The conversation: Can Grizzlies’ Ja Morant get back on track and what does Zach Edey bring to the table?

In 2017-18, the Memphis Grizzlies had a season from hell. Mike Conley, their franchise point guard, played just 12 games before having season-ending surgery. Chandler Parsons, in Year 2 of a four-year max contract, made just 36 appearances because of chronic knee problems. They fired coach David Fizdale in November, a day after he benched Marc Gasol for the final 15 minutes of their eighth consecutive loss. Fizdale’s replacement, J.B. Bickerstaff, presided over a 19-game losing streak and a 61-point loss. Conley called it “the most frustrating year of my life.”

That was the beginning of the end for the Grit-‘n’-Grind era, as the the front office traded Gasol during the following season and Conley in the summer after that. It was also, however, the beginning of the era that has followed. As a result of Memphis’ 22-60 record, it landed the fourth pick in the draft and selected Jaren Jackson Jr. With some lottery luck the next season, it was able to draft Ja Morant second. Along with Desmond Bane, the sharpshooter it stole with the No. 30 pick in 2020, Morant and Jackson became the core of the team that finished second in the West in 2022 and 2023.

As a result of a suspension and a shoulder injury, Morant played just nine games in 2023-24, another cursed season. Bane, who had just signed a five-year max contract, played 42; Marcus Smart, their big offseason addition, 20. Now, heading into 2024-25, they have an opportunity to get back on track. And if the enormous Zach Edey, picked No. 9 in the draft, turns their Big 3 into another Core 4, then, as frustrating as it may have been, they will once again be glad to have bottomed out.

The state of play

Last year: It’s irrelevant. Other than that, it led to the Grizzlies drafting Edey (No. 9 overall) and shifting to a more equal-opportunity offense. They finished 27-55 (No. 30 on offense, No. 12 on defense), but that was because they were rarely even close to fully healthy. Bane and JJJ both grew offensively, and numerous younger players got opportunities to stretch their games, too.

The offseason: Edey filled the Grizzlies’ most obvious hole, and, because the front office never really got to see the team it envisioned last season, it didn’t have to do much else to make the roster seem fresh. Luke Kennard is back on a one-year deal, No. 39 pick Jaylen Wells got buckets at summer league, the Ziaire Williams experiment ended and Derrick Rose retired. 

Best case for 2024-25: The Grizzlies steal OKC’s, uh, Thunder, establishing themselves as the team to beat in the West, thanks to a vastly improved halfcourt offense, Smart’s best season since he won DPOY and an utterly dominant ROY campaign from Edey; after the best regular season in franchise history, John Konchar swings a playoff game (in which he blocks Anthony Davis at the rim again), JJJ dunks on Chet Holmgren and Morant wins Finals MVP, only to deliver the trophy to Bane’s house like he did with the MIP trophy three years earlier.

Worst case 2024-25: Injuries to GG Jackson and Williams in September and October turn out to be bad omens, as, every time it feels like Memphis is about to string together more than three consecutive wins, another rotation player gets hurt; the “three-headed monster” of Morant, JJJ and Bane is not quite as fearsome as anticipated in Taylor Jenkins’ new offense, which at times looks prettier than the previous one but is less efficient because the Grizzlies finish the regular season with the highest turnover rate in the league, after which Edey is hunted relentlessly in an ugly play-in defeat.

The conversation

Grizzlies believer: The Grizzlies are back, baby! I could say that I’ve erased last season from my memory, but I’m actually glad it happened. I feel so much better about the wing rotation after watching Vince Williams and GG Jackson spread their wings, and it’s difficult to overstate how important Zach Edey is going to be for this franchise going forward. How does a 7-foot-4 guy have a motor like that? Did you know he played 42 minutes in an overtime game last year? How was the best player in college basketball even available with the ninth pick? How has this team already found someone who screens as hard as Steven Adams did? The league isn’t ready for the Ja-Edey two-man game, but I sure as hell am.

Grizzlies skeptic: Are the Grizzlies really back? Like, all of the Grizzlies? They’ve already had to announce that neither of the wings you’re excited about will be available at the beginning of the regular season, and JJJ strained his hamstring early in training camp. I certainly expect them to be better than it was last season, but will they be a contender? A playoff team? A play-in team? I honestly have no idea. Even if Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and JJJ all manage to stay on the floor, I have so many questions. The West is going to be a bloodbath, and everyone seems to think that Memphis is going to start a rookie center with serious defensive limitations. The roster is full of guys I’m not sure I can trust because of their inexperience, their recent injury history or both. I see the vision, I guess, but, after a season that was downright dismal, I’m having trouble buying in. The Grizzlies just make me nervous.

Grizzlies believer: What in the world are you nervous about? Seriously. If you were scared of something else going wrong for Ja, Bane or JJJ, that would be one thing, but I am totally befuddled by your generalized fear about the rest of the roster somehow messing things up. The reason I brought up GG and Williams at the beginning is that the Grizzlies are deep now. Luke Kennard obviously deserves to be in the rotation, particularly because Taylor Jenkins is emphasizing movement on offense, but, if everyone’s healthy, I don’t know many minutes will be available for him. Scotty Pippen Jr. could be one of the best backup point guards in the league, but he’s stuck on a two-way contract right now. If JJJ is going to be the 5 when Edey is on the bench, is there enough room for both Santi Aldama and Brandon Clarke? I’m not looking forward to fans fighting over who should and shouldn’t be on the floor, but, in a sense, I love that those arguments are going to happen. It means that there’s a strong supporting cast here, and the coaching staff has a bunch of good options. 

Grizzlies skeptic: I’m sitting here thinking the Grizzlies should have signed Dennis Smith Jr. for some guard depth, and you’re telling me that a guy who is not even signed to a standard NBA contract “could be one of the best backup point guards in the league.” Wow. This is a perfect illustration of the fundamental issue here: You’ve seen flashes of Pippen playing well (in meaningless regular-season games and summer league), and you’ve decided he’s Memphis’ Jose Alvarado. You’ve seen Williams and GG produce in big minutes for a team going nowhere, and you’ve decided that they’ll be just as good or better in games of consequence. You’ve seen Edey bully helpless college opponents and you’ve decided he’ll do the same in the pros. You’re probably assuming that JJJ is going to defend like he did in 2022-23, Marcus Smart is going to defend like he did in 2021-22 and Clarke is going to be just as athletic as he was before he tore his Achilles. I don’t know, man.

Grizzlies believer: I mean, why can’t Pippen be Memphis’ Alvarado? I’m not saying he’s going to average 28 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals next season — that’s his stat line from a game in April, by the way — but the guy can clearly pass, shoot and be a pest defensively. It’s not like he was out there mindlessly gunning for numbers last season; he showed he could play, just like Williams and GG did. And Edey can obviously play, too. I wasn’t even a huge fan of his earlier in his college career, but I was blown away by his development. He doesn’t need to come close to matching his historic production at Purdue to be a game-changer in the NBA. From Day 1, he’s going to get the Grizzlies extra possessions, free up their shooters, force opponents to double-team him in the post and make his free throws. I anticipate he’ll be a better rim protector at this level, too, because his team won’t be so terrified of him picking up fouls and having to come out of the game.

Grizzlies skeptic: For most of Edey’s college career, I thought the consensus was that he’d probably be a situational player in the modern NBA, and that a high-end outcome would be a career like that of (former Grizzlies center) Jonas Valanciunas. At some point, though, people started talking about him like a potential star, either because they didn’t know how else to react to his insane stats or because they like the idea of a giant dude from Toronto being the next Shaq. This shift has been disorienting for me, and, while I hope he’s the center Memphis wants him to be, I don’t understand why his flaws are less concerning than they were a couple of years ago. Edey has good mobility for his size, not the kind of mobility you need to avoid getting played off the floor by a team going 5-out in the playoffs. He has an impressive motor for his size, but he’s still going to slow the Grizzlies down offensively and be beaten down the floor in transition. Donovan Clingan could never have done what Edey did as a scorer in college, but there’s a reason he was drafted a couple of spots higher.

Grizzlies believer: Hey, Portland might regret that; let’s revisit this in five years. Anyway, while I definitely view Edey as more than a situational player and am confident that JJJ is his ideal frontcourt partner, I don’t necessarily think he needs to average 30-plus minutes and win ROY to help this team. Maybe he’s more useful in some matchups than others. Maybe he earns a bigger role as the season goes on. We know the Clarke-JJJ frontcourt works, and I’m comfortable with the Aldama-JJJ frontcourt, too. Stop acting like the Grizzlies’ whole season hinges on Edey! If he does start, he’ll likely start next to an All-NBA guy, two recent DPOYs and a guy who was having an All-Star season before an ankle injury last year.

Grizzlies skeptic: I don’t think this all hinges on Edey, but the front office could have done more to combat that notion by, uh, doing anything else at all about the center problem. If he gets hurt next week, what are they going to do? Bring back Bismack Biyombo? Anyway, my whole point is that Edey is one of many players the Grizzlies are relying on in some capacity who make me nervous for one reason or another. I’m not counting him out, I’m not counting them out, I’m just not sure what to make of this group yet. Is JJJ, who shot 32% from 3 last season, a real stretch 5? Are Smart and Morant, who have played a total of six games together, actually a good fit? Can Williams force opposing teams to respect him as a shooter? There’s all this talk in training camp about a new offense that will make everyone on the court a threat, but I don’t know how much that matters if there’s only one guy on the court who has real gravity on the perimeter.

Grizzlies believer: Oh, come on. You know JJJ is a better shooter than last year’s numbers suggest, and you know what the identity of this team has been for years. Sure, the Grizzlies would love to take and make more 3s, and they’d love to improve their halfcourt offense — I believe they’ll do both, by the way — but the way they win games is simple: Dominate the possession game, get stops and run like crazy. They still have the personnel to do all that, and Ja is going to be a man on a mission this year. He’s going to be out for vengeance. He’s seen all the player rankings and heard all the haters and— 

Grizzlies skeptic: Stop! Please. I can take you papering over Grizzlies’ potential problems, but I can’t take any more of this Morant revenge narrative. No one has forgotten that he’s a great player, and no one forgot that when he was suspended, either. Sheesh. Let’s just hope he stays on the court for more than nine games this time.

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