The Grizzlies take Jaylen Wells and Cam Spencer in the second round to complement Zach Edey

The Grizzlies take Jaylen Wells and Cam Spencer in the second round to complement Zach Edey

[Applause] Mor with a running start elevat Point D oh my goodness TI game in overtime Gasol will turn his he is gone is on top s 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 H it he hit it he hit it J Insanity you got to be kidding welcome to grits and grinds a Memphis Grizzlies podcast my name is Keith Parish the NBA draft is over the Grizzlies used both of their picks in the second round they took Jaylen Wells and cam Spencer as they attempt to bolster the shooting on the roster and to further compliment Zach Edy on this episode I’m going to talk about the second round draft picks I’m going to reflect a little further on the selection of Edy now that I’ve had some time to digest it and also look at the state of the Grizzlies roster after the draft but before we get there just a reminder if you want to get an extra monthly episode from me you can get that at patreon / Fastbreak breakfast if you join the list our community at patreon you also get to be a part of the Grizzlies slack channel that is kind of like Twitter without the riff raff I’m in there with other passionate Grizzlies fans discussing the team Around the Clock also if you join my patreon you can play in my fantasy basketball and football leagues when the time comes so if you like my podcasts and videos consider joining patreon.com Fastbreak breakfast all right before I talk about Jaylen Wells and cam Spencer let’s start with the main course which is thinking a little bit more about Zach Edy I think as a fan once your team makes a draft pick you then maybe go into like pure fan brain and I think it’s natural to start looking for the extreme upsides of a pick and that’s led me to watch a ton of highlights of Ed and get excited about all the things that could happen I’ve also sought out some supporters of Edie to read their opinions these are like pre-draft opinions to hear what they had to say because mainly what I was hearing was a lot of the detractors um one of the favorite things I found one of the most optimistic takes was from this guy Matt Powers who works for the draft scouting site Swiss theory he had Ed at the top of his big board and I know this is basically just confirmation bias where I’m looking for the positive things but I don’t care I’m excited about how optimistic he was about Ed he’s saying that Edie has what he calls unprecedented strengths in the low post he just talks about how the domination that he had in college some of it he’s going to be able to replicate in the pros because in college he was constantly facing double and triple teams that will not be the case in the NBA a lot of times he’s going to have single matchups and he’s going to be able to score most of those times he also highlights the swing skills and this is something I said last episode where the passing is going to be key he highlights how Ed was a solid passer in college and if he continues to show those passing skills in the NBA he’s going to be again the adjective I keep using is dominant he’s going to be a dominant force in the NBA and that’s the reason that Matt Powers had Zach Ed as his overall number one player in this draft so that kind of stuff obviously it gets me excited and I do think that Grizzlies will be able to maximize Ed’s game with their roster and with the existing Talent with John Morant and Desmond Bane and jiren Jackson Jr specifically another thing about Ed’s game which was in my notes for last episode that I meant to mention was one thing I did really like about Ed a thing I do really like About Edie is the fact that not only does he get fouled a lot and draws a lot of fouls but he’s a solid free throw shooter just the fact that he’s not a negative free throw shooter I consider that to be a a big strength of Edie so I I don’t know if Edie ends up in the opening night starting lineup I would think yes I mean it feels like that’s where we’re headed um but I don’t know if he end up being like a 25 to 30 minute guy as opposed to like maybe closer to a 20 minute a game guy but I do think he’s going to have an impact immediately also um I guess I should specify a couple of things I got uh incorrect in the rapid turnaround from the draft to that episode coming out um I repeated a stat from Jonathan werman of Bleacher Report I corrected this stat in the comments of the YouTube page he said this thing that actually took off about Zaki having zero transition points uh last season in college basketball I said quote that seems incomprehensible um yeah that’s like impossible that’s not true um thanks to Adam uh Grizzlies film on Twitter and one of my patreon supporters he uh he let me know that according to Synergy Ed had 24 transition points last year on Purdue which by the way is not good it is the zero percentile according to Synergy um some people pointed out that’s just because of how Purdue played that’s fine but maybe uh Edie will have not as much difficulty getting up and down in the NBA as that um incorrect stat LED folks to believe also uh I misspoke last episode I edited it out uh once I discovered my error uh I said he was 7 fo2 no he’s 7 fo4 and with shoes he’s even taller so the Grizzlies got their guy with Zack Edy to bolster the front Court um and then in the second round they had the 39th pick and the 57th pick and with the 39th pick they took Jaylen Wells out of Washington state he is 20 years old he has decent size 6′ 7 6’8 around there um he is just all about the shooting kind of an interesting story for jayen Wells he was a D2 player and then he ends up at Washington State and he did not start until Midway through last season but as a star he excelled some blurbs about him this is from Chip Williams who’s a Grizzlies fan and big draft buff he described him as a 6’8 movement shooter who shot 42% from three on over 10 attempts per 100 possessions well there you have it I like hearing that also uh chip points out that he shot 80% from the line uh like many people once this pick was made I I go watch some highlights on YouTube and he indeed does have an awesome looking jumper I feel like the jumper is slightly reminiscent of Trey Murphy III just a beautiful jump shot I think one of the things that was highlighted about him and his shot is he took a lot of deep threes wasn’t just like nestled up right at the college line he can shoot comfortably behind the three-point line so as I think the need for size on the team exists still especially size on the wing and of course the need for shooting is always there this looks to be a good pick or a pick that fits a need now to fully Analyze This pick it’s impossible for me right now to know exactly how I feel about it because I don’t know if he’s going to take a roster spot and a lot of the ways we’re going to have to assess the picks of Jaylen Wells and cam Spencer is figuring out what kind of contracts they are on if jayen Wells goes on a two-way spot I love it because that keeps a roster open for a proven NBA player it lets us add somebody either through a trade where you bring back more players than you send out or through free agency but it seems like there’s a really good chance that he ends up on the main roster if jayen Wilson’s up on the main roster well I don’t like that as much I feel like the main roster again should be used on proven NBA players especially when you consider where we are in our like competitive cycle the fact that I say it over and over and over we’re in win now mode we’re trying to maximize our next two seasons I don’t know if using a roster spot on a second round draft pick is the right use of resources our our big second round hits recently like GG Jackson and Vince Williams Jr those guys started out on two-way contracts now jayen was taken a little bit earlier than those guys he was the 39th pick where Vince was the 47th pick and Gigi was a 45th pick so maybe this is somewhere in the draft where the player is expecting to get a regular contract and be on the main roster also Jake fiser was saying one of the effects of the two-day draft was a lot of teams were working out contracts with prospects before the draft uh before the second round started on Thursday so I don’t know we don’t know right now but I think signs are kind of pointing to him being on the main roster and if that’s the case it’s a risk like you think about Kennedy Chandler player who did not work out for the Grizzlies who they took in the second round the Grizzlies are still paying Kennedy Chandler he’s dead money one of the reasons I don’t think the Grizzlies are are likely to bring back Luke Canard is because we’re still paying Kennedy Chandler so that is the obvious benefit to adding someone to the two-way slot is you can kind of get a longer Runway to figure out if they’re any good and if they’re deserving of a main roster spot so on paper the shooting I see from from Jaylen Wells looks awesome uh the downside to to Jaylen Wells is there’s not I mean there there’s not a lot of evidence he hasn’t been doing this for very long again he started the season not as a starter also he’s not really much of anything else but a shooter right now as far as I understand it he can’t really score inside doesn’t really have much of a handle or is not a finisher in the lane but he’s on the team again Flor spacer he could be one of those guys where like something like 70 to 80% of his field goal attempts are all from three now cam Spencer he was taken with the 53rd pick the Grizzlies came into the day or came into Thursday with the 57th pick they ended up trading the 57th pick to the Timberwolves for the 53rd pick as of this recording as I record on Friday morning June 28th we don’t know the details of that trade it’s highly possible the Grizzlies could have just sent cash considerations to swap from 57 to 53 if the Grizzlies did send cash to the Timberwolves that actually hard caps them at the second apron now that’s not really a big deal for the Grizzlies because I don’t think many of us thought or any of us thought that Grizzlies were going to go over the second apron but like also we could dream that they were going to pay tons of money for a super competitive roster but now that if again we don’t know if this true but if they included cash to the Timberwolves in the trade to go from 57 to 53 that now hard caps the Grizzlies at the second apron which is about 189 million but cam Spencer he played for Yukon last season the most fun bit of trivia about cam Spencer is he played with Santi odama at Loyola College in Marland this is a former teammate of Santi Alama he also by the way is older than Santi Alama cam Spencer who won the national title with Donovan kingan at Yukon he’s 24 years old you know who else is 24 years old John marant and jiren Jackson Jr so cam Spencer not only is he older than Santi Alama he’s two years older than zire Williams he is older than Jake laravia he’s older than Vince Williams Jr but he also he’s a shooter he is a guy I think when you look at him maybe it’s shades of Sam Merill that is the ideal outcome for cam Spencer now I do think cam Spencer is going to end up on a two-way contract um the team has a team option for Jordan Goodwin’s two-way contract I think we can assume Jordan Goodwin is going to be gone they signed Scotti Pippen Jr to a two-year two-way deal Scotty Pippen Jr is an asset for the Grizzlies on that two-way contract so I feel very confident saying Scotty Pippen Jr is going to be on a two-way contract for the Grizzlies next year some people keep saying like oh we should promote him to the main roster no no no no no no we have him signed to a two-way contract like we’re not going to need Scotty Pippen Jr in the the playoffs if we do that means something went horribly wrong that means John marant is hurt so Scotti Pippen Jr great asset to have on a two-way contract um Trey Jimson he signed according to spot track he signed a two-year two-way contract as well I think when you look at the depth chart right now not saying it’s finalized but let’s be honest it could be pretty close to being finalized I think he still want to keep Trey Jimson to have some front Court depth so that would support the theory that um CM Spencer is going to go on a two-way he he would take over the two-way spot that Jordan Goodwin had and then we can maybe guess that Jaylen Wells would go on the main roster that would allow the team to keep Scotty pimpa Jr to keep Trey Jimson and then cam Spencer um the drawback to that of course and I’m really going to get into this in a second the drawback to that is you’re running out of roster spots but going back to cam Spencer the player uh it looks like he’s about 6’3 6’4 and perhaps he’s a little bit more than just a shooter a lot of people are pointing to his competitiveness they’re saying he has a little bit of the you know the dog in him and maybe shades of like a poor man’s John conchar and the fact that he maybe does some of the little things he can be a connective piece um I am a little skeptical of those types of things not of course because I know much about his game I just look at the fact that he was a 23-year-old playing college basketball on by far the most talented team and because of that I I guess that makes me slightly a skeptic towards he can do other things besides shoot but the shooting again the shooting skills are absolutely uh fantastic and like I said I think Sam Merrill is the good outcome here and you could ask yourself you know like a guy like Sam Merill do you need someone like that if you have Luke Canard on the roster um no of course is the answer what need do you have with like a say Amero if Luke canard’s on your team you don’t but this is what you’re hoping for when you take a guy 53rd and you get him on a two-way contract and he’s a shooter you hope you can get that maybe 80% 90% of Luke Canard on a fraction of the cost this is even if Luke Canard stays on the team it’s a prudent roster building move to try to hit on one of those guys by the way this was not like a reach or anything drafting cam Spencer he was pretty high on draft boards I like to look at that NBA draft Twitter board a lot uh he was the 42nd ranked guy on that the consensus NBA draft Twitter board uh ahead of Jaylen Wells actually Jaylen Wells I think was around 40 was 43rd or 45th on that um and by the way if you’re curious why I like the NBA draft Twitter board the consensus board just remember there are people in the Grizzlies front office who years ago were just a part of NBA draft Twitter uh there’s guys in a lot of front office I’ve been podcasting for a long time many guys who have come on the show in years past now work in NBA front offices so I think it’s a good it’s a good pipeline of talent and it’s a good idea to get you know some views on some of these players who like I specifically don’t know that much about so the idea of Cam Spencer and Jaylen Wells it’s good of course you drafted for shooting the team needs shooting if you look at summer league and potential summer league roster the grizzly summer league roster might be amazing with Zack Ed and if we assume Scotty Pippen Jr plays and GG Jackson plays a few games and then you surround Edy with this shooting 24-year-old cam Spencer and sweet shooting Jaylen Wells that is all very nice now when we look at the roster though and we look at the fact that they took three guys in this draft we knew they were going to take somebody in the top 10 outside of a blockbuster deal and that person was going to be on the main roster this is something we assumed and we totally cool with when I looked at the second round though coming into the draft My Hope was neither one of those players would be on the main roster because my stated goals for this off season um you could boil it down to we need players better than like The Last Five Guys on our current roster we need players better than Z Williams and Jak laravia and Santi Alama and of course Derek row now it’s unreasonable in my mind to expect someone taken in the second round of this year’s draft to be better than those players so I get a little bit concerned when I think about Jaylen Wells taking up a roster spot now let’s assume jayen Wells is going to get a regular contract and be on the main roster if so he’s the 14th player on the roster meaning there’s one open roster spot and that does not include Luke Canard you could assume your starters are John Morant Desmond Bane Marcus Smart jiren Jackson Jr and Zack Edy maybe Brandon Clark starts and not Zack Ed maybe Vince Williams Jr starts and they finally move Marcus Smart to a six-man role but whatever those five guys you know they’re five of our best players uh assuming Ed can step right in and handle the load your bench Vince Williams Jr GG Jackson Santi Alama Brandon Clark and then Derrick Rose John conar zy Williams Jak laravia and now Jaylen Wells that’s 14 players those contracts this is very important those contracts as best I can calculate it those are going to get you somewhere near $165 million when you add them all together and you include that dead cap hit of Kennedy Chandler the MBA luxury tax line is $171 million so that means they’re $67 million away my numbers could not be totally accurate they’re ballpark accurate um but they’re they’re about $7 million away from the luxury tax line do you think they’re going to pick up Luke canard’s option and go into the lecture tax I do not also as best I can tell and as best the uh the numbers on spot trk show me if you pick up that Luke Canard option you go into the first apron you’re just a little bit into the first apron they’re not going to do that can you get Luke Canard back on a contract that keeps you out of the luxury tax no there is no way that Luke Canard takes a contract worth less than $7 million a season now I believe Zack kimman would be fine with bringing back Luke kard and going into the luxur tax if he could get Luke Canard for like less per season like 10 million a year twoyear 20 million threee 30 million last year team option last year partially guaranteed something like that but I don’t think it’s likely and I think also one bad thing in my mind about the Grizzlies giving Jaylen Wells a guaranteed contract which we don’t know if that’s going to happen still they could get rid of Trey Jimson and Jordan Goodwin and give Jaylen ws and cam smer both two-way spots that’s what I hope happens but if they don’t we’ve now opened up the avenue to the thing I’ve been calling my worst case scenario for a while and I think if it was a Doomsday Clock we’re getting pretty close to midnight on them doing what I would call cheaping out and actually uh let’s get more into that right after this break if that’s not a tease I don’t know what is Underdog fantasy is a unique gaming experience it’s a way to play fantasy sports for cash I’ve been playing Underdog fantasy for over a year you can pick highers or lowers you can play daily fantasy against your friends you can do best ball tournaments they have every single sport I love it for the NBA also I really enjoy it for the NFL which is coming up in not too long if you want to try out Underdog fantasy use my promo code F BBF that’s F BBF as in Fast Break breakfast if you use my promo code they will match your opening deposit up to $250 plus give you a free pick so if you want to play fantasy sports for cash it’s a great time to try it out again use that promo code FBF or click the link in this episode’s description and Underdog will match your opening deposit up to [Applause] $250 all right so I was talking about the grizzli basically full roster I think the big question after the second round of the draft is how close is the Grizzlies roster to being done if you have 14 players under contract which is making a big assumption about Jaylen Wells being on the main roster if you have those 14 players under contract you have one roster spot left even if you pick up Luke Canard um it’s unlikely because that would take you into the first apron if you guarantee his full contract so that’s they’re not doing that um another drawback to going into the first apron even if you say Robert Perry just spend the money one drawback there is based on my best understanding you lose access to your trade exceptions that you had like right now the gis has have this really big trade exception for Stephen Adams they also have the mle if if you go into the first apron you lose that um if you decline Luke canard’s option yes you dodge the tax but you still have the option to use your M um you just would become hard capped at the first apron which is around 178 $179 million so I talk about my worst case scenario my worst case scenario for the Grizzlies was they basically address their needs in the draft and then maybe sign someone to under $5 million for their final roster spot that means we lost Luke Canard we added two rookies to the main roster and then we signed someone for $5 million or less and I do not think that’s maximizing your chances to win I think that is it’s kind of doubling tripling down on youth a little bit I mean to Michael Cole he I believe unironically stated that this draft night is a quote redo of the failed execution to draft nights ago I poked fun it to Michael about that cuz that’s a horrible review two draft nights ago was the bungled triple down on youth summer where they did not fortify a 56- win team they added three rookies to a team and they swapped out veterans I’m not saying Jaylen Wells is not up to the task I’m not saying he’s not a good pick as best I can tell Jaylen Wells cam Smiths are both great picks but you can’t depend on the guys you can’t depend on second round rookies when you’re trying to win playoff series when you’re trying to get homecourt advantage in the west you can’t depend on him so I’m getting nervous now after this draft being completed with no trades being made with zy Williams and Santi Alama and John conchar still on the roster and with it looking like Luke Canard the odds of him staying uh are low unless they dump some salary I’m saying it looks like now we’re up to like oh we’re we’re almost two-thirds of the way in my mind to they actually are going to dodge the luxury tax and not maximize their team also it would be a little bit sad if Santi Alama doesn’t get to play with his former college teammate like Santi tweeted about the reunion about them getting his old lyola teammate but then if like the Grizzlies salary dump Santi that’d be a sad outcome uh to this currently fun story so right now I’m monitoring like like how close are the Grizzlies to being done like they could still theoretically make huge trades they could win me over immediately if they pick up Luke canard’s option they package him with zy Williams and they bring back cam Johnson hey we’ve added a potential starter we’ve a guy who could play the three and the four who can allow Zack Ed to not be as necessary like right now if the Grizzlies roster is done our hopes are all pinned on I mean our good players we already have and it’s a good it’s again it’s a good place to be it’s a it’s a better place to be than most NBA teams we have jaw we have Dez we have jiren we have Marcus Smart we have Gigi Jackson we have vins Williams Jr that’s awesome and we got Zack Edy if Zack 80 becomes Yao Ming well hey the Grizzlies are a contender but even if Zak becomes Yao Ming I’m still going to say you didn’t maximize the chances around him if you don’t fill out the roster with players better than zy Williams Than Jake laravia than Derrick Rose we need more Talent still I think you’re kidding yourself or you’re moving the goal posts if they run back the same team from last year just plus 0 and plus some second round picks in the draft that’s not the dream summer anybody had so we are of course just one day removed from the second round the trades could still happen free agency uh kicks off uh on Monday the Luke Canard player option comes up on Sunday so things are going to happen I just when I laid it out beforehand said I’m worried this is the route they’re going to take they’re going to draft some guys sign a guy making the minimum or like under $55 million a season and call it a day and Dodge the luxury tax and I would be very sad because to me it’s it would show that they’re not actually competing am I getting worked up about nothing probably but hey my podcast I like talking about the Grizzlies uh that way um other thoughts about the draft oh some people have mentioned and keep bringing up the idea of retaining Lamar Stevens I haven’t talked about it in a while so if you missed it my analysis is there’s basically no way Lamar Stevens comes back to the Grizzlies I think with that final roster spot if the 14th spot goes to Jaylen Wells if uh Luke Canard is gone that final roster spot is going to go to either a ball handler a shooter or a big I think all those things would be good preferably a shooter with size preferably a ball handler with size or a big Lamar Stevens is not one of those things they do not need an undersized three4 who likes to shoot the basketball who isn’t very good at passing I liked Lamar Stevens and how hard he played I do believe he has that dog in him but there’s almost no chance that Lamar Stevens returns to this roster I I don’t think he’s in consideration for a roster spot so in conclusion I’d say about the Grizzlies draft I like it a lot Zak okay you could say you won me over I’m ready to try it but Zach Plus getting flyers on Shooters in the second round great fulfills an actual need but as a contender as a team that’s hoping to keep Pace or to try to catch like the Celtics and the Knicks and the Thunder and the Mavericks and the nuggets and the Timberwolves you can’t just say hey we needed shooting and a big and we got that in the draft fault rookies don’t contribute even someone as unique and maybe like Ed is that exception to the rule maybe Ed immediate Day One impact but like we’re depending on him to replace proven solid good NBA players I hope everyone who says he’s a Steven Adams with better offense oh my goodness I hope you’re right but right now I think roster spots need to be going towards proven NBA players who we know we can help and The Grizzlies still have a lot of work to do on their roster they got to clear up either some salary cap space they got to move out some of these guys if they’re going to bring back in I think players that can help you win multiple playoff series so I hope that’s what they do anyways um the newest players jayen Wells and Zack Edy will be introduced to the media on Friday late afternoon also Zack kimman will address the media at that time maybe we’ll get some more answers the cam Spencer trade is not yet finalized so he won’t be part of that in intruction and then of course the news is going to be coming rapidly there’s going to be that player introduction we’re going to get some quotes from kimman then of course over the weekend you have the Luke Canard player option or team option coming up then of course free agency starts and there will be lots of moves across the NBA that will definitely affect the Grizzlies so make sure you stay right here make sure you subscribe uh to this channel so you don’t miss any of the episodes anyways thanks so much for listening if you want a bonus episode I did one earlier this week about the Mel Bridges trade also talked about some other Grizzlies adjacent stuff like trading for some of the Nets players uh you can get all that stuff at patreon.com thanks so much to everybody who’s already signed up and is a member over there anyways hope you guys have a great day I’ll talk to you soon go Grizz

The #Grizzlies drafted shooters in the 2nd round with the selections of Jaylen Wells from Washington State and Cam Spencer from UConn. This episode discusses those picks, adds some more information about Zach Edey, and looks at the state of the roster after the draft.

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