As part of its season preview series, NBC Sports is focusing on teams where we have no idea what to expect — they could be much better than we expect or completely fall apart. Both options are possible. Up next: The Memphis Grizzlies.
The Memphis Grizzlies have won 51+ games each of the past two seasons — the only team in the conference to do that — and were the No. 2 seed in the West both years.
That gets forgotten in the crash-and-burn that was how last season ended in Memphis, with the Grizzlies never really recovering from the fallout and suspension after Ja Morant waved a gun around on Instagram Live from a club outside Denver. NBC Sports’ Corey Robinson described the Grizzlies as a punk band — intense energy, passion and grit, but without the discipline needed to win when it mattered.
Is that about to change?
Does anyone know what to expect from this mystery box of a team?
Ja Morant suspended 25 games
Discipline was not the word anyone used about Ja Morant when, just after the Grizzlies season ended, he was again seen waving a handgun on social media. This time Adam Silver brought the hammer and suspended Morant for 25 games.
Morant is the first big mystery around this team — what Morant returns from that suspension? The good news for Memphis is that Morant can be around the team and practice during his suspension.
“I think it’s great for Ja, and I think it’s great for the group that he can be with us day-to-day,” Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman said at media day. “The NBA basically has said that as long as Ja continues to stay on track, he’s going to be clear to participate in all private team activities, so practices, shootarounds, traveling with the team.”
There’s not much question about the player who returns — Morant’s high-flying aggressive style has never really changed, and it’s at the heart of why he’s an All-Star — but the bigger question is focus and discipline for him and this roster.
Grizzlies add Marcus Smart
That’s what Marcus Smart and Derrick Rose bring to the table — focused leadership. It helps that they both play point guard with Morant out to start the season, but it is the leadership that Memphis may need more. It will not be public, Smart isn’t going to motivate through the media, but he’s also going to call out Morant or anyone else in that locker room not focused, not building good habits during the regular season, not all about winning come April and May.
Many of the moves the Grizzlies have made in recent years — both in trades and in the draft — have been about making this a better playoff team. That was not evident last postseason but things could come together this season. It’s not hard to envision this team gelling over 82 games and becoming a team nobody wants to face come playoff time. But first, they have to get to the playoffs.
Grizzlies depth a question
Do the Grizzlies have the depth to withstand no Morant for the first 30% of the season? It’s tempting to say yes if you simply see Marcus Smart plugged in for Morant, but the depth in Memphis now is in the hands of much younger (and less expensive) players. This team won 57 games two years ago in part because their first four off the bench were Tyus Jones, DeAnthony Melton, Kyle Anderson and Brandon Clarke — only Clarke is still on the team and he is out for at least the first half of the season due to a torn Achilles.
The bench now will lean on Luke Kennard, Derrick Rose, David Roddy, Santi Aldama, Ziaire Williams and Zavier Tillman. Kennard and Aldama are solid and coach Taylor Jenkins can trust them, but Memphis needs a step forward from Williams, Roddy and Tillman, and a resurgence from Rose, who couldn’t get off the bench in New York last season. Just don’t tell Rose he’s there primarily as a locker room leader.
“I’m not here to babysit, micromanage, or anything like that,” Rose said on media day. “I’m not here to be a plant in the locker room or any of that. I’m here to help guys win. I’m not here to steal minutes, I’m not here to steal nobody’s job. I’m here to win, I’m here to show that I still have a lot left in the tank.”
Can Grizzlies be a better playoff team?
The other big question around Morant — and with it this team’s playoff chances — is can he stay healthy? His aggressive, attack-the-rim with athleticism style of play makes him both the most entertaining player in the league and one who always seems on the edge of injury. The same way a young Derrick Rose or a young Dwyane Wade were. Morant needs to stay healthy.
Memphis won 50+ games the past couple of seasons but just one playoff series. The move to bring in Marcus Smart was all about the postseason — adding a defender as good as the now-in-Houston Dillon Brooks but who is not an offensive black hole that teams helped off of and dared to shoot when things mattered.
When the rotation shrinks in the postseason this team looks dangerous if healthy: Morant, Smart, the underrated Desmond Bane, Defensive Player of the Jaren Jackson Jr., and Steven Adams (who is not entirely healthy during training camp with a lingering knee issue that caused him to miss last playoffs), with Kennard and Aldama the first two off the bench. That’s a very good seven. If one of the other young players can step up, or the Grizzlies make a deadline trade, that is a dangerous eight-man rotation Jenkins can roll out.
That plan also has no margin for error.
Which is what makes the Grizzlies such a mystery this season. It’s not hard to picture them coming together after Jan. 1, coalescing into one of the best teams in the West, getting a top-four seed and making a deep playoff run.
It’s also not hard to picture the entire thing blowing up.
Nobody is quite sure what to expect out of Memphis this season, but it’s going to be a wild ride whatever goes down.
