Player card
- Team/status: Memphis standard-roster core.
- Position: official roster label C.
- Age/experience: 24 during the season; entering NBA Year 3.
- Depth role: projected starting center, 26-minute base role.
- 2025-26: 11 GP/11 starts, 25.8 MPG; .633 FG, .781 FT, 0.1 3PM, 13.6 PTS, 11.1 REB, 1.1 AST, 0.6 STL, 1.9 BLK, 2.4 TO. ESPN stats, accessed 2026-07-18
2026-27 base projection
| GP | MPG | FG% (FGA) | FT% (FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | 26 | .610 (8.8) | .735 (2.8) | 0.1 | 13.5 | 10.5 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 2.1 |
Nine-category: top 65-105 per game, materially higher in punt-FT%, but a totals discount is mandatory. Points: strong double-double and block value if the platform rewards both. Dynasty: top-50-ish big-man path if the ankle stabilizes; availability and mobility create more downside than the rate line.
Range, strengths and risks
- Strengths: elite rebounds, blocks and high-volume FG%; low need for offensive usage.
- Liabilities: FT drag, turnovers for a low-assist center, no threes and game-flow sensitivity.
- Floor: recovery limits his early workload or another lower-body issue occurs; 35-45 games near 20 minutes.
- Base: starts when available but shares center with Stewart/Post, producing the table's double-double line.
- Ceiling: 65-plus games at 29 minutes with 15/12 and 2.2 blocks—an early-mid-round category center.
- Injury/transaction branches: Stewart and Post protect Memphis from forcing minutes; any camp restriction shifts Edey's workload down and their streaming value up.
The team said Edey was expected to recover fully before 2026-27 after left-ankle surgery, then announced a March 24 elbow procedure and again expected a full recovery. Those are positive status statements, not evidence that a 70-game workload is safe. Memphis medical update · Memphis medical update, 2026-03-24
Correction 2026-07-19: base GP cut from 57 to 48. The 57 assumed near-rookie availability straight off a second operation on the same left ankle inside ten months — June 2025 stabilization, then the March 3, 2026 procedure for bone stress — with no formal clearance, no summer game action, and a two-season record of 66 and 11 games. Bone-stress recurrence on a 7-4, 305-pound frame is exactly the risk this dossier's own Low availability grade describes, and Memphis's expected camp recovery earns a number above the 46-game mean-plus-buffer line, not one nine games higher. 48 credits the recovery signal while keeping early-season workload management and a realistic recurrence branch in the base. SI second-surgery report · Memphis medical update
Confidence
| Component | Label | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Roster | High | Starting center under team control. |
| Minutes | Medium | Clear role when healthy; workload management plausible. |
| Rate | Medium-high | NBA per-minute rebounding/block/FG profile is established, though 2025-26 sample is 11 games. |
| Availability | Low | Multiple procedures and only 11 games last season. |
Sources
- Official Memphis roster — accessed 2026-07-18.
- Official 2025-26 Grizzlies notes — historical availability context.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Purdue, four seasons (2020-21 through 2023-24), a rare full-term college center in the modern draft. He grew from a 14.7-minute reserve as a freshman (8.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, .597 FG, .714 FT) into the most decorated player in college basketball. 2021-22: 37 games, 19.0 minutes, 14.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, .648 FG, .649 FT. 2022-23: 34 games, 31.7 minutes, 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.1 blocks, .607 FG, .734 FT. 2023-24: 39 games, 32.0 minutes, 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.2 blocks, .623 FG, .711 FT. He won consensus National Player of the Year and Big Ten Player of the Year in both 2023 and 2024, was a consensus first-team All-American twice, took the 2024 NCAA scoring title, and led Purdue to the 2024 national title game. Draft: 2024, first round, ninth overall, Memphis — no draft-night trade.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 22 | MEM | 66 | 21.5 | 9.2 | 8.3 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | .580 | .709 | 1.3 |
| 2025-26 | 23 | MEM | 11 | 25.8 | 13.6 | 11.1 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 0.1 | .633 | .781 | 2.4 |
| Career | MEM | 77 | 22.1 | 9.9 | 8.7 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 0.2 | .589 | .723 | 1.5 |
Fantasy history: 2024-25: outside the top 100 in 9-cat per-game value, though he was among the three best rookies in the format alongside Kel'el Ware and Donovan Clingan; 21.5 minutes and 1.3 blocks were the ceiling on it. 2025-26: an 11-game sample that graded far better per game — roughly top-60 shape on rate — but produced essentially no season-long value in any format. No season-end Basketball Monster or Hashtag rank was verifiable for either season, so treat those characterizations as rate-based reads rather than published finishes. Points leagues have rated him better than categories throughout: the FT drag and zero threes cost nothing there, while the double-doubles and high FG% volume carry.
Durability: 66 games (2024-25), 11 games (2025-26). He underwent left ankle surgery on June 10, 2025 to re-stabilize the joint and address excessive ligamentous laxity, with a four-month timetable, and that cost him the first 13 games of 2025-26. He played 11 games, last appearing December 7, 2025 against Portland, then was diagnosed with a stress reaction in the same left ankle. ESPN reported on March 1, 2026 that he would undergo a second operation on the left ankle to address ongoing discomfort and bone stress; he did not play again. Two surgeries on the same joint inside ten months, the second for bone stress in a 7-3, 305-pound frame, is the defining fact of his profile.
Trajectory: The 11 games he did play in 2025-26 were the most encouraging stretch of his career — points, rebounds, blocks, FG% and FT% all rose sharply on only 4.3 more minutes, which is genuine per-minute improvement rather than a workload artifact, and the .781 FT on real volume undercut the assumption that he would be a permanent punt-FT piece. The turnover rate nearly doubled to 2.4, the expected cost of a larger offensive role, and it remains the one category where he actively hurts. He is 24 during 2026-27 and only 77 NBA games in, so the skill curve should still point up. But the aging-curve question is irrelevant next to the load-bearing one: a body this size with a twice-operated ankle and a documented bone-stress reaction has a durability profile that no rate line can rescue, and any 2026-27 valuation has to price games played as the primary variable rather than production.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia · StatMuse season splits · ESPN, second ankle surgery, 2026-03-01
Open questions
- Is Edey cleared for unrestricted five-on-five work in camp?
- Will Memphis cap back-to-backs or active-game minutes early in the season?