Should The Memphis Grizzlies Still Compete Or Tank After Ja Morant’s Season-Ending Injury?

Should The Memphis Grizzlies Still Compete Or Tank After Ja Morant’s Season-Ending Injury?

On today’s show John Morant is out for the rest of the season how should the Memphis Grizzlies move forward now without John Mor should they try and stay competitive and see if they can salvage this season or bottom out and try and secure a top draft asset and if

They go that route should they trade that pick and try and get John Morant some extra help or should they draft a young player to add to their core moving forward it’s all coming up right here at lock on NBA you are locked on NBA your daily NBA

Podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what’s up and welcome to another edition of locked on NBA the biggest stories with the local experts I’m your host Jackson Gatlin also host of locked on Rockets right here on the locked on podcast Network your team

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Year again that’s fanduel.com lockon FanDuel official partner of the NFL joining us now is the host of locked on Grizzlies Joe Mullen X you can track down wher you listen your podcast and on YouTube just search locked on Grizzlies and Joe this is like it’s got to be like

A roller coaster of emotions for Grizzlies fans right because you you you don’t have John Mor to start the season because of the suspension he comes back for a cup of coffee and now he’s sidelined for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury underwent successful

Surgery all that but now the Grizzlies are without their star player this has got to be like a bit of whiplash for Grizzlies fans at this point well you left off the part and not that I expect you to have this known of course people come to lock down Grizzlies for

Hard-hitting analysis like this but the Grizzlies were six and three with John morance which is exactly the pace that they needed to be at to make the play in guesstimate right give or take a game so um they were literally doing exactly what they needed to do with John morance

In order to get into the playin conversation and that dream is all but died Desmond Bane rolled his ankle on uh in a recent game so there was a game that they played I think it was against the Knicks where they you know had multiple stars out just a really tough

Season it brings back you know folks that have been following the Grizzlies for a while the the 28 Guy season uh the hateful eight we called them where you know Matt Barnes was playing meaningful minutes and The Grizzlies scraped into the playoffs and got obliterated in the first round because they were playing

Just guys literally that they found off the street uh it’s getting giving off Vibes like that not quite that bad just yet but it hasn’t been great obviously JW being the biggest name but you know Marcus Smart being out again is a real kick in the pants they’re missing

Multiple bigs there there’s Silver Linings right like GG Jackson looking like he would be a probable lottery pick if he was in the 2024 NBA draft but he came out early was drafted by the Grizzlies in the second round last year that’s looking cool right like it’s nice

To see him playing well but that doesn’t help in terms of this team being capable of making the postseason this season which again they’re about to have three guys on you know nine figure plus million doll contracts you want to start seeing some progression in that goal

Yeah the uh the current Grizzlies injury list is long is is more than halfway long but distinguished yeah there you go sure I mean they’ve got if I count right now there’s one two three four five six seven eight nine guys on the injury report for the Grizzlies right now

That’s well over half the roster at this point um look Joe I mean I guess the way to kind of unpack this right the decision you know kind of standing before the Grizzlies at this point is do you try and stay competitive do you still try and you know see what you can

Make of this season or do you Bott him out and try and secure a top draft pick let’s start with that first option I mean what what would there to be gained or what what could be gained from a Grizzly team that tries to stay competitive and maybe see if they can

You know luck out and make a play in tournament even without johnar this season I think I can answer both questions at the same time they can just kind of keep doing what they’re doing uh I I don’t know that outside of Luke Canard because again Marcus SM is going

To be out until around the All-Star break trade deadline I don’t think anybody’s gonna trade for Marcus Smart at this point it’s possible I guess but I don’t know that that’s going to happen Luke Canard is a explosive three-point shooter but that’s about all he is uh my

Co-host to Michael Cole on lockdown Grizzlies calls him a try hard on defense which is a nice way of saying he he tries but he’s bad I I think that the only reason somebody would want Canard is that three-point specialty and the fact he’s a team option next year so

Maybe it’s somebody that needs some luxury tax help trying to avoid that second apron maybe they would want Canard maybe there’s a team like Detroit or Toronto you know our old friend coach Darko up there in uh with the Raptors maybe they want to take a swing on zier

Williams think he’s still a lottery talent and and that sort of thing the Grizzlies have a bevy of wings and Vince Williams Jr and GG Jackson are the ones especially Vince Williams Jr who who have kind of fleshed out that’ll be a part of the core long term I think a lot

Of these other guys could potentially be moved but I think it’s going to be for the right deal because if you look at the lay of the land and I know you know this Jackson in the Western Conference there’s teams that are really bad right like the Trailblazers the San Antonio

Spurs the Grizzlies as long as they don’t have catastrophic injuries because des and Bane rolled his ankle he should be fine jiren Jackson Jr has a bruised knee he should be okay um as long as they don’t have catastrophic injuries to those guys the Grizzlies aren’t as bad

As those teams even without J right and then the rest of the teams in the Western Conference except for Utah they’re actively trying to get into the playin and Utah might make it in spite of themselves right so you you have a western conference that’s extremely competitive you have a Grizzlies team

Who’s stuck in purgatory and then you have a couple of teams that are really bad the Eastern Conference it’s similar right the Washington Wizards Detroit Pistons super bad basketball teams that the Grizzlies can’t be as bad as even if they tried and if they tried that would

Mean Trading Jon Jackson Jr Desmond Bane they’re obviously not going to do that so I think they can evaluate the talent that they have on the roster look ahead to next season which you assume that you have Stephen Adams and Brandon Clark who Brandon Clark could return around the

All-Star break as well uh but you’ll have all those guys healthy alongside John Morant against Stephen Adams Brandon Clark and you would imagine the Grizzlies are gonna have a little more urgency and maybe make a big swing in the offseason and try to bring in somebody to help them be contenders

Going into next year I think you evaluate who’s going to be a part of that process right like Vince Williams Jr has already earned that he signed a new contract that guy’s a part of the core moving forward you can evaluate what you currently have compete every

Game even with jiren Jackson Jr and Desmond Bane and you’re probably gonna fluctuate between the sixth and the eighth spot in the lottery there’s not really a major difference there anymore right so you might as well just go out and play if the right trade comes along

You listen of course but I think the Grizzlies kind of just see this as a a blown year evaluate the talent that you have at the end of the roster and you move on from there hoping that 2024 2025 will be better now we saw you know a couple

Years back right the warriors were a little bit in this position right they had that year they were decimated by injuries they walk away with the top pick they wind up selecting you know they they wind up taking wisman and getting cooked deservedly so for that

Selection but and and at the time they were you know kind of ridiculed because they didn’t use that pick to trade and go get another kind of win now piece what do you expect the Grizzlies to potentially do with this pick at the end of this all when we get through this

Season if they do kind of bottom out they’re somewhere in that you know five six eight range whatever would you expect them to maybe move that draft asset and and get another you know contributing member for this team or draft a young guy and just kind of have

Another piece of this young exciting Grizzlies roster precedent suggests that they’re going to keep the pick right and they’ll draft somebody either a big to replace Stephen Jack or Stephen Adams long term because obviously Adams is getting old have this PCL injury in his knee or a wing right somebody like that

They take another one of those guys add to the young core that’s what precedent would suggest but Zack kle in the grizli GM has come out numerous times and said did we really need to Triple down on youth did we really need to keep going

Down that path it might be time to put his money where his mouth is and maybe learn a lesson from the Golden State Warriors and use that pick again let’s say it’s sixth right sixth in the Lottery you could get a pretty impressive player at that place or you

Can use that package it with expiring money package it with a young piece or two the Grizzlies don’t have a ton of interesting pieces in that way let’s say somebody talks themselves into the the potential of zire Williams who has played better in the last six or seven

Games zire Williams sixth pick in the 2024 NBA draft maybe that gets you a wing that can compete and The Grizzlies have all of their first round picks Beyond on that so if they really want to go in and you know Brooklyn decides to punt on Mel Bridges they probably won’t

But let’s just say they do in theory the Grizzlies could offer a pretty good trade right there there’s possibilities that they could pursue I think if you go off of what Zack kimman has been throughout his time in Memphis they’ll make a selection they’ll continue to be

Patient should they be no they probably need to go in now because you never know when the next suspension long-term injury the Grizzlies and their fans have been hit with a lot of stuff over the last 12 months that all should add up to seiz the day carp DM it’s time to go

Make a run at this thing because the Grizzlies are about to be in the luxury tax for the first time and while I do think Robert perah billionaire owner of the Memphis Grizzlies is going to be okay with that for a time in Memphis there’s going to be an expiration date

On how long that luxury tax thing lasts how competitive will the Memphis Grizzlies look without John marant over the course of the rest of this season and will this season bear the fruit of a top draft asset if they kind of you know organically bottom out a little bit and

What will they ultimately do draft uh a young player to join this Memphis Grizzlies Corps or trade the pick to get John Morant and the rest of the Grizzlies a little bit more help for next season you’ll have us cover for all that and so much more over at locked on

Grizzlies Joe thanks for stopping by locked on NBA with me anytime buddy happy to be here h

Should The Memphis Grizzlies Still Compete Or Tank After Ja Morant’s Season-Ending Injury?

Jackson Gatlin (@LockedOnRockets) is joined by Joe Mullinax (@LockedonGrizzlies) to discuss the direction of the Memphis Grizzlies after Ja Morant’s season-ending shoulder injury, pros and cons of staying competitive vs bottoming out for a top pick, and expectations of what the Grizzlies organization would do with a top pick down the line, either making the selection or trading the pick for another win-now piece.

#Grizzlies #NBA #JaMorant

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