Overview of last season
The Memphis Grizzlies took the league by storm last season as a young and brash team exuding confidence. They were a must-watch group because of their electrifying highlight plays led by their animated young star Ja Morant. They finished the regular season with the second-best record at 56-26. After beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round, they threatened the Golden State Warriors in the conference semifinals before bowing out in six games.
What’s new this season?
The core of the Grizzlies remains relatively intact. Ja Morant is still the primary star and he is flanked by Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, Zaire Williams, and Steven Adams. Jaren Jackson Jr., meanwhile, is coming off surgery on his foot but he is expected to suit up sometime during the season.
That’s a loaded roster that can cause a lot of trouble for opposing teams. Not only are they talented, but now they’ve got more playoff experience under their belts.
The front office did tweak their roster just a bit during the offseason. They traded De’Anthony Melton and acquired Danny Green from the Philadelphia 76ers plus the 23rd overall pick in the recent draft which turned out to be David Roddy. They also got Jake LaRavia out of Wake Forest as the 19th overall pick. Another significant change is the departure of Kyle Anderson who went to Minnesota.
THE guy
Memphis made a leap last season because its main guy also took a leap. Morant was named to the All-Star Game, All-NBA Second Team, and earned Most Improved honors. He was even mentioned in MVP considerations. He put up 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 1.2 steals in his third year in the league.
Morant attacks opposing teams with ferocity, like a hurricane rampaging through town. He penetrates the stingiest of defenses to either get a bucket or find the open man. But it’s not only his aggressiveness that’s captivating, however, as there was craftiness and creativity to his game. In every drive to the basket, it was as if he was thinking on the fly, testing the limits of both his imagination and physical capabilities.
What does he have in store for Year 4?
Sneaky fun guy
Desmond Bane might be the supplementary star that the Grizzlies are looking for outside of Jaren Jackson Jr. From averaging just 9.2 points in his rookie year, Bane took a massive jump in his sophomore season, amassing 18.2 points while knocking down three triples per game.
Bane was so instrumental for Memphis last season that he even received Morant’s Most Improved Player trophy as a gift.
It’ll be fascinating to witness how his game continues to blossom. Morant will get the headlines throughout the season but watch out for more Desmond Bane.
Vibe check
There are a lot of expectations for the Grizzlies this season. After entering the conference semis and even getting two wins against the eventual champs, the logical question for them is what’s next? And the equally reasonable answer for them is to continue to move up. They want to be in the conversation of potential champions and not just be playoff contenders.
This young group has potential written all over them. It’s just a matter of meeting those expectations head-on. They don’t want last season (and the season before where they lost in the first round) to be merely a fluke and burn out quickly. If anything, they can look at how the Warriors morphed themselves into a championship team by slowly improving every year since they burst into the playoffs in 2013. The Warriors also got booted out of the postseason in the conference semis that year, followed by a first-round exit, before winning it all in 2015. Are the Grizzlies on that same trajectory?
The Memphis Grizzlies remain a team to definitely keep an eye on. The expectations are high and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll fare this season.
