Grange's follow-up suggests Memphis made the call
> A small surprise since Edey was determined to be at camp, as he said during pre-draft, but given Memphis took him at nine, and project him as a possible starter, it's not surprising they wanted their big rookie at Summer League and available for all off-season development.
https://x.com/michaelgrange/status/1807528297968148818?t=PJO8Kfl0miHSMBVfn-_Egw&s=19
he'll play 1-2 games at most before they pull him, same as most other top picks. bottom line is they want him training with Grizzlies staff not Team Canada
Which is weird because Team Canada is decent, and would provide MUCH more value than Summer League.
Summer League is just AAU. It’s just guys scoring, playing for themselves.
What exactly are you looking for by doing this? Wanna say gotcha in 3 weeks?
The 8th pick in the draft last year played 4 games. The 10th pick played 5. The 9th pick was injured so no data.
Memphis is already stunting his growth. Summer League is where fringe NBA players compete for an opportunity to make a roster. Training camp is where Edey would get reps with his actual teammates.
Playing, practicing and just generally being around the most elite players in the world would be the best possible summer training he could have. Memphis disagrees bc they have loser mentality.
Hundred percent agree. The thing that Edey had in college that gave him a huge edge was access to profession NBA level coaching and development with the national team. At this point Grizzlies clearly want to get him up to speed with their schemes but I again agree he probably had higher level of training with the national team over nba summer league
Ugh can you imagine rotting in Vegas summer league when you could be winning a medal in Tokyo, a once in a lifetime experience for only the greatest athletes. How awful.
That's what training camp is for. Zach doesn't need redundant training, he's a smart kid.
They're simply taking away 1 of his 2 or 3 chances to go to the Olympics.
Most players at the Olympics are fringe NBA players at best. Think of the rosters outside of the US and maybe Canada (less so at this rate).
Example, Serbia, the 3rd favorite to win a medal:
https://olympics.com/en/news/nikola-jokic-serbia-preliminary-basketball-squad-paris-2024
Zach would be playing team Canada, not Serbia. Most of his exposure to elite talent would be in working with our roster, seeing how they prepare for games, how they practice, how they work in clutch situations.
There's no substitute for playing with the best players in the world, including elite guards like Jamal and Shai.
If you’re talking about practice (like Iverson) how is it more beneficial for him to practice with Jamal and Shai than his actual teammates? I thought we were talking about the games. This point makes even less sense.
lol, Iverson, really, that's not team play, he's the king of iso ball.
go watch videos of the USA redeem team players talking about Kobe in practice and how he set the tone for winning the gold medal.
you're welcome.
I don't believe the conspiracy that the USA is trying to cripple Canada's roster, but it is odd that team's are worried about Edey and Wiggins getting hurt, but not guys who also have extensive injury history like Kawhi, AD, Haliburton, etc.
It's incredibly common with with rookies, free agents, and guys who are looking to be traded.
Going back to 2016, we saw it with rookies Ben Simmons, Dragan Bender, Ivica Zubac, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and also free agents like Boban and Ian Mahimi.
For rookies, it is simply that teams want them learning their system, attending their camps, meeting with coaches, all of that.
For free agents, it's injury concerns.
It's not a conspiracy, it happens.
Zach didn’t get many minutes at the FIBA world championships last year, so it’s understandable that he might prefer to focus on getting ready for his NBA rookie season. Wiggs has had differences with the Canadian national team’s management for years, so that’s not a complete shock. Gonna miss them both though, Canada needs more depth on the roster.
Its literally in their contracts that they cannot stop a player from repping their country. They told Andrew not to and he listened, they didnt have the power to actually stop him from doing it. Look into it
Honestly this one not too surprising. He just got selected 9th with a possible starting role on a contending team. Going to take a lot of time to integrate him into NBA offense.
I think this is one of those times you have to prioritize your career first.
That's not going to help Memphis? Edey had everything run through him at Purdue. Now he has to get used to NBA speed while learning to play in a completely different support style of game. Grizzlies don't want to waste another year of Ja, they need Edey to be up to speed.
This isn't just a summer league thing, it's developmental choice.
It's not like Edey doesn't want to play for Canada. He'll be there going forward.
"development choice"
I guess he's not playing at NBA speed against NBA players in the Olympics. I guess it's hard to develop under those conditions lol
We’ve seen very many times why the Olympics and FIBA play means absolutely shit all for NBA basketball. We should know better than anyone with having the world championship MVP playing for us last season.
The game is different in the NBA and it’s totally fine for Memphis to prioritize focus towards the season. They’re kind of desperate to succeed and it makes complete sense
Y'all really acting like hell get a lot minutes. Steven Adams and jj is there. He'll be riding the bench all season. Olympics is every 4yrs. Last time Canada qualified was 2000s
Would he have played in the Olympics if he was drafted by the Raptors? My bet is that he would’ve.
I don’t see how playing against scrubs in SL is going to benefit his career over playing in the Olympics.
Can't tell if you are serious or not they are a good team who had a string of bad luck with injuries and Ja situation. They were the number 2 seed in 22-23.
WTF, did the Grizzlies ever stop Marc Gasol from playing for Spain in his rookie year? Why do it now for Canada? Gasol has been playing for Spain national team before he went to the NBA
Welcome to the Olympic team Khem Birch /s
But seriously this sucks. Fuck you Memphis. We needed Brandon Clarke, can't have him because injury. Now we can't have Edey either smh
He was borderline unplayable last summer. I’m not convinced he would have gotten many minutes anyways. But it definitely hurts not having the potential of him breaking out.
He was a substantially better athlete and player this season. I really think he is going to be fantastic. It's always people who didn't watch him for the last year with this take lol
why does this only happen to us not USA basketball? they have guys who were literally hurt in the playoffs... they have fucking kawhi and the clippers are letting him play lmao
This is nuts considering Edey would most likely be a rotation player, only seeing real play time against bigs like Wemby and Gobert. First the Grizzlies now the only 7 footer on our Olympic team, Memphis fucking hates Canada lol
Karma has already dealt Memphis what they deserve, hopefully they regret this decision too.
For all the talk about potential injury, every year there's multiple stories of how players WC & Olympic experience catapulted them to career performances the following year...Ant Edwards is most recent example, but there's tons, its a huge experience for the players, if only bc they get to practice and play with elite players.
Memphis continues to make small minded decisions...summer league is not the same thing as national team play, and besides, NBA training camp is where the real roster gets reps.
There should be an agreement like FIFA has with the soccer associations. This is fucken bullshit, the NBA could easily sabotage most non-American Olympic teams in favour of US basketball.
Man I used to know Zach a little bit. Last time I saw him, about 7 or 8 years ago, he hadn’t even started playing basketball. Now I see shit like this. Still catches me off guard, every time.
I’ll be honest, we’re gonna be okay. The team is loaded and even in fiba play he wasn’t used much, so the Olympics he wouldn’t play much
Olynyk, powell, oshae will hold it down
People need to lay off Edey for his decision.
Going into the NBA as a rookie is not easy. It’s even harder when you know you have specific things you need to work on. You want to be coming into training camp in the best physical and mental shape possible, ready to take on the task ahead of you, knowing full well that it will be harder than you could have possibly imagined.
While playing for Canada in the Olympics would undoubtedly provide him with great experience, if he would rather spend his time focused on conditioning, training, and doing drills, that’s totally fair.
I'm sure being in game shape all summer and playing against the best players in the world is awful for his conditioning so this is totally understandable.
I’d say it is a mixed bag. There are undeniable positives to be gained from the experience. No doubt.
However, put yourself in Edey’s shoes. He has heard very pointed and specific criticisms about his projected effectiveness in the NBA. Very specific issues that everyone has been very vocal about his need to improve upon for him to be even playable in the league.
Would he rather spend the summer working to improve those specific issues? Working with his new team to better understand his role on the playbook? Working with pick and roll specialists? Working on his footwork and speed and conditioning? Don’t forget…most rookies hit a wall before the end of the season because they have never played so many games over such a short time span.
And that’s before factoring in the injury risk.
The way I see it, there are two times you are allowed to sit out with no questions asked and that is if you are hurt or if you are going into your first NBA season. For a guy like Edey, it’s even more understandable.
There is more mobile bigs in fiba than there is in the NBA. He would get way better exposure. Injury risk is always there, regardless of playing games or training etc.
Canada still have a great team we can beat the US most of their stars are old and washed not in their prime anymore, curry and lebron won’t be able to keep up Shay and Murray will light them up
Is the risk of injury greater than the postives of going and competing in an Olympics?
Theres always four years from now for him, if canadian basketball keeps developing.
(This has been going on for decades) but why is the NBA the only league where this routinely happens? The NHL and Gary Bettman HATE their players going to the Olympics (which is why they haven't gone for years) but they ultimately cave in (and host events like the World Cup and Four Nations tourney thingy) because the players want to go. The league players 82 games and has a play-in. Game to game, the matches in European leagues are more important but clubs rarely stop players from fulfilling their international committments.
I'd love if any of our rooks had the chance to go play in the olympics this summer. Playing with and against high level talent is the best way to improve yourself and see what it takes
Grange's follow-up suggests Memphis made the call > A small surprise since Edey was determined to be at camp, as he said during pre-draft, but given Memphis took him at nine, and project him as a possible starter, it's not surprising they wanted their big rookie at Summer League and available for all off-season development. https://x.com/michaelgrange/status/1807528297968148818?t=PJO8Kfl0miHSMBVfn-_Egw&s=19
if he'd gone to any other team I think they'd have let him play. but it seems like he'll be a starter in Memphis so they need him healthy
Aren’t they going to have him play in summer league?
he'll play 1-2 games at most before they pull him, same as most other top picks. bottom line is they want him training with Grizzlies staff not Team Canada
Which is weird because Team Canada is decent, and would provide MUCH more value than Summer League. Summer League is just AAU. It’s just guys scoring, playing for themselves.
Only the top couple picks play that little. Picks around 10 play 4/5 games.
!remindme 21 days
What exactly are you looking for by doing this? Wanna say gotcha in 3 weeks? The 8th pick in the draft last year played 4 games. The 10th pick played 5. The 9th pick was injured so no data.
if you're right you get to say gotcha!
Haha I’m not about that.
Memphis is already stunting his growth. Summer League is where fringe NBA players compete for an opportunity to make a roster. Training camp is where Edey would get reps with his actual teammates. Playing, practicing and just generally being around the most elite players in the world would be the best possible summer training he could have. Memphis disagrees bc they have loser mentality.
Hundred percent agree. The thing that Edey had in college that gave him a huge edge was access to profession NBA level coaching and development with the national team. At this point Grizzlies clearly want to get him up to speed with their schemes but I again agree he probably had higher level of training with the national team over nba summer league
The grizzlies can fuck off. Their schemes do not rank against an Olympic medal
Ugh can you imagine rotting in Vegas summer league when you could be winning a medal in Tokyo, a once in a lifetime experience for only the greatest athletes. How awful.
paris mon frère
Even more tragic!
It's almost unforgiveable. If I were Zach, I'd probably hold a grudge against that FO.
During summer league he’d be working directly with the staff on their sets offensively and defensively. It’s not about level of competition
That's what training camp is for. Zach doesn't need redundant training, he's a smart kid. They're simply taking away 1 of his 2 or 3 chances to go to the Olympics.
Most players at the Olympics are fringe NBA players at best. Think of the rosters outside of the US and maybe Canada (less so at this rate). Example, Serbia, the 3rd favorite to win a medal: https://olympics.com/en/news/nikola-jokic-serbia-preliminary-basketball-squad-paris-2024
Zach would be playing team Canada, not Serbia. Most of his exposure to elite talent would be in working with our roster, seeing how they prepare for games, how they practice, how they work in clutch situations. There's no substitute for playing with the best players in the world, including elite guards like Jamal and Shai.
If you’re talking about practice (like Iverson) how is it more beneficial for him to practice with Jamal and Shai than his actual teammates? I thought we were talking about the games. This point makes even less sense.
lol, Iverson, really, that's not team play, he's the king of iso ball. go watch videos of the USA redeem team players talking about Kobe in practice and how he set the tone for winning the gold medal. you're welcome.
That’s some bullshit Fuck it. I’m on team compete. Specifically, to go and stomp any team that stopped a Canadian from going to the olympics
I don't believe the conspiracy that the USA is trying to cripple Canada's roster, but it is odd that team's are worried about Edey and Wiggins getting hurt, but not guys who also have extensive injury history like Kawhi, AD, Haliburton, etc.
It's incredibly common with with rookies, free agents, and guys who are looking to be traded. Going back to 2016, we saw it with rookies Ben Simmons, Dragan Bender, Ivica Zubac, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and also free agents like Boban and Ian Mahimi. For rookies, it is simply that teams want them learning their system, attending their camps, meeting with coaches, all of that. For free agents, it's injury concerns. It's not a conspiracy, it happens.
Zach didn’t get many minutes at the FIBA world championships last year, so it’s understandable that he might prefer to focus on getting ready for his NBA rookie season. Wiggs has had differences with the Canadian national team’s management for years, so that’s not a complete shock. Gonna miss them both though, Canada needs more depth on the roster.
Teams cannot “make the call”
Exhibit A: Andrew Wiggins.
Its literally in their contracts that they cannot stop a player from repping their country. They told Andrew not to and he listened, they didnt have the power to actually stop him from doing it. Look into it
Yea they definitely can
They actually cant, its more so them saying please to the player and the player agreeing
Lol.
it's us against America bruh
They broke the code!
What the fuck?? 
Honestly this one not too surprising. He just got selected 9th with a possible starting role on a contending team. Going to take a lot of time to integrate him into NBA offense. I think this is one of those times you have to prioritize your career first.
On the other hand, he just got a guaranteed contract and has a shot at an Olympic medal
Yes, because playing actual real competitive games against NBAers is not a good way to prepare. /s
That's not going to help Memphis? Edey had everything run through him at Purdue. Now he has to get used to NBA speed while learning to play in a completely different support style of game. Grizzlies don't want to waste another year of Ja, they need Edey to be up to speed. This isn't just a summer league thing, it's developmental choice. It's not like Edey doesn't want to play for Canada. He'll be there going forward.
"development choice" I guess he's not playing at NBA speed against NBA players in the Olympics. I guess it's hard to develop under those conditions lol
We’ve seen very many times why the Olympics and FIBA play means absolutely shit all for NBA basketball. We should know better than anyone with having the world championship MVP playing for us last season. The game is different in the NBA and it’s totally fine for Memphis to prioritize focus towards the season. They’re kind of desperate to succeed and it makes complete sense
Y'all really acting like hell get a lot minutes. Steven Adams and jj is there. He'll be riding the bench all season. Olympics is every 4yrs. Last time Canada qualified was 2000s
Steven Adams is in Houston now... and JJJ is not a center, which is exactly why they've been prioritizing drafting or trading for a center.
Would he have played in the Olympics if he was drafted by the Raptors? My bet is that he would’ve. I don’t see how playing against scrubs in SL is going to benefit his career over playing in the Olympics.
Contending for what lol another lottery pick.
Can't tell if you are serious or not they are a good team who had a string of bad luck with injuries and Ja situation. They were the number 2 seed in 22-23.
NBA trying to sabotage Canada’s team
WTF, did the Grizzlies ever stop Marc Gasol from playing for Spain in his rookie year? Why do it now for Canada? Gasol has been playing for Spain national team before he went to the NBA
Three of the top 6 players drafted this past week are from France. Wonder if Atlanta, Washington or Charlotte are withholding their participation.
Horseshit man
Welcome to the Olympic team Khem Birch /s But seriously this sucks. Fuck you Memphis. We needed Brandon Clarke, can't have him because injury. Now we can't have Edey either smh
save us olynk
Unleash the Lunch lady
This one stings more than Wiggins; at least we've got a lot of options for wing players, but we're so thin at C.
He was borderline unplayable last summer. I’m not convinced he would have gotten many minutes anyways. But it definitely hurts not having the potential of him breaking out.
He was a substantially better athlete and player this season. I really think he is going to be fantastic. It's always people who didn't watch him for the last year with this take lol
The Olympics are many, many steps above the NCAA.
Fuck the US teams always withholding our players honestly fuck man
why does this only happen to us not USA basketball? they have guys who were literally hurt in the playoffs... they have fucking kawhi and the clippers are letting him play lmao
Because it's their own team bro
Cause the guys that are playing for the us can do whatever the fuck they want cause they’re stars.
And embiid
First GSW…now Memphis….SMH
Seems like the Americans are actively trying to stop Canada from forming a team. What a joke.
This is nuts considering Edey would most likely be a rotation player, only seeing real play time against bigs like Wemby and Gobert. First the Grizzlies now the only 7 footer on our Olympic team, Memphis fucking hates Canada lol
Past time they moved back to Van
Pffffft, wlis there a better way to train than ... Playing Olympic basketball?
I don’t know Zach and he doesn’t need my advice. But if it were me, this is something I think I’d come to regret.
Karma has already dealt Memphis what they deserve, hopefully they regret this decision too. For all the talk about potential injury, every year there's multiple stories of how players WC & Olympic experience catapulted them to career performances the following year...Ant Edwards is most recent example, but there's tons, its a huge experience for the players, if only bc they get to practice and play with elite players. Memphis continues to make small minded decisions...summer league is not the same thing as national team play, and besides, NBA training camp is where the real roster gets reps.
Yea the Grizzlies probably had a huge say on this. Most teams dont let their rooks compete in these national tournaments
They want him in Summer League I’m assuming. Sucks I really wanted to watch him ball out on Team Canada
76ers have the opportunity to do the funniest thing.
There should be an agreement like FIFA has with the soccer associations. This is fucken bullshit, the NBA could easily sabotage most non-American Olympic teams in favour of US basketball.
Man I used to know Zach a little bit. Last time I saw him, about 7 or 8 years ago, he hadn’t even started playing basketball. Now I see shit like this. Still catches me off guard, every time.
I’ll be honest, we’re gonna be okay. The team is loaded and even in fiba play he wasn’t used much, so the Olympics he wouldn’t play much Olynyk, powell, oshae will hold it down
Edey is arguably better in FIBA because there's no defensive 3 second rule. We'll probably be fine, but it still sucks and I wanted to watch him play.
You know who pointed a pistol to his head
I totally understand this. Obviously disappointed, but big man needs to put himself first, especially at the beginning of his career.
People need to lay off Edey for his decision. Going into the NBA as a rookie is not easy. It’s even harder when you know you have specific things you need to work on. You want to be coming into training camp in the best physical and mental shape possible, ready to take on the task ahead of you, knowing full well that it will be harder than you could have possibly imagined. While playing for Canada in the Olympics would undoubtedly provide him with great experience, if he would rather spend his time focused on conditioning, training, and doing drills, that’s totally fair.
I'm sure being in game shape all summer and playing against the best players in the world is awful for his conditioning so this is totally understandable.
I’d say it is a mixed bag. There are undeniable positives to be gained from the experience. No doubt. However, put yourself in Edey’s shoes. He has heard very pointed and specific criticisms about his projected effectiveness in the NBA. Very specific issues that everyone has been very vocal about his need to improve upon for him to be even playable in the league. Would he rather spend the summer working to improve those specific issues? Working with his new team to better understand his role on the playbook? Working with pick and roll specialists? Working on his footwork and speed and conditioning? Don’t forget…most rookies hit a wall before the end of the season because they have never played so many games over such a short time span. And that’s before factoring in the injury risk. The way I see it, there are two times you are allowed to sit out with no questions asked and that is if you are hurt or if you are going into your first NBA season. For a guy like Edey, it’s even more understandable.
There is more mobile bigs in fiba than there is in the NBA. He would get way better exposure. Injury risk is always there, regardless of playing games or training etc.
It’s not about “exposure”. It’s about what you can spend your time and energy focusing on.
Can’t respect a guy who doesn’t play for his country.
Suss
Chris Boucher come on down
How does playing against the best players in the world make him less prepared for the NBA?
it was most likely his choice but i blame Memphis anyways lol
What the fuck, can we just once field our best fucking team for a major basketball tournament.
uh happy canada day i guess
Bro WHAT
Canada still have a great team we can beat the US most of their stars are old and washed not in their prime anymore, curry and lebron won’t be able to keep up Shay and Murray will light them up
FUCK THE US
I always figured this was more likely to happen than not happen. Rookies don't usually play for their national team.
Is the risk of injury greater than the postives of going and competing in an Olympics? Theres always four years from now for him, if canadian basketball keeps developing.
(This has been going on for decades) but why is the NBA the only league where this routinely happens? The NHL and Gary Bettman HATE their players going to the Olympics (which is why they haven't gone for years) but they ultimately cave in (and host events like the World Cup and Four Nations tourney thingy) because the players want to go. The league players 82 games and has a play-in. Game to game, the matches in European leagues are more important but clubs rarely stop players from fulfilling their international committments.
this is lame
This fucking sucks. Fuck Memphis even more first they stole our Vancouver Grizzlies and now this.
Fuck the Grizzles. America is trying there best to not let Canada win
Probably would’ve been cut anyways
Players who do this at the 11th hour should not be considered for future olympics
He's not good enough to be on the team. All the best in the G league.
What an embarrassment to himself and the country.
Too bad but understandable. If he was on the Raptors, I'd want them to do the same.
I'd love if any of our rooks had the chance to go play in the olympics this summer. Playing with and against high level talent is the best way to improve yourself and see what it takes
If he was with the Raps, I’d want him at Olympics playing some of the best centres in the world instead of centres trying to make the team.
He's trash anyway
lol yall have no centers rn right