The 2024-25 NBA season is right here! We’re breaking down the most important questions, best- and worst-case eventualities, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 groups. Get pleasure from!
Contents
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
2023-24 end
Offseason strikes
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Additions: Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, Cam Spencer, Jay Huff
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Subtractions: Ziaire Williams, Trey Jemison, Derrick Rose, Jordan Goodwin, Timmy Allen, Zavier Simpson, Jack White, Lamar Stevens, Yuta Watanabe (holy crap, the Grizzlies had so many gamers final season)
The Massive Query: Can they keep wholesome and discover the proper steadiness?
Memphis was at all times going to be beginning final season behind the 8-ball, with Ja Morant starting a 25-game suspension. However the venture of staying afloat till the celebrity’s return rapidly changed into the Grizzlies drowning.
Beginning with the just-before-opening-night announcement that Steven Adams would miss the entire season, just about each mission-critical Memphian missed prolonged time. As The Ringer’s Zach Kram notes, final 12 months’s Grizzlies used extra gamers and extra beginning lineups than any crew in NBA historical past — the results of 20 separate gamers lacking an absurd 577 total games.
By the point Morant debuted, Memphis was already 6-19. When, after a nine-game cameo, he tore the labrum in his right shoulder, all of the Grizz may do was white-knuckle the rest of the schedule and wait ‘til subsequent 12 months.
There have been silver linings. Pressed into obligation as a major possibility in Morant’s absence, Desmond Bane averaged 23.7 factors and 5.5 assists per recreation, each profession highs, and maintained above-average taking pictures effectivity on by far his highest utilization charge as a professional. Jaren Jackson Jr. helped coach Taylor Jenkins by some means coax a near-top-10 protection out of a MASH unit. And whereas he didn’t surf the usage-efficiency curve fairly as adeptly as Bane, Jackson too scored and facilitated at career-best clips in a task that required him to cook dinner for himself; almost 41% of his baskets last season were unassisted, and after Morant went down for the season, JJJ ranked fourth in the NBA in usage rate, behind solely Joel Embiid, Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson.
Memphis’ roster churn turned up Vince Williams Jr., a tenacious 6-foot-4 stopper with a 6-foot-11 wingspan who confirmed flashes as a complementary scorer and playmaker. It gave GG Jackson II, the youngest player in the NBA, greater than 1,200 minutes’ value of reps to recommend his recreation interprets to the NBA degree — even when, at this level, it’s best-suited to a reserve position. It gave Scotty Pippen Jr. an opportunity to show he may make an affect as a defense-and-table-setting backup level guard; he made probably the most of it, delivering sturdy Summer time League and preseason performances to earn a guaranteed deal.
It additionally handed the Grizzlies the No. 9 choose within the 2024 NBA draft — an opportunity to take a swing at including an enormous piece to a 50-win crew. They took the most important piece on the board: 7-foot-4, 305-pound Purdue middle Zach Edey, the form of mauling screener, dominant offensive rebounder and big low-block goal who may remodel Memphis’ offense:
Essentially the most environment friendly put up possibility within the preseason has been – you guessed it – Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey.
The persistence & contact pops on movie. Good fingers & huge catch radius. Undecided if doubling one go away goes to work towards him – prepared to get off it, and rapidly. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/DPujnoe8ZC
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) October 15, 2024
The speculation of the case is obvious: Get the injured guys wholesome; pair them with the younger guys; add in an enormous; resume whooping that trick. But it surely’s not fairly so simple as “re-spawn proper again the place you have been earlier than Ja’s suspension.”
Is Edey prepared to right away begin at middle on a championship contender? How rapidly can JJJ get acclimated to a brand new frontcourt associate, and may he return to Defensive Participant of the 12 months-level effectiveness? Is Brandon Clarke, who performed simply six video games final season following a ruptured Achilles, able to as soon as once more play like a premier backup huge?
How does Memphis combine Good and Kennard, neither of whom have performed a lot with Morant, as soon as everybody’s out there? (Additionally, I do know Good’s a “stretch-6,” however … is he principally a 6-foot-3 combo ahead proper now?) How congested will the half-court offense be when iffy shooters Morant, Good and JJJ (simply 32.6% from deep over the past four seasons) share the courtroom with Edey? And if Jenkins downsizes to get extra taking pictures on the ground — the Morant-Bane-Kennard three-guard lineup blitzed opponents by 91 points in 102 minutes two seasons again — how do the Grizz keep away from getting sliced up on the perimeter and pounded on the boards?
Answering these questions requires getting all people on the courtroom … and there, once more, Memphis is off to a rocky begin. Williams and Jackson will each miss the beginning of the season. JJJ hasn’t performed in preseason with a strained hamstring. And whereas Morant’s preseason premiere supplied some thrilling reminders …
… he additionally exited early after rolling his ankle, and has been sidelined since with a “mild sprain.”
Each Morant and Jackson Jr. are anticipated to be prepared for the season opener; this, clearly, is sweet. These restored Grizzlies have a ton of potential solutions to the questions they’ll face in a loaded West. However they’ll want all fingers on deck to seek out them.
Finest-case state of affairs
The return of Morant and the arrival of Edey remodel a crew that completed dead last in the NBA in points in the paint final season again into the one which led the league the previous four campaigns. The self-creation development that Bane and JJJ confirmed makes them much more harmful when, with Ja again, they don’t need to do as a lot. The returns of Good, Kennard, Clarke and John Konchar give the Grizzlies a full complement of succesful veterans to depend on; ongoing improvement from children Williams, Jackson, Pippen, Santi Aldama and Jake LaRavia give Jenkins recent legs to deploy in a faster-paced offense. All of it provides as much as top-10 finishes on each side of the ball, 50-plus wins and a deep postseason run — the Grizz choosing up simply the place they left off when all the pieces went haywire.
If all the pieces falls aside
The disparate items by no means fairly come collectively. The brand new offensive scheme proves neither fish nor fowl, with the concept of a extra fluid and decentralized assault minimizing Morant’s ball-dominating effectiveness, and a higher-octane ethos making it harder to play by the large Edey down low. For as many intriguing items as he has to play with, Jenkins struggles to seek out constant two-way lineups with sufficient taking pictures, point-of-attack defensive metal and rebounding to compete with the monsters out West. Morant, Bane and/or Jackson miss an prolonged stretch, and out of the blue Memphis seems loads thinner than we thought. The Grizz sputter to the play-in, fail to make the postseason, and discover themselves going through even larger questions heading into the summer season.
Fantasy spin
The Grizzlies are loaded with fantasy expertise, beginning with Jackson. JJJ is without doubt one of the extra dependable defensive property out there, and his contribution to scoring and 3s makes him a high-floor choose within the third spherical. Bane ranks larger than Morant in my rankings, nevertheless Morant’s ADP is roughly six spots higher than Bane’s. Bane will get the sting for me in class leagues as a result of he is extra environment friendly and turns the ball over much less. Morant is healthier suited to factors leagues like Paolo Banchero.
I have been drafting Edey extra aggressively as a late-round choose. Edey has the instruments to be an excellent fantasy participant — his blocks, rebounding, and taking pictures effectivity can assist fantasy managers instantly. Even when he performs 20-25 minutes an evening, his profile tracks to a participant who’ll be impactful in restricted minutes. Edey goes within the ninth spherical, however I would spend as much as the eighth should you sense he will not be out there. — Dan Titus
2024-25 schedule
I’ve lengthy been within the tank for the Grizzlies … and that’s not going to vary right here! A 21-win leap sounds preposterous, however the final two principally wholesome iterations of this crew we’ve seen gained 56 and 51 video games, and this one may be deeper than these. Lay that 47.5 out on a desk; Tremendous Grizz is about to dive off a ladder and splash it into oblivion.