Zach Edey isn't allowed to set screens

One of the best screen-setters and roll men in the league is in an offense that hates setting screens, and it works. So how does he fit?

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When the Grizzlies drafted Zach Edey ninth overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, it just made sense. The reigning back-to-back NCAA Player of the Year is a massive 7-foot-4 and 305 pounds with scoring touch around the basket, and above all else, an elite screen setter and roll man.

The Grizzlies ended 2023-24 in the middle of the pack in pick-and-roll frequency, largely due to their superstar point guard, Ja Morant, only playing nine games. In 2022-23, Morant ran 1,338 pick-and-rolls, the fifth-highest mark in the NBA. His partnership in the action with veteran enforcer Steven Adams made for easy buckets and defensive tantrums as they had to contend with Adams’s strength and Morant’s otherworldly burst.

Edey seemed like a conceptual evolution of Adams for coach Taylor Jenkins and the Grizzlies, but with Morant’s injury — and the insane volume of other injuries the Grizzlies sustained — Jenkins was given the opportunity to experiment with his offense, which is now leaning away from basketball’s most common action, and Edey’s biggest strength.

The Grizzlies’ offense has been prolific. Memphis has the sixth-best offensive rating in the league, scores the second-most points per game and plays at a higher pace than anybody. All while being dead last in pick-and-roll frequency.

The Grizzlies rank in the 0TH PERCENTILE in pick-and-roll frequency, nearly 200 pick-and-rolls behind the Nuggets, who rank second-to-last. Memphis’s best have continued to thrive. Morant’s scoring is down, but Jaren Jackson Jr. has turned into a superstar, on top of being a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. On top of that, the Grizzlies have stacked shooters, including rookie wing Jaylen Wells, the current runner-up for Rookie of the Year.

So where does that leave Edey, and how has he functioned in Memphis’s boundary-pushing yet prolific offensive scheme?