GG Jackson named to All-Rookie 2nd Team; could the rising salary cap help the Grizzlies?

GG Jackson named to All-Rookie 2nd Team; could the rising salary cap help the Grizzlies?

[Applause] Mor with a running start elevates Point dut oh my goodness tie game in overtime Gasol will turn his he is gone is on top s t remain Conley now a three counting a 15o lead for Memphis and Blake Griffin gets into it on the floor with Randol hard to tell if there are any punches being thrown under there but Griffin took acceptance Adams going long Mor hit it he hit it he hit it jat Insanity you got to be kidding me welcome to grits and grinds a Memphis Grizzlies podcast my name is Keith Parish on today’s episode I’m going to talk about GG Jackson making second Team all rookie I’m going to go over the latest Grizzlies coaching staff news I’m going to look at some updated mock drafts talk about a handful of trade ideas and more before I do all that just a reminder if you want to join my listener slack Channel and get direct access to me and other Grizzlies fans you can do that at patreon.com Fastbreak breakfast for $5 a month you can join that listener slack you also get access to exclusive bonus episodes and content so if you’re a regular viewer or listener consider supporting the show and getting those benefits at patreon.com fast break breakfast all right GG Jackson was named second Team all rookie it’s a great honor for Gigi who ended the season on a tear he averaged 17.6 points per game after the allstar break he became the fifth Grizzlies player in the last six years to make an all rookie team his teammates Desmond Bane jiren Jackson Jr johnar and Brandon Clark all made either first or second Team all rookie in the past six seasons Gigi of course one of the bright spots of a lost Grizzlies season and speaking of the Season being lost GG Jackson got this award specifically because the Grizzlies were tanking I am happy for Gigi I don’t want to take anything away from his award but this was a direct result of the team tanking Gigi played 31 minutes a game after the All-Star break Gigi did not join the rotation on a regular basis until game 39 so I’m a little surprised GG Jackson got this honor um he was uh as a positive he was fourth among all rookies in scoring or in points per game a very important distinction fourth in points per game but he was 17th among all rookies in minutes played he was 27th among all rookies in games played he only appeared in 14 victories so I mean I think he’s a worthy winner because he’s a really good player and he exploded onto the scene and you could say he was more impactful than some other rookies but like I do feel like maybe scoot Henderson or assar Thompson or Trace Jackson Davis for the Warriors maybe got snubbed a little bit because they played way more minutes and way more games like Gigi uh of course he scored 44 points in the final game of the season that’s a grizzli rookie record that’s the second most points ever by a teenager in a game in NBA history uh he scored 75 points total in his final two games of the year those two games raised his scoring average by a full point went from 13.6 to 14.6 points per game so I don’t know I’m happy for Gigi I don’t want to take anything away from his award he’s deserving this podcaster feels a little bit surprised that he ended up making second Team all rookie I mean the moral is points per game trumps all you can look at that in other uh Awards like Sixth Man of the Year usually or any kind of all NBA Awards points per game is huge and there were some Gody numbers from gii Jackson so uh in summary congrats GG I’m happy for you I am happy as a Grizzlies fan also future incredibly bright if Gigi was in this upcoming draft class he would be the first pick and age he belongs basically in this draft class so he is one of the biggest reasons for optimism for the Grizzlies going forward and also he made the all rookie team because the team tanked and played him a lot and let him shoot whenever he wanted all right so next topic for this episode is the murkiness the continued murkiness around the Grizzlies coaching staff uh I think this all started when Mark Stein said there was going to be a shakeup among the Grizzlies assistant coaches then Kelly EO of the athletic said lots of Grizzlies coaches were getting let go then John Hollinger on his podcast with Nate Duncan said you know at the combine they were all talking about how tons of Grizzlies coaches or the whole coaching staff or quote a plurality of Grizzlies assistant coaches had been fired now the team is not officially announced that they fired anyone not that they normally do um lots of you have correctly pointed out that assistant Co coaches like their contracts expire frequently they’re often just two-year contracts and like yeah that’s true but I think now under the where there’s smoke there’s fire rule um we can assume most of the Grizzlies coaches from previous seasons are gone they’re going to move on and like Drew Hill’s been reporting on this um Taylor Jenkins even said it in a public appearance that like yes they are in fact restructuring their coaching staff and uh there are going to be some changes the only change we know for sure is still that they hired Noah lar Ro so we know he’s going to be on the bench next year for the Grizzlies beyond that I think now we can assume a lot of these familiar faces are going to be gone like Brad Jones and vital Peno and um Sonia Ramen and scony pin and Blake Ahern and Anthony Carter like a lot of those guys I think not going to be there I would say most of them not going to be there I mean like Blake Ahern has a connection to J maybe he’ll be back we keep assuming Patrick St Andrews since he was just hired last year and he has a personal history with Taylor Jenkins we assume maybe he’s going to stick around but it sounds like we’re getting close to finding out the specifics eventually we’ll find out the specifics but as of right now if you’re a betting person I’d say most of those previous year’s assistant coaches will not be back with the Grizzlies um other NBA news the all defensive teams were announced no Grizzlies sniffed making these teams jiren played the pruner 65 games before getting shut down I mean technically he played 66 but uh jiren only received one second Team all NBA vote uh he was outvoted by Dylan Brooks who received two second place all NBA votes uh all excuse me all defensive team votes the all defense team largely a team success award so that’s why jiren you know not going to get considered for it um you know unless you’re Victor wiama setting all kinds of wild block and steel records or you know setting block and steel levels we haven’t seen since aim aajan um you’re probably not going to make an all defensive team if your squad is super sorry so uh maybe jiren can bounce back next year um next in the news or next for this episode uh let’s go over a couple of the latest mock drafts so we’re still in countdown mode for the draft it’s about a month away of course the Grizzlies have the ninth pick of course the Grizzlies have a giant gaping hole at Center that they have pledged to fill this off seon um I think when you look at the big men in the draft the most interesting Maybe development after the combine is how it feels like that a lot of The Bigs are actually rising to the top of this draft already Alex SAR assumed to go first um reer not really a center but like apparently there’s been some reports that he’s going to go top two so if the Hawks don’t take SAR apparently they’re going to take reer and then you know the Wizards would take whichever one they don’t take and then kingan based on the combine and having the combine coming on the heels of the impressive NCAA tournament run kingan seems to be really high up in most mock drafts now so he won’t possibly be there for the Grizzlies at nine I feel like among Grizzlies fans there’s this ground swell of just Zack EDI like let’s just get Zack Ed who cares get Zack Eed at nine I don’t know if that’s going to be the case um I still haven’t seen zachi mocked to the Grizzlies among any of the major sites like um Jonathan gavone His Latest mock draft has the Grizzlies taking Dawson connect which I’m again totally fine with he is a of course scorer and that’s something that Grizzlies always need more of which is offense that’s a big reason I think why Taylor jins is considering restructuring his coaching staff because the offense has been so bad oh by the way I should probably come back to this maybe just mention it because of the news of about the assistant coaches being changed and the Genesis of a lot of it was from John Hollinger saying on his podcast that again a plurality of the coaches have been fired and that might mean that the seat is getting warm under Taylor Jenkins I can’t remember his exact phrase but because of that now all the aggregators have run with Taylor Jenkins is on the hot seat for this upcoming season and you should know again the Genesis of all that is John Hollinger just speaking off the cuff on his podcast there are no sourced reports that Taylor Jin is on the hot seat now should Taylor jenss be on the hot seat I think that is a fair debate I mean I gave my opinion on the episode I did a few weeks ago where I gave basically a pass fail grade to all the Grizzlies players and Taylor Jin um spoiler on that one I gave Taylor jenss an incomplete I think it’s incomplete I I think there’s any question Taylor Jin is a good regular season coach he is an above average NBA coach extremely competent I think the question marks for Taylor Jenkins go to the playoff performance and also that’s a question mark not just for Taylor Jenkins that’s still a question mark for the Grizzlies players I think when you look at the Grizzlies having one playoff win and of course injuries were a big story of that last year and when Taylor jiggins took over the Grizzles were not expected to be good but still five seasons one playoff series win in that one playoff series win which of course was against the seven seed Minnesota Timberwolves a couple seasons ago in that one Series win the Grizzlies were down by double digits going into the fourth quarter in three of the four wins is it good coaching that they came back I guess it’s not good coaching that you were losing by double digits going into the fourth quarter of three of your four wins especially when you were the two seed I also point out a lot that the Grizzlies are 0 and three in home game ones in the playoffs under Taylor Jenkins um by the way Shan Coleman dug up this stat uh that the Grizzlies all time are windless as the higher seed in game ones in the playoffs I at first thought that like the Grizzlies beat the Trailblazers back in 2015 as the higher seed they were technically the lower seed they were the fifth seed the Blazers were the fourth seed even though the Grizzlies had home court Advantage the Grizzlies were favored of course to win that series at a much better record than the Trailblazers but back in the day if you won your division you got to be the fourth seed even if he didn’t give you homecourt Advantage but kind of a fun Stat or not fun stat the Grizzlies have never won a game one as the higher seed so for me when I assess Taylor Jenkins and you I don’t know what you can take from last year other than they were six and 19 in the first 25 games when we thought they would actually be competitive without John Morant but they were not competitive um I look at the coaching performance in the playoffs and I have concerns about how the team performed as a higher seed in multiple series and getting blown out several times in the first road game of those playoff series the stuff I’ve mentioned before so I don’t think Taylor jins is on the hot seat but maybe it’s semantics if the Grizzlies get off to a slow start this coming year you better believe that’s going to be a hot seat so this is kind of a make or break year for Taylor jcin whether or not that um qualifies as a hot seat I guess that’s up to you um anyways back to the mock drafts I was talking about uh Jonathan gavon had the Grizzlies taking Dalton connect um Bleacher Report has the Grizzlies taking Rob Dillingham um I think a lot of that you know you might say I don’t want a small guard on this team like Rob Dillingham especially measured to be super tiny at the combine I think it was like 160 lb 6’1 and he is just a Score first guy maybe it’s not the ideal roster fit but of course the Grizzlies are going to draft best player available and because I think of kingan not being available in all these mocks and other bigs maybe you think it’s too early to take Ed or um whoever evees Missy or filipowski or something um because of that you see the Grizzlies now ending up with some of these guards or wings now also that might point to well the Grizzlies then let’s just make a trade and I feel like it’s fun as gri fans to come up with fake trades and there are certainly plenty of good trade options out there one I did not mention on the last episode was Jaylen durran the reason I didn’t mention him on the last episode because I didn’t assume he’d be available but maybe the Pistons are being incredibly impatient as an organization I’ve seen multiple beat riders for the Pistons talking about trading like Jaden Ivy and Jaylen Duran and you know maybe if they take kingan if the Pistons take kingan at five oh that is interesting maybe Jaylen durran would be available if Jaylen durren is available absolutely I could see the Grizzlies making an aggressive offer to get him I also assume many other teams would be making an aggressive offer to get Jaylen durren he’s still incredibly young he is an apex rebounding machine in my opinion um he would fit I think amazingly well on the Grizzlies of course there’s the college connection to Memphis I think if let’s say the Pistons took Klingon at five I mean maybe you could aggressively trade with the Pistons to trade up and get kingan um the Pistons if they are being impatient as a front office they would want win now players I don’t know who that would be like I don’t think the Pistons maybe necessarily want the ninth pick and a future pick for Jaylen Duran they want to a player who can win now I think the most win now player available for um trades from the Grizzlies would be Marcus Smart I think trading Marcus Smart to an Eastern Conference Team might get you the most return because you would assume they’ve seen this guy over the years they probably have lost a lot of games to Marcus Smart maybe they value him as highly as anybody um would you trade Marcus Smart and the ninth pick for Jaylen Duran I certainly would it’s an interesting trade because uh the the Pistons could take back Marcus Smart to my understanding without having to match salary so it would accomplish a few things if the Grizzlies made this theoretical trade it would get them very far away from the dreaded first apron it would relieve a lot of the salary cap luxury tax concerns for this year because you could send out Marcus sm’s $20 million contract bring back in Jaylen Duran’s under $5 million a year contract thus you create a trade exception which then you could of course you know not use but you would create a trade exception you’d get far away from the first apron and of course you’d bring in this unbelievably promising young athletic center to be a rebounding machine for you to be a lob finisher so like yeah I would do that in a heartbeat um if you could hang on to Marcus Smart which is basically what I’m trying to do now when I come up with fake trades like Marcus Smart positionally I keep talking about slightly Superfluous if we have jaah and Desmond and Vince and Gigi let’s be honest like we could trade him maybe for a position of more need like a big or another power forward who could play alongside jiren but when I get the daydreaming about the Grizzlies being the best team they can be in trades I would like to keep Marcus Smart because he’s pretty good good basketball player so this is an interesting one where uh because of his low rookie scale contract could you send out whoever could you send out Santi odama and the ninth pick and something else to bring in Jaylen Duren well I’m interested in that could you send out zire Williams in the ninth pick and something else to bring in Jaylen Duran um then you get kind of the harder questions would you send out Vince Williams Jr and the ninth pick I would not want to do that because I adore Vince Williams Jr but if Jaylen Duran was on the table which we don’t know if he is in fact but it’s been specul about from the Piston side of things so I think that is something it’s worth considering um for the Grizzlies and then there’s the other more obvious trade candidates that I’ve talked about in previous episodes but one thing I’d like to add to this conversation or one further bit of context from the league that I think that can inform our trade speculations is the news that the NBA is very close to signing this new television deal uh NBC Amazon and ESPN Disney are apparently very close to finalizing the new or the next TV deal and if the numbers are accurate and I assume the numbers reported are accurate the salary cap is going to go up the maximum amount it can go up for the next five seasons it’s going to go up 10% a year what this means for a team like the Grizzlies that already has some bigger salaries they already have John Mor under contract they already have Desmond Bane under contract they already have uh Jared Jackson Jr under contract for the next two years what this means is you’re probably not going to have to be that concerned I mean eventually you will be concerned because you want to keep jiren Jackson Jr a couple Seasons from now but the salary cap going up means the luxury tax line is going up which means the first apron is going up so even though no matter what the Grizzlies do I mean unless they do my Marcus Smart for Jaylen Duran trade they’re probably going to be right up against the first apron they might or they should be a luxury tax team although they still might Dodge that but next year the apron is going to go up from $178 million which is what it is in the 2024 2025 season it’s going to go up to 196 million and then the next year it’s going to be 216 million and then the next next year is going to be 238 million if the numbers on spot track are accurate their guesses are again the the salary cap and the luxury tax lines they’re going to rise by 10% a year and the way that compounds that’s that means that the uh the first apron is going to be at $238 million um just what Four Seasons from now that also means by the way that when jiren is eligible for his next contract a 30% Max contract starting in 2026 uh that could be a fiveyear $300 million contract Shay gildas Alexander’s next contract uh if he signs at the supermax that could have him making $81 million in the fifth year that deal that’s according to Bobby marks in his projections so what that means specifically short term for the Grizzlies is I think you should be cool adding money this year even if it takes you right to the second apron or even over the second apron if you can get a Jared Allen who’s signed for two years if you can get a cam Johnson who’s signed for three more years yeah you’re going to pay luxury tax this year but you should probably be able to dodge the luxury tax next year at the very least two years from now again you can work around it because that cap is rising like Desmond Ban’s deal it’s a lot but like it’s not going to be that bad John morant’s deal is going to be a bargain when the salary cap keeps Rising um we know that the GG Jackson deals and the Vince Williams Jr deals probably going to be Bargains so because of that I would not be too scared of trying to bring in a guy who makes 15 million or 20 million or even $25 million this year if it helps your team um some of those names like these are guys I mentioned before but like now I have become maybe more emboldened to theorize about trading for them because when I see oh the first apron is going to be like $238 million in two years yeah we can stand to that um that’s what I think about yeah like Jared Allen of course trade for Jared Allen if you could trade for Jared Allen and keep Marcus Smart yes let’s do it um I don’t know if that’s feasible again you have to pick up Luke canard’s team option you know Luke Canard plus Santi Al dama plus something else uh plus the ninth pick can that do it that works for me um Brook Lopez I don’t think the Bucks would trade Brook Lopez cuz they’re trying to win they’re trying to win a title around Giannis um but Brook Lopez like makes $23 million next year it’s an expiring contract could you give them something that would you know shake Brook Lopez free I mean that’s a team where I think they might have interest in am Marcus Smart but you know Marcus Smart and the ninth pick and what else what are the Bucs going to do for a center I don’t know but like Brook Lopez sure bring them in we’ll worry about his next deal uh a year from now um this is again like a male Bridges trade I don’t think a male Bridges trade is likely just because the Grizzlies are going to be out bid the Rockets can outbid the Grizzlies um the Pelicans if they wanted to I don’t think they want to maybe because they already have Trey Murphy they have herb Jones but like there are lots of other teams that could out bid the grizzly for Mel Bridges but I always come back to cam Johnson cam Johnson a sub All-Star player you know some people think his contract is bad I think three years 69 million over the over the next three what I consider the rising cap that’s no big deal like he makes 23 this year the following year it goes down to 21 then it goes back up to 23 I don’t mind paying cam Johnson 10% of the cap two years from now cam Johnson is a tall Luke Canard he’s a Luke Canard who shoots more who rebounds better because he’s almost 6’1 he gets to the line more like anyone who wants to keep Luke Canard get C Johnson cam Johnson does not overlap positionally with Desmond Baye and John Morant am Marcus Smart you can play them all at the same time I would be thrilled about a trade for cam Johnson I think when you consider all right what are team needs oh and then you look at the draft and you say well kingan’s off the board at nine if you could get a starter for the ninth pick like you’re hoping you get a starter with a ninth pick like that’s the dream I don’t know what the percentages are that a ninth pick turns into a starter for a playoff team it’s it’s less than 50% and I know the the dreams of winning a title are usually tied to hitting a home run with your draft picks like so maybe a path to a title is more assured if you get lucky with a ninth pick as opposed to trading the ninth pick for a I don’t know the NBA’s 110th best player or something but when we already have jaah Jared and Dez and we already have Gigi coming up in the pipeline just getting a guy who play power forward and small forward who hits 40% of his threes who signed for the next three years I value that a lot and like I would absolutely consider trading if you could match the salary again if it was if it was Luke Canard and zy Williams in the ninth pick for cam Johnson I would I’d be pretty thrilled honestly um other names of like guys you might be able to get for cheap or free again looking at the rising cap I’m less hesitant about like taking on the bad salary of an Andrew Wiggins what if Andrew Wiggins has a bounceback year even Andrew Wiggins last season which was bad and underwhelming by Warriors fans standards that’d be a really good player for the Grizzlies to have bad Andrew Wiggins let’s be honest would be a really good player to pair alongside jiren Jackson Jr Wiggins can defend and he’s a pretty solid rebounder if the offense comes back around you got to steal um the contract is the concern but with repeating myself with the cap going up by 10% maybe each of the next five seasons at minimum not that uh not as daunting to take on like those bad contracts that’s another one where you don’t have to like the acquisition cost I talk a lot about acquisition cost like someone mentioned uh Nick claxon in the YouTube comments for the last episode talked about it before Nick Claxton you know would I rather have Nick Claxton over nothing sure but to get Nick Claxton you probably have to send picks or assets to the Nets to facilitate a sign in trade you’re also going to have to put in matching salary I don’t think Nick claxon is an ideal fit with jiren when you consider the defense and rebounding but like if I get a player who doesn’t cost me anything if I don’t have to send out a first round pick to get Andrew wickins well then now I’m interested um other players where you know like they make a lot of money and maybe you consider it these are I think this is my cuto off line where I think these guys actually make too much money and the luxury tax squeeze might not be worth it um are guys like Jeremy Grant and John Collins I mean John Collins flat out overpaid but I think wouldn’t cost much to get him and he’s a good fit alongside jiren Jackson Jr Jeremy Grant makes close to 30 million and I don’t know how well he’s going to age and the problem with that is is you still need to get a center and like at least John Collins you could say all right we could manage in the front court if it’s jiren and John Collins plus Santi Alama Plus Brandon Clark but with Jeremy Grant you still have a gaping hole at Center a similar thing for like Kyle kozma I don’t have that much interest in Kyle kosma although Kyle kosma on social media did come to the fence of Taylor Jenkins saying how was Taylor jingus on the hot seat um but I don’t same same thing with Jeremy Grant you still have to get a center and I I think the squeeze for the luxury tax might be a little bit too much but um those are just my newest thoughts on trades now that we know exactly or we have a good idea what the luxury tax lines are going to be going forward and I think I covered um all the names most of you guys are throwing out there um anyways I think that’s good for today uh congratulations G Jackson second Team all rookie and we will continue to monitor the assistant coach watch for the Grizzlies oh by the way breaking news JB bicker staff former Grizzles coach has been fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers um so the Cavaliers are shaking things up let’s go get Jared Allen all right anyways thanks everybody for listening if you want to support the show do that at patreon.com fast break breakfast come join the slack Channel anyways hope you guys have a great week I’ll talk to you soon go Grizz [Music]

This episode discusses GG Jackson making the All-Rookie 2nd team, provides an update on the latest news around the Grizzlies’ coaching staff, looks at the latest mock drafts, plus discusses how the new TV deal could embolden the Grizzlies to make a big trade this summer.

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