more and no where near the length of Gobert.
Edey has the same standing reach as Gobert and a longer wingspan.
Yeah Gobert has long arms and a plus wingspan, but isn’t that much over 7 feet. Edey has a normal wingspan and arm length for his frame but he’s quite a bit taller and bigger to make up for it.
Edey’s wingspan is just under 7’11”. Gobert for reference has a 7’8” wingspan.
I’m just talking about a big dude who doesn’t have too much of an outside game. I know they’re different players; maybe a better comp would have been Steven Adams.
If you browsed r/collegebasketball or were on college hoops twitter during his college years, you’ll find there is a very large population of people who claim he’s “just tall” and that’s the only reason why he won NPOY back to back and had a national championship appearance.
Man, I remember this.
He was (and is) so unique that it was hard to know how he’d translate in the much, much faster NBA. But no one likes to say things like “I don’t know, this has literally never happened” so of course everyone had to have an opinion that he’d be either great or terrible.
It was wild… in the span of two or three months he went from (1) 2nd rounder, maybe even undrafted, to (2) 2nd rounder, but talk is he might sneak into the first round, to (3) 1st rounder, and some crazy team might even take him in the lottery.
Well being massive is his no. 1 skill
Thats unfair to him. He shoots better than most bigs at his size, nice touch, rebounds excellent, defends the rim. If you attribute all that to “size”, then every 7’2” would be good. Not the case.
And every fan base after losing to Purdue would say “Enjoy playing in Europe, Edey.”
People outside of purdue fandom have hated on Edey’s entire career.
Canada might finally have a centre to go with our guard/wing depth.
Canada has SGA, Edey, Brooks, Wiggins, etc.
I know, I’m saying before Edey came along we were forced to start the likes of Dwight Powell or Kelly Olynyk at 5, overwhelming the biggest weakness in our starting lineup.
I’m happy to admit I was 110% wrong about Edey. Dude’s great.
Absolute unit. Holy crap
He looks like the kid in 8th grade who got his growth spurt before everyone else.
Nice, quick decision with ball and moves to score. Not giving enough time for doubles. It’s great
Not even some exceptional display of skill here, he just completely physically overwhelmed the Kings frontcourt.
Watch all his possessions. There are some where his footwork had him out maneuvering smaller players- and there were two possessions at the end of the game where he had bad passes and was able to gather with a single hand. No skill…psssh
Can’t understate the touch, either. Good hands and soft touch are all someone his size needs.
And he’s a freak athlete. He’s the first down the court most plays. He’s got every last thing a player needs to be a star, and he ain’t the type to come up short.
Yeah dude is one of the quicker players I’ve seen at his size. It’s pretty exciting. I’m old as shit so I have a real soft spot for traditional big men.
The catch at 3:03 shows insanely good hands for a big man.
His touch was the first thing I noticed as well. Kid looks great. It’ll be fun watching him progress and continue learning.
That was his biggest issue last year too. Dude had bricks for hands and just could not finish any which way unless it was a Ja lob served on a platter.
Now he’s catching crazy passes and finishing really well. Dude’s been in the lab, even tho he had this in college.
Yes!!! I was saying that he would be very scary once he learned to catch and look at him now!
As a Purdue fan, the “he’s just tall” narrative is so old. Of course he’s physical imposing but he’s super solid in his fundamentals too, and is crazy athletic for his size.
Hasheem Thabeet was “just tall”. Zach Edey is skilled
If there is anyone who can claim a prospect is just tall and is a bad draft pick, its Grizz fans lmfao
I can’t believe people were telling me he was unathletic when he was drafted. He’s fucking huge, so yeah his legs aren’t moving as fast as a guard but each step is so long that he’s pretty fast down the court when he needs to be.
It’s funny cause dude has below average acceleration but above average speed so when he turns on the jets at the opposite FT line he looks like he’s struggling til he makes it to half court then he’s off to the races.
Yeah, “just tall” doesn’t win you National Player of the Year. There are a bunch of 7 foot dudes that are close to unplayable because they lack skill.
If tall were enough, Tacko Fall would be the GOAT.
But you gotta give him a bit of space if he’s got the ball in the post or you just won’t have the leverage to keep him from backing you down, he’s not just a giant he’s also got a big frame like Shaq. That space gives him more room to maneuver when he’s not being bodied up. Still I think he’s got decent skill to go with his size.
he’s not just a giant he’s also got a big frame like Shaq.
Not to overdo the Shaq comparison, but he’s also got that quickness that doesn’t match his size. Obviously he’s got none of these skills to the level Shaq did but he’s still an outlier with the size/speed/skill trifecta and can be a very good player.
I can’t believe we’re still doing this after him scoring 30 points in an nba game
those catches were unreal. They were just chucking it somewhere in the general direction of the paint / rim.
ya that’s why all the 7’3” nba players have been able to do this…
Comments like these really illustrate the lack of ball knowledge. There’s a ton of skill here in terms of timing, footwork, touch, positioning, etc. Does he make good use of size? Of course! But there is much more within that…
Fr, I read the comments a bit before even watching the video and the first play is a beautiful and skillful reverse layup lol
Love Edey on the court, on the roadways…not so much.
My Kings had Zach looking like prime Wilt 😭
bro went up against Eubanks what do you expect 😭
I swear ever Kings game I watch this season Eubanks is getting fucking killed
i’m surprised they didn’t fight because him and edey have been getting into it since last year
Kings fans already raved he is better than Sabonis.
Y’all should sign Charles Bassey. You literally have nothing in the paint with Sabonis out
Conversely, many teams will play small lineups to keep up with small lineups and traditional bigs often play fewer minutes in these games since they can be poor defensively against guards. Look at what the Timberwolves did last night against the small lineup’d Wembyless Spurs. They ran much more Naz Reed over Rudy Gobert for this exact reason because Gobert doesn’t bring enough to see minutes outside of his elite rim protection. Same goes for Utah and Walker Kessler in every small lineup matchup, the Hawks and Okungwu/Capela, the mavs with Gafford/Lively, etc… Edey is good enough that he feasts offensively against smaller lineups and still thrives defensively which is massive credit to him.
Hartenstein had a career game against y’all too. Eubanks is bad.
Insane basketball ethics on display
What does this mean?
Hope this clears it up for you
lol thank you for the help 🫡
Non-GMO, organic, free-range basketball
Zach Edey is a sleeper All-NBA fun league pass watch.
some of these possessions are like there just nothing you can do to stop him
wemby the only dude who got a chance
Flashback to last season when he slammed on Wemby
Wemby is quicker but Edey has SO much mass on him. It’ll be interesting to see because I have a feeling Edey will back him down at will. Wemby will have his own huge advantages on the other end of the court.
Its funny because they are 2 different player archetypes but are around the same height.
I think here, at least in part, it’s brought up because Blocks are a huge part of Wemby’s game and there is probably no one else in the league who could legit block Edey.
It will be interesting to see tomorrow
I got some bad news for you.
!Remindme in 2 days
Zach Edey saved my life
Tell me more bb
he makes eubanks look like a guard
I love this kid’s game, and I still can’t believe where he was drafted.
One of extremely few players in the NBA today who demonstrates evidence of once having had a coach, and having listened to him. You’re eight feet tall, go to the rim, catch the ball high, keep it high, and dribble only if absolutely necessary.
He also moves better than just about any player his size, ever.
This
I don’t think there has ever been a player in basketball history with Edey’s combination of height, length, weight, athleticism, endurance, and physicality. Throw in a decent shooting touch and he’s just different.
Prime Shaq. Edey is a little taller and longer, but Shaq was a beast.
He’s a little more Yao Ming lite and less Shaq for me. And no, I’m not saying he’s as good as either of those players. But his closer to them than the Garza’s of the world he was negatively comped to entering the league.
I think he’s sort of a mix of the two in style. I do see some of Shaq’s physicality in his game, but he doesn’t have Shaq’s insane body control.
Had he been born thirty years earlier though, he would have been an instant MVP candidate. A good shooting big with a high free throw percentage would have been unstoppable by the way the game was played then.
I bet you he surpasses Yao in his career, just a hunch
So not prime Shaq.
Edey also has a fire inside him, a chip on his shoulder, and likes being “The Big Guy” dominating the paint. Would’ve been really interesting to see him in a prior era.
Anyhow, Edey’s closest comp is Yao Ming, imho. Yao was a bit larger, and a little slower, but also had excellent mobility and good hands for a giant.
endurance
We’re quite a ways from having evidence to support that. He’s played 1600 career minutes, and has not yet played 35 in a single game.
Cause of coaching not because of stamina lol. His college days are enough evidence to support his freakish endurance. He played 35 minutes plenty of nights there while being the number one option. Having to get into position every. single. play. with two or three dudes draped on him half the time too.
Exactly. His last 4 March Madness games he played 38, 39, 40, and 39 (out of a possible 40) minutes, all at a super high level. His endurance is insane for somebody of his size.
People might think it’s silly but an endurance argument on twitter(can’t find it, searched for it though) is what started to convince me he might be more than a height merchant(Thabeet scarred me). It made me go watch those tournament games as someone who doesn’t follow CBB and focus on just him and it blew my mind. Every single play he’s getting clobbered to shit and is just nonplussed before he runs up the court for 150th time. Ive seen some athletes push beyond exhaustion and perform but he never seemed to get exhausted.
He played 35 minutes plenty of nights there while being the number one option.
In college, “plenty of nights” is not very many. Edey averaged 32 minutes per game for two seasons in college, which was a total of 73 games.
Meanwhile, Andrew Bynum at the same age was averaging 30 minutes a game for almost twice as many games, against professionals. And Ralph Sampson averaged 30 minutes a game for all four seasons that he played at Houston – not just two like Edey. Both are guys who wound up not having impressive endurance.
So the jury is still out on Edey, in this respect, after just 74 professional games ( averaging 22 mpg ).
Why are you bringing up the number of games and age like we’re talking about shooting splits?
Are you serious? Because we are discussing endurance.
Yeah, you don’t need a statistically significant amount of games to assess someone’s endurance, it’s an eye test thing. You might have a point if he hit the rookie wall but he played his best basketball the second half of the season. If you do want to bring stats into it we can also account for difference in pace, usage rate, distance travelled, etc which all make Edey look better :)
Yeah, you don’t need a statistically significant amount of games to assess someone’s endurance, it’s an eye test thing.
Don’t blink then, because Edey is only playing considerably less than half a game in his professional career.
You might have a point if he hit the rookie wall but he played his best basketball the second half of the season.
That is sufficiently debatable that it may be considered just wrong. His pre and post ASG splits are very similar – 9.3⁄7.3 vs 9.2⁄9.2 with the latter being on reduced efficiency. He was much better in November and December than in January and February. He did get a second wind for 6 games in April, but it would be very fair to say that he slammed into a rookie wall in January.
If you do want to bring stats into it we can also account for difference in pace, usage rate, distance travelled, etc which all make Edey look better :)
I am one hundred percent sure that you don’t want to go there with respect to several of the counter examples already mentioned.
Idk why you have a such a weird hangup when it comes to Edey’s endurance but I’ll just trust my eyes and professionals over a random on reddit.
That 32 minutes takes into account blowouts where he wasn’t needed. It also fails to mention his insane usage rate which made his 32 a lot different from other players like Bynum’s 32
Edit: I just looked it up and he had 17 games his senior year playing 35+ minutes and 7 in his junior year. He also played over 40 minutes twice.
no one ever plays 35 for us, so while you’re correct that there is a lack of evidence there, you also wouldn’t expect to find it either way.
During the Purdue march run to the championship game, he was playing the full game or at least only sitting for a minute or two in the last couple games. College is obviously played at a slower pace but is still crazy that someone that big played that many minutes
During the Purdue march run to the championship game, he was playing the full game or at least only sitting for a minute or two in the last couple games.
That was four games, over 11 days. For the season, he averaged 32 per game, which is typical.
but is still crazy that someone that big played that many minutes
No, it is not.
The very obvious counter example is Wilt Chamberlain, who played almost every minute of NBA seasons and playoffs for over a decade, against grown men.
At the same age as Edey, Shaquille O’Neal was playing 40 minutes a game, for 80 games, against grown men, not college kids.
Artis Gilmore was playing 42 a night for 84 games in the ABA at that age.
Edey is a great young player, and unique in the game today, but his endurance remains unremarkable at this point.
Shout out Brandon Brantley
I hope he never leaves us at Purdue. He and PJ are just as important as Painter
Pj will follow the Painter coaching track; takeover a small program for a couple years to cut his teeth, then return to Purdue to claim the mantle from Matt Painter. At least I can hope
Yeah, definitely seems like that’s the likely path. I just hope it doesn’t happen for a while though
Painter has many many many years left imo. He’s still so young but mainly Purdue has been able to stick to its recruiting pitch and development-focus post NIL/Transfer changes. As long as we can still sell that vision, painter will enjoy it.
I could see him sticking around for a while, but I could also see him calling it a career early due to not liking the NIL/transfer portal era, particularly if they win the title this year. Purdue has been insanely fortunate to mostly keep their key guys from transferring but I’m not sure if they can keep that going, particularly after this year. (Yes I realize a ton of minutes will open up next year but it doesn’t seem to deter outgoing transfers.)
You say extremely fortunate, I disagree. Purdue recruits in such a way that they generally don’t sign players who would be willing to leave. That’s not luck, that’s vision for a program. They don’t promise minutes or starts and have never and yet the recruits still come. Sure we lose a Colvin or heide here and there but we pickup Omer and Cluff. Regardless we both agree that painter is not a fan of the way some programs are able to be run these days.
Painter definitely recruits good kids who buy in to the system, but I would still say there’s been an element of luck. I guess we’ll see in the next few years. I expect an uptick in transfers though I’m sure they’ll still be below average.
Hey that’s more than fair and I can only hope you are wrong haha, I want painter for another 15 years :)
Maybe it’s my gold and black colored glasses, but I think if he were going to leave, he would have already. He’s in his mid 50s, an alum and just seems like a career assistant (and he’s finally starting to get the recognition for it as well)
PJ will be leaving soon, but I think it will be like when Paint did. Get experience and then come back (but I hope he stays)
Early 50s (don’t age me even more) we overlapped at Purdue. I was there all 4 years of Brad Miller
lol, my bad. I’m slightly older than you then but I went to grad school so I overlapped a few “team eras” of Gene’s and always muck up those Big Dog team years
I hate to age you further but that overlaps with my parents and I’m 27 lmfao, dad from 90-94 and mom from 91-96
I have an almost 25 year old, so I get it. They also went to Purdue.
I’m a double Florida Gator myself but that’s never changed my allegiance to my first college sports love; Purdue :) how awesome for your family’s legacy at Purdue to continue!
Plays slow but in control the whole time
He’s actually not slow though foot speed wise. He’s extremely athletic and fast for his size but because he’s 7’5” everything just looks slower but he changes ends so fast. I think at the combine one of the foot speed drills he beat guys like Mike Conley.
He has really good reaction speed for someone that big, most centers around that size would not get that last pass
That was a problem for him last year, but it was just as much an inability to perform entry passes
He used to play baseball and hockey before he got to big so it makes sense
Verno is gonna be insufferable tomorrow
Don’t forget, Verno was not a believer pre draft
Hey look, we have the second coming of Yao!!!
Honestly I see it
Mount Edey finally erupting 🔥f
I know he’s Canadian and went to Purdue but the Yao comparison is hard to ignore
his mom is Chinese, so he has it
One aspect of his game that has improved by leaps and bounds from last year is his hands. He’s starting to catch everything down there and he’s holding the ball higher, too, to not get swiped. Last year, I thought the skills and size (obviously) were there but he was still adjusting to the speed and athleticism of the NBA game. Well, those adjustments have been made. He’s reacting quickly, knows where to go. As long as he stays healthy, he’ll be an excellent center for years to come and a strange matchup for many teams in the modern game.
He had great hands at Purdue, I’m guessing it just took a bit of time for him to adjust it the speed of the nba.
I joked that they should bring in mason gillis just to show them how to pass edey the ball. Dude threw Edey bullets that he caught like his hands had glue on him.
I also think he gets less calls on arm swipes at least last season. Last year guards would be swiping at Edeys arms causing him to fumble it and wouldn’t get called (could also just be having flashbacks to the Thunder series in which case that’s just #thunderbasketball baby)
Doesn’t excuse him from needing to hold onto it but him being so big and not getting knocked off his spot I think gets overlooked by refs on what normally would get called a foul.
I think the high catch point and him keeping it higher this year will solve some of that.
His hands were never the problem. It was the coaching staff running the worst possible scheme for him that confused him so bad, he never knew when he was getting passed to.
This very on brand for him too. Basically stated playing basketball in high school, goes unranked to Purdue and develops into a 2x Wooden winner. He’s an exceptionally coachable player. I have very little doubt in his ability to reach his athletic ceiling.
The way he moves reminds me of early year Yao Ming. Man, I miss the big guy.
Watching small ball gets tiring. So watching Edey dominate a game like this is so refreshing
He’s beginning to believe.
So glad I took the chance and drafted him
insane username
I try and be original 🙂↕️
Picked up off waivers for me. Couldn’t believe someone dropped him. Guy was overwhelmed by injuries.
He hurt his ankle in summer league last year landing on someone’s foot after a rebound and was admittedly playing in 1 ankle all year. He had surgery over the summer to repair it and is finally able to play without pain. He looks like a different player from last year
Who are the other 2?
Maybe Z-Bo and Marc Gasol? Maybe Pau?
Big Country?
Zbo and Pau
I came here for this- I was thinking Big Country and Pau. Maybe Shareef Abdur-Rahim?
Z-Bo and Pau
Thanks!
Don’t forget where you came from Zach.
So many overthought the 7’4 2x NPOY. It’s crazy.
He looks more nimble.
Off-season ankle surgery. He played hurt all last year after a summer league ankle sprain
Yao Edey
Zach Yao or Ming Edey would be more correct
Very annoying how Chinese names in the west are correctly read as last to first but Japanese names are read as first to last. We messed up somewhere along the way.
It’s more of a misunderstanding on the part of westerners that when Asian people have westernized first names, you are supposed to refer to them using the Western convention (e.g. Jeremy Lin and not Lin Jeremy) because westernized first names were adopted specifically to suit the western world. They royally fucked it up with Hansen Yang because the media is too dumb to understand that even if you refer to him as Yang Hansen, that doesn’t mean Hansen is his last name. But play-by-play announcers have been getting it wrong all season.
I thought about it but didn’t want to confuse our western redditors
yeah, it’s better they keep getting it wrong.
Looks like a younger Yao Ming.
more physical/athletic with less diverse post moves
The YOKEr
Some say he still hasn’t shown a smile to this day
Love seeing him have success at this level after everyone I know acted like he would never be quick/skilled enough to see an NBA floor
Looks like he’s back in the B1G. Lmao
They double-teamed and triple-teamed him and it didn’t seem to make much difference. He made #42, 7’1” Raynaud look little. He even blocked a 3⁄4 court heave.
Nice hands, great touch. Nice to see some inside buckets in games not just a 3-ball contest
This entire highlight clip could just be Yao with a mask on.
Doesn’t look like he broke much of a sweat either lol. I know it’s against the Kings, but people really doubting Shaq would dominate in this era.
Against certain teams it clear they have no physical answer to him, and just depends on him missing his little jumphooks.
I get that we’re glazing hard in this thread, but it seems like the key to his success has been the coaching staff stressing three simple points:
That said, his footwork and hands (especially on entry passes) have seen remarkable improvement. I’d like to see him do more against teams that aren’t historically bad defensively before I’m convinced that he’s the real deal, though.
Edey on a heater right now!
Very Yao like
Finally
This how he sposed to be playing. He was soft at first but he coming into his own since he got back
He’s starting to believe
People insisted he had no shot in the NBA, I mean know it’s against us but still people just hear a narrative they like and run with it with these young guys.
Kings at this point should give a contract to an undrafted college football line-man
At 3:34 Zach Lavine expresses his displeasure
His arms are so long my goodness
the block on the heave was hilarious
also, watching old school ball is fun
His body composition and mobility are night and day from college. Incredibly impressive transformation by him and the grizzlies staff. Rooting for him! Canada basketball needs his skillset badly.
Kings out there pretending to be a basketball team
wow, i already forgot that memphis got this guy.
Damn, the Kings suck.
Never saw him as successful in NBA.
Memphis should just tear it down and build around him. Seems like more of a Steady Eddie than Ja.
Now he’s starting to put it together and play like the high pick he was
Now if only Gunzerking can mature and do the same
A Ja/Edey pick and roll should be lethal but Ja…
This guy could be a big help for Team Canada in 2028.
Downvote me all you want but these NBA travels are insane man. Lifts pivot foot, 3 steps after releasing the pivot foot. What are you supposed to do when rules dont matter?
Does it count if it’s against the Kings?
Half of Shaq’s career was against the Kings.