Did Zach Edey's Summer League Debut Change Perception?

The Memphis Grizzlies have seen Zach Edey dominate in his Summer League Debut, could the perception be changing around the big man?

Zach Edey, a first-round draft pick for the Grizzlies, answers a question during a press conference to introduce the team’s 2024 NBA Draft picks at FedExForum on Friday, June 28, 2024. / Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA

The Salt Lake City Classic tipped-off Monday which included the Memphis Grizzlies and the first look at No. 9 overall pick Zach Edey who dominated in his debut.

While the Grizzlies have played in two games this Summer, Edey has only participated in one - an opening night thriller against the host-team Utah Jazz. The game went down to the wire and the Jazz eventually pulled out a 97-95 overtime win over the Beale Street ballers.

In his debut, Edey faced off with Walker Kessler - a first-round pick in 2022 who is a consensus solid NBA big man - with help from Taylor Hendricks - a 2023 first-round pick - and Kyle Filipowski in rotation as well - a 2024 second-round pick.

The Purdue product had his work cut out for him against NBA-size and still was able to dominate posting 14 points, 15 rebounds, an assist and a four dropping four blocks to go along with just five missed shots (one of which was an untimely missed slam that will likely rarely happen).

In this game, you saw Edey's presence in the paint being felt on the glass, in the points column and protecting the rim along with some monster screens to make life easier on his ball handlers. Even without the protection of a roaming wing like Jaren Jackson Jr or a high-end point-of-attack defender like Desmond Bane, you saw Edey thrive.

Envisioning these elite screens creating space for Ja Morant, the aforementioned defensive help and coming into a team that is used to playing with a more lumbering big (having found a ton of success playing with Steven Adams when healthy) and it became even more clear that Memphis was the perfect landing spot.

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