As we’re solely a month away from the beginning of the 2024-25 NBA marketing campaign, Purdue assistant coach Brandon Brantley warned the league that Zach Edey will dominate the paint for the Grizzlies. After being picked because the ninth general choice on this previous draft, many individuals nonetheless surprise if the seven-foot-four athlete will thrive within the massive stage.
Nevertheless, the reality is that the massive man had already made a reputation for himself in faculty basketball. Only in the near past, Brantley was watching tv and noticed a sports activities television present snub the middle from their high 5 massive males heading into this subsequent season, and proceeded to inform his former pupil by a textual content message.
This was pure technique from Brandon. “I knew he was pissed off,” he admitted to The Business Enchantment. “When he’s pissed off, he simply hits you with the ‘OK,’ however that OK has a lot hearth behind it.”
Ja Morant on Zach Edey:
“Undoubtedly Rookie of the Yr. I feel simple too.”
Edey made it by Ja’s low season coaching “boot camp” and Ja is actually excited by what he noticed 🔥
One thing particular is brewing in Memphis👀🐻
— EdeyMuse (@EdeyMuse) September 21, 2024
“They’re simply not going to let Zach swap off and get cooked the entire recreation,” Brantley continued. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s five-on-five.cHim doing this routine on a regular basis could be just like the equal of me and also you brushing our tooth on daily basis. He takes 12-foot hook photographs and makes them prefer it’s nothing.”
Edey is way more than only a seven-footer who can defend the rim, as he’s additionally produced a signature hook shot that has caught many individuals’s consideration, together with his teammates in Memphis. After figuring out every week with Ja Morant, that All-Star even proclaimed him the following Rookie of the Yr.
“Clearly he’s 7-4, however his contact, he was taking pictures the ball very nicely,” the Grizzlies star mentioned, as he’s recovered from his personal damage and is worked up to hit the ground subsequent month. “Rookie of the yr is just about all I can say.”
Brantley, then again, simply can’t watch for the NBA to understand his potential. “Memphis goes to have a dude in that paint that’s going to carry that paint down,” he mentioned. “Often guys that dimension will attempt to rebound their space. He rebounds exterior of his space. It means one thing to him.”
The Grizzles normal supervisor known as him a ‘particular match’ for his group and is satisfied that there are various misconceptions round Edey’s recreation
Let’s bear in mind one thing, a couple of months in the past Zach turned the primary participant in over 4 a long time to earn The Related Press’ mens’ faculty basketball participant of the yr award in consecutive seasons. His new normal supervisor trusts this was their finest consequence.
“Zach Edey is a very particular match [for the franchise],” mentioned Grizzlies’ Zach Kleiman through the NBA Draft in June. “In attending to know him, we’re speaking about somebody whose competitiveness is thru the roof, care issue is thru the roof. No ego, simply desires to win.”
Now we are able to solely wait to see how his freakishly massive dimension will translate to the NBA courts, as he shall be one of many tallest gamers within the league this coming season. Final yr, Houston’s Boban Marjanovic, Phoenix’s Bol Bol and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama have been all listed at 7-foot-3 or taller.
Zach has loved regular progress all through his faculty years, averaging 22.3 factors and 12.9 rebounds as a junior, after which 25.2 factors and 12.2 rebounds throughout his senior season which took the Boilermakers all the best way to the NCAA title recreation towards Connecticut.
