9th Pick, Memphis Grizzlies | 2024 Mock Draft

9th Pick, Memphis Grizzlies | 2024 Mock Draft

welcome back into the mock draft for the Grand City medas oh 2024 mock draft I’m so excited for this because I feel like this is the video that everyone has been waiting for the number nine pick goes to the Memphis Grizzlies joining me to represent the Grizzlies is our good friend dichael Cole dichael welcome hey hey good to be here happy to be here what shoes do you have in the background there um these are some some some blue and white ones I got right here Grizzlies so you know and I got my my see it’s very clear what my favorite color is so Grizzlies it was meant to be it was meant to be wasn’t it all right let me set the scene for everyone um the Grizzlies have a pick in the lottery the number nine overall pick so we’ve been going through this to Michael and each time I kind of set the scene for everyone who like maybe didn’t watch the Trailblazers or maybe didn’t watch the Spurs all year and I’m like hey this is like kind of what they look to do they’ve stacked some young Talent the griz’s are in a very different situation simply because last year is this weird outlier of every player being injured so it’s not like Portland where you know they had a a top three pick last year and then they’ve kind of got a bunch of young talents and they’re starting their rebuild the gries are not in a rebuild you just had a really bad season last year with a ton of injuries so it’s a cool opportunity for the Grizzlies to come in and add Talent on a team that’s already very talented um and there are 7,000 billion different ways that you could go with this pick so before I put you on the clock I’m gonna ask you which direction you think the Grizzlies go do you think they go hey we need this position this position we need some depth do you think they go hey we’re at number nine let’s pick someone with the highest ceiling which direction do you think the Grizzlies go with this pick the Grizzlies aren’t looking for anyone to put on training wheels I I think you know you just said they’re in a different position than some of these other lottery teams from a talent standpoint we’ve seen most of these players on the Grizzlies team be on teams that finish number two in the west win 50 plus games so that’s probably going to be the expectation going into next season to be on a 50 plus win team a lot of these other teams are trying to find building blocks pieces like that the Grizzlies have building blocks they have John Morant Desmond B jiren Jackson Jr GG Jackson Vince Williams they have the building blocks now to me the position that the Grizzlies are in they’re trying to find the complimentary pieces and the areas that they’re weak uh which there aren’t many they’re trying to find players that cover up some of those weaknesses whether it’s shooting whether it’s rebounding whether it’s uh another rim protector as Zack kman said in the past you know another big uh that’s what I think the Grizzlies are focusing in on they want someone who’s probably going to be ready to come in and play uh day one rather than someone they’ll have to send down to the G league and you know uh probably won’t see much of this season all right that being said let’s put Michael Cole on the clock representing the Memphis Grizzlies put on your your Adam Silver Voice yeah let’s go with the whole thing I’ll do the whole breakdown with the ninth pick in the 2024 NBA draft the Memphis Grizzly select Dalton connect shooting guard small Ford out of the University of Tennessee all right I had a feeling we’re are going to go here so let’s break this down for a second okay um SEC player of the year he’s a 66 uh shooting guard he averaged 21 points per game five rebounds shot 40% from the three 46% from um the field he’s probably probably the most polished like offensive player that there is in the draft he’s great at catch and shoot he can shoot off the dribble he’s a vertical finisher when he gets uh to the rim he’s a willing passer all these really really really good things I’ll go to concerns after but all the good things that I’m in about him how does that fit into the Grizzlies offense it’s a perfect fit because uh what the Grizzlies need is as I just said complimentary players you think about the way that J gets downhill you think about the way that Dez can get downhill jiren Jackson Jr uh you know face up game and the way he’s kind of developed uh going to the basket and and you need Shooters around these type of players you need very complimentary uh pieces here’s the thing about the Grizzlies as good as they’ve been over the past four or five seasons they they haven’t finished in the top 15 in three-point shooting under Taylor Jenkins the highest was 17th a couple years ago doing the 56 uh win season outside of that they’ve been below uh 20 they’ve been in the lower third of the NBA in three-point shooting the last time that the Grizzlies as a franchise were in the top 10 in three-point shooting was 2006 2007 so you talk about Desmond Banes Elite shooting uh you got Luke Canard uh still in the picture right now and then if you add D kette to me that get you three Elite level shoes guys where you know if they’re wide open you can just go back to running to the other end and say oh yeah that’s a bucket you have a couple other guys like you know I think Vince Williams you can trust him to a decent degree and a couple other guys as well but dolin connect gives you a certified Elite score and then to another level uh he’s a big guy like he’s 6667 uh 220 plus pounds and the thing about that that stands out to me is if you watch his college highlights uh there’s several tape of him you know when he goes against the bigger guards he’s going off the dribble he’s using his quickness when he goes against the smaller guys he has a very good postup game that plays really well because what you’ll see is let’s say he’s on the floor with JN morand and Desmond ban teams will try to put their top two Defenders on Jah and Dez and they’ll try to hide their weakest perimeter defender on whoever that spot up shooter is right now that probably would be a Marcus Mark Vince Williams but uh if it’s him if it’s D kette he has the ability to go in the block post up on those little 636 guards that they try to and he’s shown in his SEC tape that he can dominate those matchups so I think he fits uh in all of those areas he’ be a great complimentary piece on the Grizzlies all right you sold me you’ve made me excited for this but now let’s talk about just some of the concerns okay now there’s two glaring concerns one is his age he’s 23 years old and so the question is how much potential does he still have left in the tank and now I say that with like an asterisk next to it because look we got Desmond Bane when he was older in the draft and that worked out so that’s like one way to look at it two is his defense um he’s not like like I said one of the best offensive players like ready packaged together that there is in the draft defense isn’t perfect but right now you do have two former defensive players of the year on the team so I’m wondering if that kind of outweighs the lack of elite defense that you’re getting from Dalton so I want to know if either of those two things are concerning at all to you uh the age thing isn’t a concern for me simply because you’re not going to ask him to be a superstar now if he was going to a developmental team where you know uh they’re drafting guys and they’re hoping you know they’re signing them to a Max rookie extension in in three or four years be different but in Memphis you have those guys already you just need someone who’s going to be able to play off of them well and be a very good role player which I think uh he already has some of those capabilities so the age doesn’t concern me because I think he has a high floor more so than you know we can talk about the sing but I don’t think it’s sillin really matters in this case it’s more about if he reaches the high level floor where he’s a double digit scorer consistent three-point shooter the Grizzlies win uh they win in this case now uh defensively there are some concerns there uh and again so he has good size right 67 you know you can play him against multiple positions and whatnot uh the foot the foot movement you know the lateral movement and things like that there are some questions there but at the same time if you want to counter that point you can say he had a very high usage at UT and there have been several cases in the past where guys are in college they have very high usages and then they come to the NBA and they play a lower usage offensive role and then their defense take goes to a Next Level the first guy that just popped in my head is nille Alexander Walker you go to him uh in college uh he wasn’t really projected to be this amazing Defender even though he had good measurables and whatnot because at when he was in college I think at Virginia Tech uh he did a lot of offenseive then he he carried the offense uh there’s a case of a lot of guys like that and in his case it’s the other way around he had a a very high offensive Usage Now when he goes to the league if he plays with the Grizzlies they’re not going to ask him to do too much offensively a couple pick and rolls here and there just here catch and shoot basically he’ll be able to reserve a lot of his energy for the defensive end which will lead to more effort he has good size I think he’s he’s strong and um we’ll see you know how that translate I still think it’s a moderate concern I’m not expecting him to be any type of Lockdown Defender by any means so uh maybe that limits the potential on him as a starter you know maybe he’s just a good Reserve because he’s not a a potential lock down defender in any in any case but uh yeah I think those concerns are kind of valid but the age one I’m not too uh worried about all right thank you dichael one of our very first videos together even though we see each othering game with for the Grizzlies but uh I appreciate you coming on this has been really fun and we are less than a month less than a couple away from seeing what actually shakes down in this NBA draft so I appreciate your time very much of course anytime appreciate you

Kelcey Wright Johnson is joined by Damichael Cole for the ninth overall pick in the Grind City Media 2024 Mock Draft presented by Southland Casino.

The Memphis Grizzlies are on the clock! Who will they take?

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