The Memphis Grizzlies wasted little time addressing one of their biggest needs of the offseason. The Grizzlies selected Zach Edey with the ninth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft on Wednesday.

Edey, a 7-foot-4 center and four-year player at Purdue, was the most dominant college basketball player in recent memory, taking home the Wooden Award for the top player in the nation in each of his last two seasons. He averaged 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks as a senior while leading the Boilermakers to the national championship game.

Memphis’ interest in a center wasn’t a secret. General manager Zach Kleiman said the Grizzlies would add a big man shortly after the regular season.

Despite being the most productive collegiate player in the draft, Edey was projected to go in the middle of the first round due to questions about how his game would translate to the NBA. The NBA game has more spacing, which requires bigs to be mobile and able to cover ground.

Lateral agility has been one of the major questions for Edey, but he makes up for that in other areas. He led the nation in points and rebounds while demanding as much attention with double teams as any player in the country.

Edey has previous experience playing with pros. He was a member of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Canadian basketball team.

Edey first noted that the Grizzlies were interested in him during the NBA scouting combine May. He also compared his game to the last two players to open multiple seasons as the Grizzlies starting center: Steven Adams and Jonas Valanciunas.

If Edey has similar success to those two players, he will be well worth the selection.

"I'm a 7-foot-4, 300-pound guy," Edey said in May. "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. I think there's a lot of people in the NBA that do stuff like that. (Pelicans center Jonas) Valančiūnas, (Clippers center Ivica) Zubac, Steven Adams, guys who have had a lot of success in the NBA being presences. I'm going to stick to who I am."

Damichael Cole is the Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for The Commercial Appeal. Contact Damichael at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com. Follow Damichael on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DamichaelC.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Grizzlies select Purdue center Zach Edey with 9th pick in NBA draft