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Hornets might be regretting not drafting Zach Edey in 2024, but it's complicated

Edey's been incredibly good this season.
Colin Keane|
Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey.
Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey. | Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Charlotte Hornets

One of the most surprising storylines of the 2025-26 NBA season has been the stellar play of second-year center Zach Edey, who has been arguably the Memphis Grizzlies' best player through the first quarter of the campaign.

Though he's only played in 11 games, Edey's production has been undeniable. He's averaging 13.6 points (third on the team), 11.1 rebounds (first), and 1.9 blocks (first), and he's been Memphis' brightest star amid a messy season.

Edey was the No. 9 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, which means as many as eight teams are looking at his emergence right now and wondering whether or not they missed out.

Are the Charlotte Hornets one of those teams? The Ringer's Bill Simmons seems to thinks so, based on his comments on a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Bill Simmons says the Hornets should have drafted Zach Edey with the No. 6 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft

“It's a bummer Charlotte passed on (Edey) at six a year ago, cause he's kind of exactly who'd be the fun missing piece for that team,” Simmons said. “And it was kind of dumb that they didn't take him or (Donovan) Clingan.”

Charlotte drafted Tidjane Salaun with the No. 6 overall pick in 2024. Clingan went No. 7 to the Portland Trail Blazers, and Edey No. 9 to the Grizz, as aforementioned.

While it's easy to lean into the recency bias with Edey and hate on the Hornets for not drafting the 7-foot-3 center, the discussion isn't that simple.

For one, had the Hornets drafted Edey, they likely wouldn't have snagged Ryan Kalkbrenner in the 2025 draft, and Kalkbrenner's been awesome so far. Has he been Edey-level good? No, but Kalk is still just 24 games into his NBA career, whereas Edey is 77 games into his own.

Then there's the Salaun piece. While early returns on Salaun indicate to casual fans that he was selected too high, a closer inspection of his development reveals that Tidjane is progressing quite nicely.

Also, keep in mind that Salaun is 20 years old, three years younger than Edey. If Salaun hasn't developed into at least a functioning bench guy in three years, we can agree that the pick was a bad one. His ceiling is higher than that, by the way, and only time will tell.

It's hard not to imagine how epic Edey would be on the Hornets right now, with the way he's playing. But it was also tough to forecast Edey's NBA potential heading into the 2024 draft. Many scouts may have felt that Edey was too slow for the pace of NBA basketball, and that's understandable. He wasn't exactly Usain Bolt at Purdue.

You have to love that Edey has silenced his critics and become a productive NBA player already. At the same time, Hornets fans shouldn't be too upset about having missed on him. Kalkbrenner is looking like he's going to be a 15-year NBA center.

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Colin Keane
COLIN KEANE

Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org

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