Grizzlies’ Zach Edey has ‘green light’ to shoot 3s despite just one in college, says coach Taylor Jenkins

Is Zach Edey a stretch big? This might seem like a ridiculous question, since the Memphis Grizzlies rookie only attempted two 3-pointers in his four year college career — he banked one of them in — but the 7-foot-4 center will have the “green light” to fire them up this season, according to coach Taylor Jenkins.

Jenkins made the proclamation Sunday after the Grizzlies’ open practice, during which Edey participated in a shooting contest alongside sharpshooter Luke Kennard. Here’s some fan-filmed footage:

Edey and Kennard lost the competition (first to 60 makes) to Desmond Bane and Jake LaRavia, per the Memphis Commercial Appeal, but it was close. And based on how Edey has been shooting behind closed doors, Jenkins wasn’t surprised to see him catch a rhythm.

“Not at all,” Jenkins told reporters, via Action News 5. “I mean, he’s been pouring in the work. Pre-practice, post-practice, he’s coming in at night shooting. Obviously, doing it in front of a bunch of our fans was awesome to see. I know they came up a little bit short, but he’s a competitive dude. I love that he was focused on going out there, working on his mechanics, staying consistent with it.”

As for how often Edey will attempt 3s in games, Jenkins said that there is “no target number for him.” Longtime Grizzlies followers, though, know that Jenkins has been encouraging players to “let that motherf—er fly” since he arrived in Memphis.

“I think I just want the game and the decision-making to come to him,” Jenkins told reporters. “I think he’s doing a great job — y’all haven’t seen it yet — but finding those right opportunities to rim-run, play behind the defense down in the paint, and then when it’s opportunities to be out on the perimeter — whether he’s trailing a play or he just happens to kind of move himself out there — I want him to feel like he has the green light. All of our guys. So I don’t want to restrict him by any means. I want to kind of see what he’s capable of. He’s showing me a lot right now, and, obviously, once we get into game flow, I’ll have a better feel for where he’s at. But I am excited to see him growing his game out on the perimeter a little bit more.”

Free throw percentage isn’t a perfect predictor of potential 3-point prowess, but it’s generally a solid indicator. At Purdue, Edey shot 71.1% from the free throw line as a senior and 73.4% as a junior. A year and a half ago, he told The Athletic that he “definitely” thought he could develop a 3-point shot, but “there just hasn’t been any need” for him to be a floor spacer. Unlike, say, 7-foot-1 Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez, Edey was supposed to be in the paint as much as possible.

“Yeah, like, Lopez has to space the floor because they’ve got Giannis [Antetokounmpo],” Edey said. “On this team, I’m the Giannis, and people space around me.”

After he made his one collegiate 3-pointer off the glass, Edey joked that he was “the best shooter in the country.” Months later, at the draft combine in Chicago, he joked that Boilermakers coach Matt Painter “was using me wrong for four years,” but was serious about showing NBA teams that he has a jumper.

“I’ve always said I can shoot,” Edey told reporters at the combine. “Like, you see it from the free throw line. Obviously I haven’t gotten those in-game reps up and it’s going to be a process, but I’ve always believed I can shoot. And I’ve always believed, if I’m asked to, I could fill a role like that.”

Edey also, however, made it clear that he knows what his best attributes are. “I’m a 7-foot-4, 300-pound guy,” he said. “I’m built to be in the paint, to carve out space, to protect my area, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing.” He told reporters that, while he thinks he “can get there,” he wasn’t going to be drafted “to pick and pop and shoot 3s” right away.

In the short term, the best way for Edey to create space for Ja Morant is probably to set bruising screens and be a lob threat, and the most important thing he brings to the Grizzlies’ offense might be extra possessions. He’ll be a weapon in the post, too, which will discourage teams from switching pick-and-rolls. It is extremely unlikely, though that he is going to fall in love with his jumper to the point that he no longer wants to bully people in the paint. For this reason, there’s no downside to him working on it. If Edey ever becomes enough of a catch-and-shoot threat that he can draw opposing centers away from the paint, he’ll be an entirely different kind of game-changer than he was in college.

If Edey takes advantage of his green light in Year 1, perhaps he’ll do it the way former Memphis big man Jonas Valanciunas, one popular pre-draft comp, has for the past seven years. Valanciunas has never attempted more than 2.5 3-pointers per 36 minutes or more than 2.1 per game, but, if he’s open for a trail 3 at the top of the key, he will shoot with confidence. Occasionally, when Valanciunas is feeling it, he’ll get more aggressive from deep — he shot 7 for 8 from deep in a game during the 2021-22 season and 7 for 10 in a game the following season.

Memphis will play its first preseason game Monday against the Dallas Mavericks, and you can expect Edey to set lots of screens for Morant. If at any point he pops to the 3-point line rather than rolling to the rim, though, it will be a surprise. But maybe he’ll find a wide-open look in semi-transition. Maybe he’ll end up in the corner for some reason. Preseason lineups can get wacky, and Edey might not always be the worst shooter on the court.

On that note, a simple thought experiment: If Edey is sharing the frontcourt with Brandon Clarke, who has shot 68% from the free throw line and 24.3% from 3-point range since his rookie season, which one of the bigs would you want spacing the floor?