Memphis Grizzlies 2024-25 season preview: Ja Morant and essentially the most intriguing contender

The 2024-25 NBA season is right here! We’re breaking down the most important questions, best- and worst-case situations, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 groups. Take pleasure in!

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

2023-24 end

Offseason strikes

• Additions: Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, Cam Spencer, Jay Huff

• 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)

• Complete roster

The Massive Query: Can they keep wholesome and discover the proper stability?

Memphis was all the time going to be beginning final season behind the 8-ball, with Ja Morant starting a 25-game suspension. However the challenge of staying afloat till the celebrity’s return rapidly become the Grizzlies drowning.

Beginning with the just-before-opening-night announcement that Steven Adams would miss the entire season, nearly 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 staff 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 responsibility 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 someway 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 job that required him to prepare dinner for himself; practically 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’ price of reps to recommend his recreation interprets to the NBA stage — even when, at this level, it’s best-suited to a reserve function. It gave Scotty Pippen Jr. an opportunity to show he may make an influence as a defense-and-table-setting backup level guard; he made essentially the most of it, delivering sturdy Summer season 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 staff. They took the most important piece on the board: 7-foot-4, 305-pound Purdue middle Zach Edey, the sort of mauling screener, dominant offensive rebounder and big low-block goal who may rework Memphis’ offense:

The speculation of the case is obvious: Get the injured guys wholesome; pair them with the younger guys; add in a large; resume whooping that trick. Nevertheless it’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 Yr-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 large?

How does Memphis combine Sensible and Kennard, neither of whom have performed a lot with Morant, as soon as everybody’s obtainable? (Additionally, I do know Sensible’s a “stretch-6,” however … is he mainly a 6-foot-3 combo ahead proper now?) How congested will the half-court offense be when iffy shooters Morant, Sensible 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 palms on deck to search out them.

Finest-case situation

The return of Morant and the arrival of Edey rework a staff 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 progress that Bane and JJJ confirmed makes them much more harmful when, with Ja again, they don’t should do as a lot. The returns of Sensible, Kennard, Clarke and John Konchar give the Grizzlies a full complement of succesful veterans to depend on; ongoing improvement from kids 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 thought of a extra fluid and decentralized assault minimizing Morant’s ball-dominating effectiveness, and a higher-octane ethos making it harder to play by way of the huge Edey down low. For as many intriguing items as he has to play with, Jenkins struggles to search 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 instantly Memphis appears to be like rather a lot 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 among the extra dependable defensive belongings obtainable, and his contribution to scoring and 3s makes him a high-floor choose within the third spherical. Bane ranks greater than Morant in my rankings, nonetheless 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 a superb fantasy participant — his blocks, rebounding, and taking pictures effectivity might help 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 obtainable. — Dan Titus

2024-25 schedule

I’ve lengthy been within the tank for the Grizzlies … and that isn’t going to vary right here! A 21-win leap sounds preposterous, however the final two largely wholesome iterations of this staff we’ve seen received 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.