Herrington: With Zach Edey on the mend and help on the way, Grizzlies embrace being big
Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey (14) celebrates a dunk during a Nov. 20, 2025 game against the Sacramento Kings. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He now splits his time between Minneapolis-St. Paul, where his wife works, and Memphis.
NASHVILLE — Maybe Cameron Boozer will be in the thick of the Rookie of the Year race. Maybe second-year wing Cedric Coward will make The Leap. Maybe Ty Jerome, in his eighth NBA season, will seize a starting role for the first time and prove his per-minute production late last season was no fluke.
But evidence suggests that the player most likely to determine the competitive fate of the Memphis Grizzlies this season is a big uncertainty.
Last season, as a second-year player coming off a significant ankle surgery, 7-foot-3, 305-pound center Zach Edey instantly — and temporarily — transformed the Grizzlies.
The team was a wobbly 4-9 when Edey debuted on Nov. 15 at Cleveland. They went 7-4 with him, 7-3 in games where he logged more than 10 minutes.
Before Edey took the court, the Grizzlies were ranked 26th in team offense, 24th in team defense and 21st in rebounding. In Edey’s 11 games — not just in his minutes — the team was 12th, third and first, respectively, by the same measures.
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