Day 4 of the NBA regular season countdown continues with today’s edition of the SneakerReporter NBA Top 30 teams list, and at number 27 for day 27, the Memphis Grizzlies make their appearance on the countdown.
The Grizzlies are another rebuilding team, and after their all-time franchise scoring leader set his sights for Utah in free agency this past summer, supporters of the Grizz now look to the new quarterback of the offense, 2019 second-overall pick Ja Morant out of Murray State. He labels himself as a “Point Gawd”, and unless you’ve yet to take note of the hype, you believe him. The Grizzlies only won 33 games last season, but in regards to where they are as a revamping franchise, they may not be in a rebuild that much longer.
Memphis had an excellent 2019 draft in landing both Morant and what many prophesize to be a steal in Gonzaga’s Brandon Clarke. The Jaren Jackson Jr. experiment looks to be off to a strong start as the 7-footer showed flashes of a proficient post game and effectiveness from outside the three-point line, averaging 13.8 points and 50.6 percent from the field. Where Jackson shined was through his game-altering defense, whose reactions to offensive threats being savant-like at times.
Whether as a rim protector, in which he flexed his 7 1/2′ foot wingspan, or on the perimeter, holding down the fortress when switched on shiftiest of ball-handlers, the Plainfield, NJ native and former Michigan State Spartan let Grizzlies fans know they picked the right guy, who possessed the highest potential and upside at the moment.
The Grizzlies may not be in postseason contention talks just yet, but by following the model of putting out their core of young pieces and letting them learn the flow of nightly NBA action, the old adage of the Grindhouse could be making its way back into the fold of the saturated Western conference.
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27. Memphis Grizzlies (26-56) – With The Grit N’ Grind Era At Its End, The Grizz Look To Their New Young Core
The duos of Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook and Jaren Jackson Jr./Ja Morant are, to poetically quote Maya Angelou, “more alike, than unalike”.
Think about it. In the first year of the roster reconstruction, you spend your first overall pick on a seven-footer that can send shots into the stands inside the paint, catapult long balls from downtown at an efficient percentage, be a nightmare to guard when switched onto them while holding their own when they have to defend the perimeter, and have an already technically-sound post scoring game, all at 19-going-on-20-years old?
And then the next year, you salvage some stock to acquire some extra picks, score another early pick from the draft lottery and use the pick on an explosive and electric point guard who would give you a triple-double on a command, equally dominating opposing defenses by displaying a bulldog mentality as a slasher, the mastermind of a floor general, the deadeye of a sniper anywhere on the floor, and the keen artistry of a pure shot creator?
That’s a Sam Presti-OKC-esque plan if I’ve ever seen one.
Looking at the numbers, Kevin Durant’s rookie season compared to Jackson’s isn’t that much off. Yes, the two put the ball in the basket in a bevy of different ways; Durant’s slim build not being quite effective to move bodies in the low post and Jackson not being that twitchy as a space creator to drill any look in the halfcourt, inside or outside. But in looking at the two’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which, if you’ve never heard of the advanced stat, ” sums up all a player’s positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player’s performance,” Durant’s (15.81) and Jackson’s (16.71) ratings are just around the same,with Jackson’s rookie PER being a little higher than KD’s.
And looking at the trajectory of KD’s career efficiency rating, and career path, since his 2008-09 rookie season, it’s safe to say things turned out pretty well for him. If Jaren Jackson Jr. lives up to his draft potential and takes the next step to superstardom in this league, as it looks like he’s already getting a headstart on that, I’ll have to use another quote: in the words of Draymond Green in the finals last year, “fun times are ahead” for the Grizz.
And then there’s the anticipation of the wait until Temetrius “Ja” Morant steps onto an NBA floor for the first time. And, no, we cannot wait that much longer for that to happen, either.
Ja possesses a dynamic, multifaceted skill set for a point guard at his age, and it’s quite startling how pro-ready he is after two years of collegiate ball in the Ohio Valley Conference. Morant averaged an astounding 24.5 points per game, 10 assists per game while collecting 5.7 rebounds per contest, Morant made it clear that putting his name on nationwide headlines was a necessity, especially with the number of his game-breaking highlights that went viral over the course of the 2018-19 college basketball season.
The attention was not given to Morant at the start of his freshman season in 2017-18, and scouts would not even fathom to turn their heads toward a 12 p.p.g. guard playing in a non-power-5 conference. Leading up to his breakout season with the Racers, Morant was projected to drop to a mid-first round selection had he left his Freshman season. But, after quickly became a household name due to those monstrous stats in his Sophomore season, he put on shows for the student sections of Racer Nation and was a staple on that late-night SportsCenter reruns.
He drove the vast majority of what Murray State did offensively last season, almost as if he carried the team on his back en route to the second round of the NCAA tournament. His accolades speak for themselves: A Naismith player of the year finalist, Ohio Valley Tournament champion, 2018-19 Bob Cousy Award (given to the nation’s top point guard), and he possessed the seventh-best scoring average in the nation while marking a new mark in the NCAA record book for the sixth-most assists in a season.
If his game can translate to the next level, we could have a potential all-star and All-NBA First Team selection in a few years at the Guard position, pending his health and proper development.
Alongside Jaren Jackson, Morant will complement and better the former 3rd overall pick, much like how Russell Westbrook was able to do so with Durant in Oklahoma City with his slashing, dishing and athletically-gifted scoring prowess.
As it goes for the rest of the young Grizzlies, well we may just have to see how their plan of teaching their young core the ropes of the nightly fight in the NBA, and what will be required of them, as contenders in the Western Conference. They dumped some big contracts of older pieces like Joakim Noah and will have to make some new cap space in the future, considering that between this coming summer and the summer of 2021, 14 of the 17 Grizzlies players will be on a new contract.
That includes the likes of Solomon Hill, Miles Plumlee, Jae Crowder, Josh Jackson (Team Option), Jaren Jackson Jr. (2-Year Team Option), Grayson Allen (2-Year Team Option), Andre Iguodala (who we all know is never going to play for the Grizzlies due to his buyout), Bruno Caboclo, Dillon Brooks, Ivan Rabb, and De’Anthony Melton.
That’s a lot, and it clearly shows the downside of relying on just the core of a young team. But it may be a necessary risk to take, and by spending some money now to keep that nucleus could benefit the Grizzlies in the long-run. Keep Jaren Jackson, Ja Morant, Josh Jackson, Brandon Clarke, and new Grizzlies guard Tyus Jones together will make the Grizzlies a formidable opponent in the Western Conference someday, but just not today.
Looking at the starting 5 of the Grizzlies next year, they’ll more than likely have Morant at the 1, third-year man out of Oregon Dillon Brooks at shooting guard, one of the newer Grizzlies in Small Forward Kyle Anderson (from the Spurs) Jaren Jackson at power forward and ex-Toronto Raptor Jonas Valunciunas at center.
Not bad, and their rotation looks promising, too. Adding a veteran piece like the 3-and D man Jae Crowder in their rotation is a big defensive addition for Memphis, as he also provides insight for the younger Grizzlies as to how to get to the postseason, considering he hasn’t missed out on one since 2013 as the Celtics, Cavaliers and Utah Jazz’s key small forward.
Another rotational piece, Josh Jackson comes over from the Suns after they traded him away, and he could provide more of the same on the defensive end, but not an offensive game.
His time in Phoenix was not good time, to put it euphemistically. But, this is his second, and probably last chance, to right his wrongs and assert himself as a worthy 2017 first-round selection. If he can right the ship, and improve his shooting percentages while cleaning up his image, it’s a low-risk, high-reward acquisition for the Memphis Grizzlies.
Starting in his place is the veteran Kyle Anderson who could benefit the skill sets of his new teammates almost immediately. He has been known for his exceptional ball IQ and defensive intellect because well, Gregg Popovich was his coach before. Yet, we haven’t seen a full season out of Anderson in a Grizzlies uniform, since he only played 43 games last year because of a shoulder injury.
What will be interesting to observe is how their other first-round selection Brandon Clarke will fare in the NBA. Clarke was the second-most efficient player in college basketball (next to the phenom Zion Williamson, of course) and by sharing a frontcourt with new Wizards big man Rui Hachimura, the Gonzaga Bulldogs spent a lot of weeks holding that #1 spot on the AP Top 25 list last season, with the help of their esteemed senior leader, and Summer League MVP.
No, the Grizzlies will not be a playoff team this year, and will more than likely fall to the near-bottom of the stacked West. But, that’s not an entire cancellation of what Ja’s crew has to offer this year.
Think about this: the Thunder back in their inaugural season went 23-59 after drafting Russell Westbrook and in KD’s second year, back then with the opportunity to grow his chemistry with the UCLA guard, they both undertook the feel of pace of an NBA season, worked on their bodies and skillsets, and grew simultaneously to reach multiple conference finals, an NBA Finals appearance, all-star honors, and league MVPs.
Now, all of that success is not going to transpire right away for Jackson and Morant, but in following that model of trusting your youth’s evolution into prime NBA superstars over the course of a season or two, NBA history has told us a couple of positive tales about that model usually resulting in a lot of wins for your franchise in the future.
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