The Grizzlies hire offensive guru Tuomas Iisalo and announce their Summer League Roster

The Grizzlies hire offensive guru Tuomas Iisalo and announce their Summer League Roster

[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 jat Insanity you got to be kidding welcome to grits and grinds a Memphis Grizzlies podcast my name is Keith Parish hope you had a good July 4th I took a nice little break as no Grizzlies news broke over that time frame however as the team begins summer league starting on Monday July 8th we did have some news come out about the Grizzlies and on this episode I will talk about it we are going to talk about the team Making a Splash with their new lead assistant coach and I’m also going to go over the summer league roster and continue to wonder if the Grizzlies will sign Luke Canard or any other free agent for their 15th roster spot before I get into all of it just want to let you guys know about SeatGeek SeatGeek as you probably know is a ticket app that takes the confusion out of buying tickets I use SeatGeek a lot for going to Nashville soccer games if you were looking for the best ticket deal for any event use SeatGeek and with my promo code fast break break new users will get $20 off their first ticket purchase that’s right $20 off your ticket purchase at SeatGeek with promo code fast break break remember same as my Twitter handle fast break break all right let’s start the episode by talking about the hiring of Tomas ISO I of course have never heard of Tomos isolo he apparently has many fans in the basketball Community he is a Finnish xplayer who has been coaching in Europe for the last decade in 2022 and 2023 he was the Bundesliga coach of the year then he moved to the Paris Basketball Club in 2024 they won the Euro Cup and that team posted a better offensive rating than any NBA team ever that’s what everyone is repeating he used a unique offense with a lot of pace with a lot of big setting screens for smaller guards but also slipping screens reversing screens ghosting the screens um to allow a lot of downhill action and they were were a bit undersized and because of that he’s being hailed as a revolutionary offensive coach some of the fans some of the people praising this you have a guy like haralabob vulgaris I saw this passed around a lot among Grizzlies fans this definitely was the post uh that everyone seems to be repeating and has resonated with people uh Bob vulgaris who if you don’t know famous Gambler he worked in the Mavs from office for a while he might be most famous for just being on the Bill Simmons podcast but Bob vulger says the Grizzlies may have ended up having the most underrated signing of the summer now I don’t know how much one assistant coach can affect the win column in the NBA but the optimistic take of this hiring is it is something where the Grizzlies could greatly improve their offense and when you look at the video that haralabob shared about the reasons why this offense was so effective one thing that might translate to the Grizzlies is the fact that Paris basketball’s best player was a very short point guard and maybe if they can unlock some of those things with a guy like jar or using a back court of jar and Desmond Bane they can Implement a lot of these things that were super successful in Europe and then with the elevated NBA talent that might be able to translate now I think one of the interesting things to consider as Grizzlies fans when you look at this higher combined with the hire of Noah the RO is try to wonder what kind of players might best be utilized in these schemes I mean Zack EDI you wouldn’t think really would be the thing but of course I think these guys are going to be able to find a way to use zakie and his gifts and advantages to create a lot of down Hill options for the Grizzlies guards and the scores and he is going to be massive setting some of these screens like you could have seen in that video setting screens away from the ball where he’s just clearing out the space so the ball handlers when they beat their men they can get right to the goal can we use this to forecast what the Grizzles are going to do with their final roster spot I don’t know you could I think spin it to say well it shows they don’t care that much about size because he took an undersized Paris basketball team and had a lot of success with it you proba just want to have shooting and skill so that might favor signing someone like Luke Canard or retaining Luke Canard or you could say well they need uh maybe some bigs who can actually shoot and might be experts at this type of play and then you look at a veteran like Daniel Ty maybe that guy fits the mold I don’t know I think it’s probably a Fool’s errand to try to figure out what the grizzly would do with their roster spot but the Grizzlies finally got some news out there about their assisant coach situ ation we’ve known now for a while that they’re going to have massive turnover behind Taylor Jenkins on the coaching staff and now we found out that this guy Thomas ISO will be lead assistant again if you want to connect the dots that means it sounds like you know like Brad Jones is gone and Vitali Peno is gone but we don’t know again we don’t know much uh specifically officially about this hire as it has not been announced by the team yet and also as of this recording right now I’m recording on Sunday late afternoon July 7th there’s no official Grizzlies press release about their summer league roster but there is one posted on nba.com so I guess I’m going to take that as being official and as far as official news about the Grizzlies before I get to some of the names on the summer league roster uh Zach Ed and Jaylen Wells did sign their rookie contracts there was some mystery I guess around whether or not Jaylen Wells would sign a standard rookie contract and take up a roster spot there was the assumption that he would but I think maybe some people were hoping he would not and the grizz’s would leave maybe an open roster spot to add a proven NBA player but that was not the case of course Edy he gets the first round uh rookie scale deal with the team option on the third and fourth years and then Jaylen Wells the 39th pick he signs a guaranteed deal for up to four season the final two seasons are non guaranteed so again repeating myself that means they are using a roster spot on a second round rookie it means they’re putting a lot of uh hopes on him panning out and being a useful player of course the benefit of signing those second rounders is if they do turn out well you have an extremely cheap contributor and that is extremely important as the Grizzlies nav the luxury tax and of course the first apron and theoretically the second apron which of also of course they’re not getting anywhere close to but jayen Wells becomes the 14th rostered player also it’s worth saying second round draft picks don’t normally turn into rotation players but of course the Grizzlies have had some luck at that recently just look at Gigi Jackson and Vince Williams Jr now with these rookie signings that is again 14 roster players one open roster spot as of this recording Sunday July 7th still an open roster spot no Luke Canard that has been signed yet we still as far as I know as far as I’ve heard all the expectations are the same that the Grizzlies will retain Luke Canard as it stands though with the roster with the 14 players under contract 12 guys from last year then plus the two rookies in Ed and Wells the total combined salaries according to spot track it’s a little bit over 166 million the luxury tax line is a little bit over $171 million they’re just over $4 million right now from the luxury tax line with no Luke Canard I have no idea what’s going to happen frankly it seems pretty basic to me that bringing Luke Canard back and going into the tax is the correct play but I’m definitely not going to be surprised if they just decide to not sign Luke Canard and Dodge the tax completely to me all right you’ve chosen not to use the mle if you don’t use it right now and if you don’t sign Luke Canard you can use that ml as a trade exception or of course you could just use a Steven Adams trade a player exception and then could bring in a player later that’s a route you could go I understand people who are arguing that the best move for the Grizzlies right now is to figure out what you have which is to find out once the season starts if say Zack Ed is any good how the team looks with johnar and Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart all playing together so you want to find out what you have before you make a big deal okay I think that’s a prudent line of thinking I just also think trying to convince me that you thought this was the best roster that Grizzlies could possibly build in the off season and it coincidentally happen to come in under the luxury tax I I feel like that’s naive and that doesn’t actually make any sense I think guys you could get for the mle including Luke Canard like those guys might not be available later in the year I would rather go into the luxury tax to keep Luke Canard that’s one option go into the luxure taxs and keep Luke Canard if the season goes great if Edie and Jaylen Wells are really good or if like Vince and Gigi have made further leaps if the team is playing really really well all right good you can stay in the luxury taxs you keep the team together maybe you can make some aggressive moves at that point if the season’s going poorly for whatever reason well then you get out of the luxury tax if it’s very important to you as a franchise to get out of the luxury tax you can dump salary at that point by trying to move like zy Williams or John Kar or Santi Alama or even Luke Canard if again theoretically you retain him but they haven’t done any of those things yet and so I think there’s a lot of us who are frustrated with that thinking that maybe they’re going to cheap out again on the roster they’re going to go three straight years without using the mle when they could it’s concerning also when you look at last year’s team when you think about the team when we dreamed Stephen Adams would be healthy if you look at that team to this team you got rid of Steven Adams you got rid of Xavier Tillman and then you replaced him with Zack Edy you replaced him with Jaylen Wells I me you got cam Spencer on a two-way that’s not a step forward I mean of course the the big step forwards from last year’s roster to this year’s roster when you think about preseason expectations last year we didn’t know we had something in Vince Williams Jr and we didn’t know we had something in GG Jackson um I am very convinced that Vince Williams Jr is going to be a a useful and effective and important role player and he could have that spot on a playoff level team I don’t know if GG Jackson is someone you can depend on for playoff rotation minutes um he has a higher ceiling than Vince Williams but I’m less certain that he is ready to play in the playoffs right now honestly I think Vince is ready to play in the playoff right now so if you don’t want to compare last year’s team and say all right we traded out Stephen Adams for Zack Edy and that’s basically it even though that is kind of basically it I’m willing to accept no we added Vince and G so we’re going to be better than we were you know even last year’s what last year’s healthy team could have been I’m just having trouble uh gumming up the outrageous enthusiasm for the off season based on the moves that could have been but again we don’t know what the moves could have been and if you’re thinking that yes this is the best roster we could build around jaah and jiren and Desmond and giigi and Marcus and everybody else and then you say let’s wait to the regular season if we need to make a trade we’ll do it then because like one reason you wouldn’t make an aggressive trade right now is just maybe the trade prices for the players you might find useful are too high the trade market is too hot like you see the Sacramento Kings they were willing to move around some stuff to to bring in Demar D rozan but there’s other teams like the Rockets and the Jazz and the Thunder who all maybe are very willing to spend multiple first round picks to upgrade their team so maybe if you dreamed about adding cam Johnson like me you have like a team like the Pelicans or the Cavs or the Thunder out there ready to outspend you so you think if you’re the Grizzlies all right let’s hold on to our picks for now let’s maintain some finan flexibility by not going into the luxury tax by not going over the first apron and then we can further capitalize on this roster during the regular season or later this summer um I don’t know that I guess is the optimistic read on what is going on right now with the lack of action of the Grizzlies having signed any free agents or having retained Luke Canard although technically the Grizzlies did sign a guy they signed Japanese Yuki camura to an exhibit 10 deal camura is a 5 fo8 guard plays for the Yokohama B corsairs I’m not going to pretend like I know who this guy is either although I know for a fact I’ve seen him play before because I remember Japan beating Finland in the 2023 feeble World Championships but do I remember this guy specifically no can’t say I do but uh I guess this this is a no stone unturned type thing as camura gets signed for a training camp contract essentially he’s not by the way going to play in summer league but we do know now which players are going to play in summer league and let’s go over that right after this short [Applause] [Music] break all right according to nba.com if you click on the Utah Summer League and team rosters there is a Grizzlies summer league roster that looks correct to my eye because it has most of the players that I’ve already said I expect to be there in summer league now the players listed of course we have the 2024 draft class Zack Ed Jaylen Wells and cam Spencer all on the roster we have Gigi Jackson and Jake laravia from the regular roster there are or there were some questions whether or not Jake laravia would play I was expecting him to it had been said that like they thought he was going to I absolutely think Jak laravia should be playing in this summer league he still has a lot to prove and you hope I think the hope is for him that he immediately shows that he’s way better than everybody else that’s kind of what you hope from guys in their third year playing in summer league but like Jake laravia still needs experience in my mind I mean he’s only played 70 NBA games that’s less than one NBA season so ja laravia is playing summer league according to nba.com uh and then you have the two-way guys from last year Scotty Pippen Jr and Trey Jimson and just those seven guys I think should have you pretty excited about the grizzly summer league team like I said on a previous episode Edie in the Middle with Scotti Pippen Jr and then having Gigi Jackson J laravia your Shooters Jaylen Wells cam Spencer around him that seems awesome that seems like a really good Summer League team and then I said on a previous episode I hope we get some of those hustle players from last year who played some tanking games for the Grizzlies and we got a couple dicki jeru looks like he’s coming back uh Timmy Allen is going to play and then the other players on the roster these are guys I don’t know that much about you have DJ Jeff I said he was going to be on the team on a previous episode we knew the Commercial Appeal had reported it he’s a former Memphis Tiger Mississippi State player Isaiah Miller he is a g League player I’m seeing some age discrepancies on him he’s either 25 or 26 cavon Harris is on the roster this guy he was amazing at Summer League a couple of years ago he turned that into a two-way contract for the magic so like that guy if he plays for the Grizzlies could be a very very good summerl player and then Freddy Gillespie is kind of a journeyman he’s played 29 career NBA games he’s a center who played at Baylor a while ago he’s now 27 and then this guy Kyle Aslin I don’t know him he has no NBA experience he is 28 years old there is no Tariq bovich that was expected but that summer league Squad again it looks pretty strong if all those guys play you know the majority of the games I feel like the Grizzles are going to be one of the better teams there possibly I would say Darkhorse I’d put i’ take Scotty Pippen Jr as a potential long shot Summer League MVP bet like I could imagine Zach getting shut down I mean it’s Zack Ed gets just any kind of bump they’re going to stop playing him I could imagine him playing a few games and then the team deciding he they’ve seen enough I wouldn’t be surprised at all if GG Jackson and Jake laravia both each play like two to four games or something and then that’s all they do however Scotty Pippen Jr I feel like as a point guard maybe if he plays all the games he could put up some amazing stats because he’s quite good for summer league and so I would consider that maybe a long shot pick if you are interested in wagering on summer league uh disclaimer you probably should not ever wager on summer league by the way speaking of wagering um this is not a sponsor or anything but there are some gambling lines for Rookie of the Year at FanDuel and Zack Ed is second as far as the best odds to win rookie of the year he’s plus 700 the favorite is Alexander SAR who’s plus 650 those are um some long shot bets so obviously the Rookie of the Year race is wide open but I thought it was interesting that right now Zack EDI has the second best odds for rookie of the year I think it makes sense when you think about it that he has a clear path to be the starter the Grizzlies are expected to be a playoff team thus if all that works out if he is a starter on a playoff team if he plays 20 minutes a game he has a great opportunity or at least seems like a safe bet to win Rookie of the Year and also speaking of some other betting lines I thought this was interesting the Grizzlies right now are tied for the seventh best odds to win the Western Conference they were tth a couple days ago they’ve actually gone up a little bit but right now they are tied with the Pelicans for the seventh best odds to win the West the Nuggets Mavericks Thunder Timberwolves Suns and Lakers all are ahead of the Grizzlies and then the Grizzlies and Pelicans are tied and those guys are slightly ahead of the Warriors Kings and Clippers so I thought that was interesting especially after my previous episode where Andrew schle and I ranked the Western Conference teams in our own estimations and Andrew and I both a little higher on the Grizzlies than the Vegas betting Market is but of course many of you were outraged I picked the Grizzlies to be the fifth best team or to right now technically have the what I thought was the fifth best roster wind healthy in the western conference um anyways uh some final notes for this episode of course the Grizzlies start summer league on Monday July 8th they play the Utah Jazz I think the matchup we’re all looking forward to is Zack Edy against Kenneth lton Jr that should be fun who knows if they will guard each other quite the height disparity there but I mean mainly we’re just super excited to see Zak play I know I am that should be very exciting I’m planning to do a playback for at least some of that game so that’ll be at playback. tv/ Fastbreak breakfast if you have league pass you should be able to log in and watch the game with me in the playback room so again check that out playback. tv/ Fastbreak breakfast uh or follow me on my socials I will post about it and finally uh Santi Alama congratulations to him that he qualified for the Olympics with Spain they won their FEA qualifier today on Sunday their group in the Olympics however going to be pretty tough they’re in the same group as Greece that uh qualified also today uh behind a monster game from Yannis stic kmo perhaps you’ve heard of him and they’re also in a group with Canada and Australia so that’s pretty tough and I guess finally um we should maybe look I guess is it worth looking at free agents who could be available I guess I feel like I need to mention Paul Reed Paul Reed was waved by the 76ers it’s very interesting Paul Reed’s contract was non- guaranteed this year because the Sixers lost in the first round of the playoffs last year that’s very unusual the reason that happened was Paul Reed was signed to an offer sheet and in the offer sheet they made it tough where it was a likely bonus for the Sixers that they would progress past the first round of the playoffs because that’s what they had done the previous year this is like a weird intricacy of NBA salaries the team that was trying to sign him was not expected it was called an unlikely bonus so they could do this deal that looked bad for the Sixers to match it hoping that the Sixers would not match it well the Sixers did match it but then because of injuries and maybe a bad matchup with the Knicks the Sixers lost in the first round thus making Paul Reed’s contract non-guaranteed and then the Sixers who’ve been using cap space this summer to bring in notably Paul George also to bring in Andre Rond they then waved Paul Reed to create even more room which they used to sign Caleb Martin would I’ve liked Caleb Martin on the Grizzlies yeah kind of I think he’s a useful player I wanted them to get the best Wing they possibly could with the mle Cayla Martin signed for four years 32 million seems like a great deal uh for the Sixers but Paul Reed is available and he’s probably the best big on the market right now he would be a very useful Defender to have solid rebounder just good kind of allaround defensive player gets the Steals and the blocks he can guard fours and fives very successfully in my mind would the Grizzlies sign Paul Reed I would say the drawback to signing Paul Reed is he’s not a shooter and the fit among the players in the Grizzly’s rotation right now it’s not ideal I don’t think Paul Reed makes a ton of sense playing power forward alongside Zach EDI I don’t think Paul Reed would play alongside Brandon Clark and that goes back to more of the roster fit issues with the bigs you already have on your team Zach e and jiren Jackson Jr on paper fit and then you have maybe more questions about the other combinations of big so because of that reason I don’t think Paul Reed is the right fit and also going back to the top of the show or the first half of the show The griz’s are $4 million from the luxury tax line are they really going to go into it for some of these players who are out here I I really doubt it I mean even like a guy like Davis Bron who got waved Davis Baton you know as far as an end the bench shooter he’s a 6 fo1 Gunner makes 40% of his threes and 90% of his free throws you could do worse I made a joke in the grits and grind slack Channel he’s he’s Luke Canard with worst PR Luke by the way gets way more rebounds than the 610 Davis Bron gets but like there’s still a few guys left out there in the free agent market like Gary Trent Jr uh he does not have a home he’s languishing are the Grizzlies using that to like squeeze Luke Canard who knows anyways now we have some breaking news to cover about the Grizzlies it was bound to happen at some point this off season that something would happened while I was trying to record and edit and get these shows out but the Grizzlies have first of finalized their coaching staff and they have officially announced their summer league roster well the good news for the summer league roster is it’s exactly what was already posted on nba.com so everything I said earlier this episode looks like it is correct now as far as the coaching staff this is the announcement that the team has hired Tomas ISO also rounding out the coaching staff of course no l Ro which is already been reported and then Anthony Carter stays from last season Patrick St Andrews who was a hire from last year he stays and then the Grizzlies have added Joe boan who coached on the Timberwolves last season they’ve added Patrick Matumbo he was an assistant for the bucks he was on staff with Patrick St Andrews Wikipedia tells me there is no relation to D kimbe Matumbo then the Grizzlies have promoted Eric Schmidt from their video coordination team and then Jason March who of course has been the hustle head coach for the last several seasons he is listed as an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies so now there we have it everything’s official there is the new coaching staff for the Memphis Grizzlies let me run through the names one more time we have Anthony Carter Patrick St Andrews Noah lar Ro Tomas Isela Joe boand Patrick mutumbo Eric Schmidt and and Jason March and the summer league team is as I described it earlier in the show so now let’s end everything before anything else happens in the Grizzlies world so thanks for listening if you want to try out SeatGeek use that promo code fast break break they’ll give you $20 off your first ticket purchase on their app if you want to support my show do that at patreon.com Fastbreak breakfast you can join my slack Channel you can join my grits and grinds exclusive Slack Channel you can play fantasy basketball with me you get one bonus episode a month at minimum do itall patreon.com Fastbreak breakfast all right hope you guys have a great week it’s going to be a great week uh because again we got three Summer League games in Utah we got a minimum of five Summer League games coming up in Las Vegas so there’s going to be tons of basketball to talk about and I will be here for all of it make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcast all right talk to you soon go Grizz [Music]

NOTE: During the recording of this episode the #Grizzlies issued press releases about their brand new coaching staff and their official summer league roster. That news is addressed near the end of the show.

This episode discusses the Grizzlies hiring Tuomas Iisalo and finalizing their coaching staff, the signings of Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells, the Summer League roster, and Luke Kennard still being a free agent.

Join the Grits and Grinds listener slack AND get a monthly bonus episode at: http://patreon.com/fastbreakbreakfast

T-shirt sale happening now! NBA and Grizzlies gear for sale here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/fastbreak-breakfast?ref_id=9887&utm_campaign=9887&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=Fastbreak%2BBreakfast

Use promo code FBBF and Underdog Fantasy will match your first deposit up to $250! http://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-fastbreak-breakfast

Browse the NBA apparel from Homage: https://homage.sjv.io/gng

#memphisgrizzlies #draymondgreen #thunder #nuggets #warriors #lakers #clippers #rockets #pelicans #memphis #zachedey #purdue #nbadraft #nba #memphis #grizzlies #uconn #camspencer #washingtonstate #cougars #jaylenwells #lukekennard #nbafreeagency #nbafreeagents