As the resumption approaches, DNA of Sports continues its traditional presentation, franchise by franchise, of the upcoming NBA season. Like every year, this takes the form of a countdown, from the teams expected at the bottom of the ranking to our favorite for the champion title.
Today, direction Memphis to evoke the Grizzlies who ultimately disappointed last year, like their suspended leader, Ja Morant.
Above 50 wins for the second consecutive season, the Grizzlies shone in the regular season. But to be knocked out in the first round, too immature against the veterans of the Lakers. Disturbed by Ja Morant’s early suspension and Dillon Brooks’ attitude, Memphis wasted a great opportunity.
Suspended for the first 25 games of the season, Ja Morant will at least have the right to follow the team to stay up to date with his little comrades. To compensate for his absence, and to bring leadership and seriousness into the locker room, the Grizz sacrificed Tyus Jones to recover Marcus Smart. By adding the local of the stage, Derrick Rose, who could also take minutes at the lead.
With the return of Steven Adams and the arrival of Marcus Smart, in addition to last year’s best defender, Jaren Jackson Jr, revenge after a catastrophic World Cup, Memphis should present a formidable defensive profile. Hoping that it holds up physically, with three players who have had their share of glitches.
As a whole, the Grizzlies can aim very high, but will they be for the start of the playoffs? And will they be ready in time? Because the precious Brandon Clarke is on the sidelines following a ruptured Achilles tendon, and it will be a question of following the integration of Ja Morant into the collective, and more particularly in a back line which will already be in place and rather provided. There is therefore a whole hierarchy to define in the absence of the leader, then to redefine when he returns.with also questions about the winger position and on the bench…
SUMMER MOVEMENTS
Arrivals: Marcus Smart (Boston), Derrick Rose (New York)
Departures: Tyus Jones (Washington), Dillon Brooks (Houston)
THE PLAYER TO FOLLOW: JA MORANT
It is obviously the shadow that will hang over Tennessee at the start of the season. Suspended for a quarter of the regular season for once again showing himself in possession of a firearm, Ja Morant burned his fingers. And he pays the price, even if the NBA does not want to ostracize one of its rising stars…
The good news is that he was authorized to stay with his team, authorized to travel and participate in collective training. This will have several advantages: to keep him within the staff, and therefore to monitor him, at least from a distance. But above all to involve him from the start.
Of his real determination to stay focused on basketball, and only basketball, over the entire season, including the playoffs, the fate of Memphis will depend. If he manages to keep the focus and evolve at the level we know of him in recent years, i.e. 26 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds, the Grizz will be there at the end of the season!
Average age: 25.8 years
Payroll: $153.7 million (21st)
THE IDEAL SCENARIO
Motivated to prove his critics wrong, logically more numerous lately, Ja Morant tumbles into the season like a starving man. He quickly finds his habits and his production, blending easily into a team he has worked with since the start of the season in training.
In his absence, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane took over the scoring perfectly, helped by the experience of Marcus Smart and the distance skills of Luke Kennard, who remains on his good momentum from last year upon his arrival from the Clippers, at 54% from 3-point range and more than 11 points per game.
Like Steven Adams who can finally play one match after another, the team is doing well, strong in its collective experience and in health that is finally smiling. Memphis is one of the favorites in the West, with a third season beyond the symbolic milestone of fifty victories. Enough to start the playoffs with home advantage, and a hell of an appetite!
THE WORST SCENARIO
Weighed down by a sluggish start without their star leader, the Grizzlies must also manage recurring physical problems from their veterans, Marcus Smart and Steven Adams, largely involved in a still nebulous rotation and a bench which must find its feet following the departure of solid Tyus Jones.
The return of Ja Morant does not allow the Grizz to turn a corner, they who have been chasing the pack in the Western Conference all season. His integration thus takes a little longer than expected and forces Memphis to compete in a “play-in” which is always tricky, even if the group gradually gains strength towards the end of the season.
But this final sprint is too late, and ultimately too short, for this group in recomposition, Taylor Jenkins having never found a solid solution on the wing to replace Dillon Brooks.
