2019 Grizzlies Season Previews

[Jamaaliver]

Man, we gotta get some action in the place.

With your Mod's permission: I'll throw some new content around in an effort to get things going.

[Jamaaliver]

2018-19 Season Preview Extravaganza | What Is A Healthy Grizzlies Team Capable Of?

Key Players Acquired: F Jaren Jackson Jr. (draft), F Kyle Anderson (free agency), G Garrett Temple (trade), G Shelvin Mack (free agency)

Key Players Lost: C Deyonte Davis (trade), Tyreke Evans (free agency), Ben McLemore (trade), Jarrell Martin (trade)

The bad news is that the Grizzlies won 22 games last season. That’s the fewest number of wins for Memphis since the 2007-08 season. But there was a reason behind that. The team’s borderline All-Star-caliber point guard, Mike Conley, played in just 12 games. Even if Conley plays the whole season, this team probably doesn’t sniff the playoffs, but this is a player who had 10 win shares in 2016-17, so it’s not far off to say it’d get the Grizzlies to the mid 30s in wins.

The Big Question:
Can this team stay healthy, and if so, what does that mean?

The Grizzlies are stuck in the middle a bit. They have Conley (30) and Gasol (33) who are ready to win now. Conley is a top-10 point guard when healthy, and Gasol is probably a top-5 center.

If those two remain healthy, is that enough for the Grizzlies to make a push to the playoffs? Well, that answer’s a bit complicated. It depends what the surrounding players on the roster do.

The X-factor here will be No. 4 overall pick Jaren Jackson Jr. If he gets opportunity, which he should, I think JJJ’s the favorite to win Rookie of the Year. He’s a do-it-all kind of player. He can shoot threes and block shots.

Ratke’s Prediction:
I don’t have the Grizzlies in my top-eight in the West. The West is just so tough. For a team like Memphis, nearly everything would have to go right and they’d need some help.

This team probably falls somewhere between 10th and 12th.

But this is a team that has a chance to transition somewhat smoothly into the next era of basketball with Gasol and Conley handing the baton to Jackson Jr. Add in another young player or lottery pick, and you have a solid foundation for the future.


Describe This Team In 15 Words Or Less
Grit and grind is over. It’s time for the Jaren Jackson Jr. era in Memphis.

T-Wolves Team Site

[Jamaaliver]

Memphis Grizzlies 2018-19 NBA Season Preview

Last season was a mess for Memphis; however, with a slew of injuries and a coaching change behind the team, the Grizzlies look to have an interesting future ahead of them. Basketball Insiders takes a deep dive into the upcoming Memphis Grizzlies season.



The Memphis Grizzlies enter the 2018 NBA season with something they were sorely lacking last year: health. The Grit-n-Grind squad returns Mike Conley, among others, to a team that won just 21 games last season.

But that’s not all.

Memphis has been busy this offseason, preparing for a Western Conference that has improved from top-to-bottom. After letting go of David Fizdale midseason the Grizzlies brought in J.B. Bickerstaff as the interim head coach and have since retained his services. Then, in June, Memphis made Jaren Jackson Jr., one of the more intriguing prospects in this year’s rookie class, the No. 4 overall pick. Since then, they have brought in veterans such as Kyle Anderson and Garret Temple to fill out the roster and hopefully add some depth should the injury bug strike them again next season.

Consensus Predictions: Out of the playoffs

Basketball Insiders

Spoiler:

TOP OF THE LIST

Best New Addition: Jaren Jackson Jr.
The former Michigan State Spartan was one of the most versatile players in the draft class. His sheer size (6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-4 wingspan) coupled with his ability to somewhat handle the ball made him one of the more intriguing prospects as well.

Jackson averaged 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and three blocks per game while shooting 39.6 percent on 2.7 three-pointers per game. The Grizzlies are hoping he can bring that play and some major energy to their squad next season.


Top Playmaker: Mike Conley
Top Offensive Player: Mike Conley
Conley’s return should work wonders for the Grizzlies; not only will he force defenses to focus on more than just Marc Gasol, but Conley’s ability to generate his own offense should open things up for others both inside and outside the three-point line.


Top Clutch Player: Mike Conley
no one else on the Grizzlies roster fits the bill like Conley does. Still, Conley’s repeated appearances on this list should make it easy to see why the Grizzlies did so poorly last season without him.


Top Defensive Player: Marc Gasol
The former Defensive Player of the Year was the Grizzlies’ best defender last season, and, going into his age 33 season, Gasol figures to hold that title once again in 2018.

The Spanish big man was tops in defensive rating among Grizzlies who played in more than 30 contests. Gasol led the team in blocks (101) and was fourth on the team in steals (54). Gasol ranked 12th in the NBA in blocks per game (1.4), 14th in total blocks (101) and 15th in block percentage (3.9 percent) as well.


The Unheralded Player: Dillon Brooks
Brooks was one of the more impressive second-tier rookies last season – as a second-round pick (45th overall), that success is even more impressive. The 6-foot-6 forward can guard multiple positions and can be a serious asset on both sides of the floor.

If the Grizzlies are able to rebound next season, Brooks’ progression as a player could be a major reason as to why.

STRENGTHS

Between Gasol, Jackson, Anderson, JaMychal Green and others, the Grizzlies have the size to smother the paint on both offense and defense. The team has more than nine players 6-foot-9 or taller.

With the addition of Jackson and the return of Conley, the Grizzlies have a good number of shooters. Gasol and Anderson are capable from beyond the arc – that, along with expected improvements from the likes of Green and Brooks as well as the additions of Garrett Temple and others should boost the Grizzlies three-point percentage that ranked just 25th in the NBA last season.


WEAKNESSES

Despite the additions of Brooks and Jackson in back-to-back seasons, the majority of the Grizzlies’ core is up there in age. Gasol, 33, Conley, 30, have both been in the league for more than a decade. A large portion of Memphis’ cap space is tied up in those players as well as Temple, 30, Chandler Parsons, 29, and JaMychal Green, 28.

THE BURNING QUESTION

Can Memphis Make a Playoff Push?

The Western Conference has improved tremendously with the addition of LeBron James as well as others over the course of the offseason. With at least ten teams, not including Memphis, vying for just eight playoff spots, are the Grizzlies capable of making a playoff push?

It will be difficult, but, if Mike Conley and the Grizzlies’ major role players can stay healthy, the Grizzlies are still capable of being a top eight team out West. They may not have a shot at a top seed, but sneaking into the playoffs could be in the cards for Memphis.

[bobobolas10]

We are fine with analyst saying that we will win around 30-35 games... Somehow, we know something they dont know.

If healthy, we are a playoff team. No one will want the grizzlies in the first round. I can see top teams tanking to avoid a matchup with the grizzs.

[Jamaaliver]

Damn.

The window is closing on the Grit and Grind era. Is it time for a rebuild, with Mike Conley Jr. and Marc Gasol as trade centerpieces?

ESPN

[VCfor3]

How has JJJ looked for those who have been able to watch the games? I've read a little from the local media guys but was wondering what everyone here thought. It sounds like he has shown some good things as well as some bad/rookie things and looking at the stats he is fouling a decent bit with not many blocks. I just hope fans realize he was supposed to be a project and that him coming in and immediately contributing on a very high level isn't likely. I think he'll get there, but it'll take some time.

[SD2042]

Damn.

The window is closing on the Grit and Grind era. Is it time for a rebuild, with Mike Conley Jr. and Marc Gasol as trade centerpieces?

ESPN

Ouch! lol

[SD2042]

How has JJJ looked for those who have been able to watch the games? I've read a little from the local media guys but was wondering what everyone here thought. It sounds like he has shown some good things as well as some bad/rookie things and looking at the stats he is fouling a decent bit with not many blocks. I just hope fans realize he was supposed to be a project and that him coming in and immediately contributing on a very high level isn't likely. I think he'll get there, but it'll take some time.

I feel like the Grizzlies will bring him along slowly and will not put pressure on him to just up and produce immediately. He has a learnign curve to get though in his first year as a pro. With the vets around him, 3J has many teachers to pick from. Learn from them in order to better his game for the future of his career.

[Jamaaliver]

Deep Range: The NBA’s High-Variance Teams

Each season, a handful of teams way overshoot or come up way short of expectations. These six seem to have the widest range of outcomes heading into 2018-19.



Memphis Grizzlies (33.5)

All hope for anything resembling competitive play on Beale Street last season was dashed by the end of November, after Mike Conley Jr. pulled up, Marc Gasol spoke up, and David Fizdale packed up. But hope returns anew after a summertime restocking—hello, rookies Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jevon Carter; welcome, veteran additions Kyle Anderson and Garrett Temple—and, most importantly, after a return to health for Conley, perhaps the best player in the league never to be named an All-Star.

With most of the key figures of the Grizzlies’ glory days gone, the team’s sustained success depended largely on the steady drumbeat laid down by its inside-out tandem. Before last season, the Grizz had outscored their opposition when Conley and Gasol shared the floor for eight consecutive seasons. They set the table at which everyone else eats, and they provide the first and last lines of defense to keep opposing drivers, cutters, and would-be shooters at bay.

It’s dangerous to expect too much from a 19-year-old, but Jackson—a versatile big with shooting touch, rim-protecting chops, an aircraft-carrier wingspan, and quick feet—could prove a cozy fit alongside either Gasol or power forward JaMychal Green. There’s some potential offensive pop at off-guard in the troika of Wayne Selden, Dillon Brooks, and erstwhile Next Kobe–turned–Chinese league reclamation project MarShon Brooks. Memphis’s perennial concerns at backup point guard might be mitigated somewhat by the arrival of Anderson and Temple, two low-mistake, high-floor players who can help ensure that the Grizz are able to get into sets in non-Conley minutes without relying solely on Magic legend Shelvin Mack, Andrew Harrison, and Carter, a defense-first rookie. And missing-piece-turned-invisible-man Chandler Parsons … well, he gets why you’re mad, and he’s sorry about all that, and he’s trying, and he’s putting up 56-46-100 shooting splits in 17.5 minutes off the bench in preseason, and I don’t know, man, maybe this is actually the year!

As we enter the season, I’m in about the same place on Memphis as Danny Chau. A healthy Conley-Gasol combo, paired with an encouraging start for Jackson and competence from the rebooted wing collective, could make it a fringe playoff team that could significantly outpace Vegas’s mark. If either of them miss serious time to injury, though, we’re probably looking at another season at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum … which would carry with it the additional pain of the Grizzlies kicking their draft-pick debt to the Boston Celtics (a first-round choice owed from 2015’s ill-fated trade for Jeff Green) down the road another year, when they’d hand Danny Ainge either any pick after no. 6 in 2020 or a completely unprotected first-rounder in 2021.

(A brief reminder: You really shouldn’t be trading with Danny Ainge.)

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

Amick: My Western Conference tiers, and a league scout’s team-by-team take

Memphis Grizzlies

Outlook: The good news for the Grizzlies? Franchise cornerstone point guard Mike Conley is back after missing most of last season with an Achilles injury. The bad news? The West didn’t get any easier in the time he was gone. While Memphis should be much improved from its 22-win season now that the Conley-Marc Gasol duo is back together again, and because of the free agency additions of former Spurs small forward Kyle Anderson and former Kings guard Garrett Temple, this may be more of a grind than they bargained for when it comes to getting back to the playoffs.

Scout’s take: “I don’t see them making the playoffs. I see them probably being around .500. Marc Gasol, to me, looks like he’s going downhill pretty quick. There’s probably not enough health on that roster to be able to get them to the playoffs. Chandler Parsons – can he stay healthy? That’s the big question mark. The guy has never really been healthy. I like a couple of their young guys. (Rookie forward) Jaren Jackson (Jr., who was taken fourth overall out of Michigan State) could very well be the Rookie of the Year. He’s that good. And he’s going to have a chance to play. I think (second-year guard) Dillon Brooks is an up-and-coming player. He plays really hard. He’s confident. In about three or four years, he’s going to be a very good player. But I just don’t think there’s enough on that roster, combined with the decline of Gasol, to really make them a playoff team. I just don’t see it.”

The Athletic