Eight NBA teams passed up generational two-time Naismith-winning Purdue senior Zach Edey in the NBA Draft this summer. The Memphis Grizzlies selected Edey with the 9th overall pick.

The Grizzles’ front office has been relentlessly ridiculed since. Despite Edey’s many accolades and gargantuan size at 7’4″ and 300 pounds, many mock drafts predicted Edey would go as low as 25th overall. However, the experts, mock drafts, and eight NBA teams that selected in front of Memphis all got it wrong: Edey deserved to be the top pick, not the 9th, and certainly not the 25th.

One of the most common concerns amongst NBA teams about Edey is his age and ability to adapt to the NBA. Coming into the league as a 22-year-old senior, most teams thought that because of his long collegiate career, he wouldn’t be able to adapt to the pressure and workload of the NBA. 

However, this could not be further from the truth. Many basketball legends chose to stay in college all four years and took it as a learning experience. The most famous is Hall of Fame forward Tim Duncan, for example. Duncan believed that staying in college could only help his career, ease the hardships, and prepare him to become NBA-ready. 

“So I might get hurt. So I might not be No. 1. So what? Que sera. I asked myself why I should do something now that I’ll be better prepared to do in the future?” Duncan told Aaron Torres of Fox News. 

Another reason Edey fell in the draft is his lack of athleticism.

While Edey’s speed isn’t elite, in this year’s NBA draft combine, Edey placed fourth in the lane agility test for centers, finishing in under 12 seconds (per NBA.com). This is extremely impressive, considering he finished first in both wingspan and standing reach. 

Despite a lack of speed, Edey’s impressive footwork benefits his post moves, making it impossible to stop him in the paint. This was most prevalent in his senior year of college, where he averaged over 25 points a game on an insane 62% field goal percentage. This is higher than iconic NBA centers like Shaquille O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, and David Robinson. 

Elite Defense

If Edey’s inside scoring abilities weren’t impressive enough, Edey’s defensive strength of blocking shots around the rim could easily upgrade any team’s defense.

In his last year at Purdue during the 2023-2024 NCAA season, Edey averaged 2.2 blocks per game. This placed him in the top 25 in all college basketball for blocks per game. To further prove his rim dominance, other opposing college basketball teams shot almost 10% worse in the paint, with Edey on the floor last season. His impact while on the count cannot be overstated. Teams were so scared to score in the paint with Edey on the court that they took 7% fewer shots in the paint than usual, according to TheWishTheory.com.

Alongside his shot-blocking, Edey uses his size and wingspan to be an elite rebounder.

Edey grabbed over 12 boards per game for two consecutive years, with five offensive and seven defensive. These stellar rebounding numbers placed him second in the 2022 and 2023 NCAA seasons for total rebounds per game. Edey’s ability to grab offensive rebounds also caused any opposing team’s offensive rebounding rate to drop almost 6 percent, per TheWishTheory.com.

Overall, Purdue’s defense allowed 8.5 fewer points per 100 possessions whenever Edey was playing. His impact on the court at the collegiate level was unmatched, and there is little reason to expect some of it not to translate to the pros.

Competitors‘ Flaws

Another reason Edey deserved to be picked first in this year’s draft is the flaws of the players drafted before him. Admittedly, this was not a very strong NBA Draft class. The number one overall pick was Zaccharie Risacher (Hawks), a player who most casual NBA fans have never even heard of.

Two highly talented players deserved to be lottery picks but lacked the statistics to justify themselves being drafted above Edey. 

One of these players is another defensive-minded big man who lacks athleticism: UConn’s Donovan Clingan, who was picked seventh by the Portland Trail Blazers. While he could block an insane 2.5 shots a game, Clingan very noticeably lacked the scoring abilities that Edey possessed. Clingan only averaged half the points and rebounds that Edey did. 

Donovan Clingan’s teammate, guard Stephon Castle, is another player who shines for his outstanding defensive abilities but lacks a significant scoring game. However, Castle has a deeper problem that most teams should have looked into: the need for considerable development in his passing game.

Castle will be coming into the league as a point guard and is expected to meet the criteria of the pass-first defensive point guard the San Antonio Spurs desperately need. While Castle will already be an elite perimeter defender, there is a significant roadblock in developing him into a pass-first guard, which is switching him over from his natural position of shooting guard to a point guard. The hesitation to do this is most prevalent when looking at his collegiate stats, where he only averaged around 2 assists a game. These are two of the players who definitely should not have been picked higher than Edey, but one can poke holes in all of the players selected before Edey. Overall, Edey provided the best combination of safety, production, and size, while the other players selected before him had holes in their games.

The Perfect Fit

With this, it’s clear that the Grizzlies saw the vision in Edey and understood how much of a steal he was. 

Edey fits perfectly into the Grizzlies roster and solves a problem they’ve had since the departure of Zach Randolph and Steven Adams, that is a true starting center.

This past year, Memphis has had to settle for experimenting with putting forwards at the center spot after abruptly trading center Steven Adams to the Houston Rockets because of his brutal knee injury. With Edey on the team, Memphis can move former DPOY (Defensive Player of the Year) Jaren Jackson Jr. back to his natural position of power forward and use Edey as a true rebounding big man.

Even iconic ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith agrees that Edey solves the Grizzlies’ center problem. Smith was quoted in the Draft saying that Edey would be able to help Jackson Jr. in the paint by blocking shots and hustling for rebounds. He even thought so highly of the rookie that he believed Edey would make Memphis one of the top paint-scoring teams in the league after finishing last in points in the paint per game this past season.

Because of his perfect fit on this rebuilding team, Edey is expected to get well over 20 minutes a game in his rookie season; sports insiders such as Vegas Insider are predicting him to win the highly coveted Rookie of the Year award. Edey is currently the Vegas favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award, which is probably very rare for the ninth overall pick.

All of this shows that Edey is expected to have a huge impact the moment he steps on an NBA court as a rookie.

The eight teams that passed on him will regret it; Edey should have been selected first.