Post Mortem #15 - Memphis Grizzlies

[sp6r=underrated]

It's time to end the Ja Morant experience in MEM.

They struggle to sell with Ja and you want them to trade their only commercial draw. It may be the correct idea on the basketball court but it will be fatal for business.

[Ruma85]

It's time to end the Ja Morant experience in MEM.

They struggle to sell with Ja and you want them to trade their only commercial draw. It may be the correct idea on the basketball court but it will be fatal for business.

They will survive.

[sp6r=underrated]

It's time to end the Ja Morant experience in MEM.

They struggle to sell with Ja and you want them to trade their only commercial draw. It may be the correct idea on the basketball court but it will be fatal for business.

They will survive.

Honestly, I think basketball in Memphis is very tenuous.

[Ruma85]

They struggle to sell with Ja and you want them to trade their only commercial draw. It may be the correct idea on the basketball court but it will be fatal for business.

They will survive.

Honestly, I think basketball in Memphis is very tenuous.

So is the Pelicans, hard to see them being moved.

[Marvin Martian]

It's time to end the Ja Morant experience in MEM.

They struggle to sell with Ja and you want them to trade their only commercial draw. It may be the correct idea on the basketball court but it will be fatal for business.

What business is Ja bringing when he is rarely on the court? Dude has missed almost as many games as Zion over the past 3 years

[Black star]

Keep, keep (since they just changed head coach), performed worse, and improving

People are way too bearish on this Grizzlies team imo. They won 48 games this year. Their 3 best players are 25 and 26. That means the prime years are still in front of them. They've got a ton of young talent and they've been a solid playoff team every year they've been healthy. That's not nothing in a conference as tough as the Western conference. Its silly to expect every front office to throw away solid playoff teams just because they may not have as high a ceiling as others.

Is this a team with a championship ceiling? No probably not that's still reserved for the teams with the top 10 players. But the previous most popular Grizzlies team was the grit and grind version in the 2010s. That team didn't have a championship ceiling, their best player was Marc Gasol, and they peaked at a conference finals. Getting to watch that team come together and grow over the years was a big part of establishing Grizzlies basketball as an identity in Memphis. Now they have a team similarly talented with a star player that the city loves.

Run it back and let your city cheer for a competitive team that will be playing postseason basketball, maybe win a couple series and make a conference finals, and create the next generation of fans.

[Marvin Martian]

Keep, keep (since they just changed head coach), performed worse, and improving

People are way too bearish on this Grizzlies team imo. They won 48 games this year. Their 3 best players are 25 and 26. That means the prime years are still in front of them. They've got a ton of young talent and they've been a solid playoff team every year they've been healthy. That's not nothing in a conference as tough as the Western conference. Its silly to expect every front office to throw away solid playoff teams just because they may not have as high a ceiling as others.

Is this a team with a championship ceiling? No probably not that's still reserved for the teams with the top 10 players. But the previous most popular Grizzlies team was the grit and grind version in the 2010s. That team didn't have a championship ceiling, their best player was Marc Gasol, and they peaked at a conference finals. Getting to watch that team come together and grow over the years was a big part of establishing Grizzlies basketball as an identity in Memphis. Now they have a team similarly talented with a star player that the city loves.

Run it back and let your city cheer for a competitive team that will be playing postseason basketball, maybe win a couple series and make a conference finals, and create the next generation of fans.

No one is bearish on the team. Just Ja. They don't need him to be competitive. So trading him for a better player or a teasure trove of assets and young players makes a ton of sense

[threethehardway]

No one is bearish on the team. Just Ja. They don't need him to be competitive. So trading him for a better player or a teasure trove of assets and young players makes a ton of sense

They do need Ja to be competitive, they can't beat winning teams without Ja.

And nobody is going to give up a better player than Ja or a treasure trove of assets for him with the new CBA.

People let off the court stuff cloud their perspective on the value of players. If Luka just went for Anthony Davis, no NBA team is going to give a good trade package for Ja Morant.

Trading Ja would is a dumb move.

[Hugi Mancura]

In 3 games with Morant when Morant was in game team was better with him than without. In fourth game team played their best game, but was it because OKC knew series was over and took foot off the gas pedal?

Iisalo is pick&roll coach. Morant is teams best pick&roll ball handler and I do think they brought Iisalo over because of Morant's playing style. And then they decided to use other coach's offense. So it is really hard to see them to trade Morant if Iisalo stays or vice versa. I do think they need another ball handler though who is better then Pippen.

They do need to resign Aldama and Kennard even though I don't think Iisalo likes Kennard's defense. They need those kind of players if they want to run pick&roll.

[LAvision]

It's time to end the Ja Morant experience in MEM.

Add JJJ in there too.

[Chuck Everett]

Kennard is done-zo in Memphis. They are not re-signing him, if he's afraid to shoot as to not ruin his shooting percentage. He also plays no D.

[Mavrelous]

Man, they were such a promising team 2 years ago, had injuries last years and look like imploding this year.
Jenkins got the axe, but Kleinman indecisiveness and betting on the wrong player in Smart killed the team, he's way more to blame than Jenkins.

[Special_Puppy]

Man, they were such a promising team 2 years ago, had injuries last years and look like imploding this year.
Jenkins got the axe, but Kleinman indecisiveness and betting on the wrong player in Smart killed the team, he's way more to blame than Jenkins.

They looked like a very promising team like 4 months ago!

[sp6r=underrated]

Man, they were such a promising team 2 years ago, had injuries last years and look like imploding this year.
Jenkins got the axe, but Kleinman indecisiveness and betting on the wrong player in Smart killed the team, he's way more to blame than Jenkins.

They looked like a very promising team like 4 months ago!

honestly, if they were in the east their vibes would be as good as Indy/DET.

[Special_Puppy]

Man, they were such a promising team 2 years ago, had injuries last years and look like imploding this year.
Jenkins got the axe, but Kleinman indecisiveness and betting on the wrong player in Smart killed the team, he's way more to blame than Jenkins.

They looked like a very promising team like 4 months ago!

honestly, if they were in the east their vibes would be as good as Indy/DET.

Yeah they'd be the 4th best team in the East instead of the 8th best team in the West. They had a +4.8 SRS

[Mavrelous]

Man, they were such a promising team 2 years ago, had injuries last years and look like imploding this year.
Jenkins got the axe, but Kleinman indecisiveness and betting on the wrong player in Smart killed the team, he's way more to blame than Jenkins.

They looked like a very promising team like 4 months ago!

honestly, if they were in the east their vibes would be as good as Indy/DET.

Nah...
Detroint went from worst team to a PO team, Grizzlies were the 2nd seed 2 straight years, won a PO series, had the 3 player core and supporting cast they were ready to become a contender, they're crumbling instead.

[miamiheat319]

Can the coach

[Marvin Martian]

No one is bearish on the team. Just Ja. They don't need him to be competitive. So trading him for a better player or a teasure trove of assets and young players makes a ton of sense

They do need Ja to be competitive, they can't beat winning teams without Ja.

And nobody is going to give up a better player than Ja or a treasure trove of assets for him with the new CBA.

People let off the court stuff cloud their perspective on the value of players. If Luka just went for Anthony Davis, no NBA team is going to give a good trade package for Ja Morant.

Trading Ja would is a dumb move.

They couldn't beat winning teams WITH Ja. That is why Jenkins was fired

[The Rainmaker]

If the goal is the compete for a championship then Kleiman has to go. He is simply not built for this. The roster has gotten worse and worse because he constantly gets fleeced in trades and may be the worst executive in the league when it comes to negotiate with other executives, continues to over-relies on youth and inexperience. If Calvin Booth, a guy that put the finishing touches on a championship season, couldn't last more than 3 years, then Kleiman shouldn't last past this season either considering that he's been terrible for the last 3 years and the #1 reason the Grizzlies are going backwards. No need for having this trend continue.

The Grizzlies on the court as well as the front office has too many children and not a single adult. The Grizzlies need more adults.

[Godymas]

Such a weird season for this team

They're good enough to beat the worst teams consistently, but not good enough to be a contender

and yet for a brief period there, it looked like it was working. In fact, the starting line-up of Morant, JJJ, Bane, Edey, and Wells had a 26.4 net rating in 222 minutes of play which is the highest Net rating of any line-up with more than 100 minutes played. To add more context, the line-ups below Memphis were all in the low 100s of minutes played which meant that this line-up was elite across a SIGNIFICANT sample size.

It looked like Memphis had drafted perfectly for their core. However Edey was going to have issues in the playoffs as the rookie and of course OKC was going to outmatch them.

The million dollar question is what to do with Ja Morant. Ja Morant is their true franchise player and yet the last 2 years have been disastrous. After suffering a suspension Ja comes back only to injure himself and end the season. This year was a continuation of that with even more injuries. The franchise needs to bring in external medical talent to evaluate the condition of Ja Morant and determine if they need to move on, and that is one of the hardest things to do as Ja Morant is the face of this franchise in the city of Memphis and one of the most popular young players in the league despite the controversy.

Bane and JJJ are very good complementary pieces, but JJJ might have made himself supermax eligible and that leads to another difficult conversation. Since JJJ essentially took a "prove it" extension due to his injury issues early in his career, he's flourished and outperformed his contract. The upcoming 5 years are prime JJJ who is a stretch forward who provides elite rim protection but cannot rebound for some strange reason. Regardless, a two way man of his stature is a rarity in this league, and yet it's impossible to justify paying him that supermax. Memphis isn't built like Boston, and doesn't have the same level of extreme playoff success. Also they are a smaller market and will never be a FA destination to the same level, they can't just throw a supermax at their 2nd option as a win now move. Superstar talent doesn't want to play in Memphis. Even elite veterans don't want to. There was the infamous Iguodala situation, Danny Green, and most recently Butler turning down the idea of playing in Memphis.

For years it's felt like Memphis could have been a superstar destination, it also felt like despite their issues with Ja that coaching and culture seemed good, the FO knew how to draft and build, they were always finding gems in the rough and bringing them up the Grizzlies way, and then out of nowhere this team let go of a man that some people thought would be getting COTY credit due to how good Memphis was performing as the 2 seed. A late season implosion that caused this team to plummet from a 2nd seed to the 8th seed in the West and a sweep in the first round.

This is one of the hardest off-seasons of any team because they are in the trickiest position. Does a coach fix their issues? Can they pull off a Cavaliers miracle? Does a surprise 4th piece make sense?

It's a strange season because technically the year was a success as Memphis pretty much met their expectations, and yet midway through the season Memphis was EXCEEDING and looking excellent. It's weird when the expected first round exit and middling playoff seeding is somehow a disappointment. There are plenty of culture setting coaches available on the open market, and truthfully I really like the idea of a Mike Brown or another VETERAN coach coming in to take control of a locker room that seems to have lost the plot. However, is that locker room and culture a product of coaching or the players? Does a certain publicized, "toxic" star need to be traded? From the outside looking in, it seems like trading Ja makes sense, and yet what people don't seem to realize is that Ja Morant is to Memphis what Luka Doncic was to Dallas. Of course the scale is smaller, but the impact is relatively similar. It's hard to say, and maybe some of that Memphis culture inside the city is what has made Ja the man he is today. he has some maturity issues, as shown by his lack of desire to even be on camera in a game 4 loss. Who are the role models that he surrounds himself by? Who can fix the issues that have derailed what was at one point surefire HoF career? The FO has to deliver and this off-season is easily the most important one since the Pau Gasol trade.