What’s Next For the Grizzlies? | Grizz Beat

What’s Next For the Grizzlies? | Grizz Beat

It’s time for Grizzbeat, a full court quick press of highlights, insights, news, and scoops covering the Grizzlies and the NBA. Catch up each week on the latest Grizz Buzz with regional and national insiders locked in on our squad. Running Point from Grind City Media Studios, our host, Jarvis Greer. Well, you know, I guess I’ve had enough time to get over it by now. I was all optimistic thinking we back here ready to talk about game five, but nope, it’s over. The Grizz lose in four to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Uh the Thunder, you know, you got to take your hat off to them, but you got to give the Grizz credit for not doing what the Knicks did. The Knicks got absolutely mollywalked at home where the Grizzlies come back after getting mollywalked on the road and making them close games there at down the stretch including that last game was down to the last end as my grandma would say the last second. Wow, what a way to go out but it did happen. We got a great panel as always in here to talk about the Grizzlies and what happened, what’s going on right now and also looking in to the future. Joining us is Lang Whitaker from Grind City Media. And how many shows are you hosting? too many of them. I noticed you’re still sad. You said you’re over it a little bit, but you still wore all black today. Well, you know, I’m I’m this morning, you know, you got to sit Shiva for a little while until, you know, things, you know, till till the mind catches up with what is actually going on. But hey, it’s all good. I’m still wearing the bear. You know what I mean? Yeah, we all are. We we got to do that. And of course, as always, joining us here in studio, we have the one and only guru of Grind City Media himself, the great Michael Wallace, as my grandson calls him. Of course, you rocking the GCM right there. And uh I enjoyed the call uh that you had with Eric Hasseline on the radio, but man, depressing there at the end. But you know, the way they went out, at least they died with their boots on. I I got you, man. And you could tell you’re still shaken up by it because you said the Knicks. The Knicks are still playing. I wish the Grizzlies were the Knicks right now. You meant the Miami Heat. I meant the Heat taking that 55 point loss on their home court. But yeah, either way, and Molly, I’ve heard that before. That’s They lost by 40 and then 45. Is that what it was? No, they lost by 55. 55 in game four. Take our name off that list. Good. Me and the Grizzlies are competitive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But looking forward to it, man. We got a lot to wrap up and a lot to look forward to this offseason. So, we’re good. Yeah. A whole lot. The season’s never over in the association. It is just beginning right now as we look to the forefront for the Memphis Grizzlies. And what better way to do that than in ex uh interviews they had on uh Sunday after the after the season officially ended. King Klyman, Zack Kleimman himself, the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies, spoke about what he thought. And here’s some things to go through the notables. The Grizz did finish 48 and 34. That’s second. They were second in the Southwest Division for a while, but they finished second in the Southwest Division. They were second in the league for a long, long time until the calendar changed to 2025 and then it started to go south. They secured the number eight seed in the West with a playin win over the Mavericks. They were swept 40 in the first round by the number one seed Thunder who their measurables and everything else with some of the the best numbers ever put up in the NBA. They dismissed head coach Taylor Jenkins Tay. They told him baby and brought in Tuas ESL as the uh interim head coach. Brought him up off the bench. They spent a lot of money to get him here. Uh and he had turned down a chance to be the Wizards head coach to come to Memphis as an assistant. So that says something about it. All kind of things going on right there. And as you think about it, here’s what Zack uh Klyman had to say in his exit interview talking about the Grizzlies and the season that was. I think there’s there’s so much good. You know, I I I get the question. I respect it. Of course, there’s there’s more work to be done. There’s a level that I think everyone has to embrace and and you know, be willing to get to to get to, you know, reach the ultimate goal here, you know, certainly. And and in many ways, I I I don’t think we can look back at this series and and this season and say, “Oh, we’re close.” No, we’re we’re not we’re we’re not close. There’s a lot of work to be done. I need to be, you know, open-minded on multiple respects. It’s it’s been clear, you know, for some time. And from a cultural standpoint, from the type of guys that we want here, I I next month, this will be 10 years that all have lived in Memphis and and have been, you know, working for this team. And it’s crystal clear to me that the type of players that this that happen to overlap also with what I I think lead to success, you know, in from a team building standpoint, but the type of of players that re resonate, you know, with with this fan base that that are impactful, you know, to the city, it’s it’s the gritty guys. It’s it’s guys who have, you know, that that, you know, dog to their game. And for for some time now, you know, we we have been emphasizing and are going to continue, you know, to look for guys like that. And again, this is the work on the margin. I tell you what, guys, we could do a whole show just on that those comments alone. The main thing that stood out for me, he said that are we where we need to bleed? We’re not even close. He said we are not even close. That means looking at this roster and everything, a lot needs to happen. And also said we need some dogs. Uh yeah, roof. Roof. Let’s go with you, Lank Whitaker. I want to push back a little bit because I I think you finished four losses out of the two seed in the Western Conference. I I think you are close. Um I mean, maybe you’re not close to Oklahoma City. Yeah, I think that’s probably what he meant. But you’re close to being a top four team in the NBA in terms of wins, losses, standings, and all that. And also like, yeah, I think you’re close to being a a team that you can rely on every single night that’s going to put fans in seats and and make it an entertaining team to come watch. Um, you know, he said at one point in the in his remarks something about we’re not just one gritty wing away. I think you kind of are like from from being at least a team that can win 52 games and give you a shot 53 games. You you’re the two seed in the in the playoffs. Like you don’t mess with the playin, you get an easier first round matchup, all that stuff. So, I I I would say like, yeah, may maybe you’re a little closer than you than you think, but as far as being close to winning a championship, I I I sort of agree. No, we’re not that close to that. Well, when you look at it, Michael Wallace, you got uh, of course, Oklahoma City 16 games better than any team in the West. That’s what they finished. Uh, Cleveland on the other side, Boston’s really good, but you caught Boston in Boston. So, you know, there’s that. But when you look at it, you know, how close is it that you want to compete or you want to win titles? Sometimes it’s a little bit of both. Well, first thing I want to say is lang pass me whatever you’re drinking. It’s water. You know what I’m saying? Because I need I need I need to take a swig of that. You know, because the thing is at this stage, you’re not playing for second place in the West. You’re not playing for top four. You’re playing to be in the conference finals and the NBA finals. Conference finals gets you to the top four, but that’s not good enough. Your payroll is going to be reflective of winning a championship. You’re going into the tax now, winning a championship. either if once you get to this level of payroll and J and Jiren are gonna be making a collective $99.5 million next season next season. And that’s with Jiren still on a discounted contract and J not even on a supermax. So that’s just with these guys not even super maxed out yet. You’re still going to account for $100 million at $100 million with three players. You better be championship ready or it’s a failure or you’re coming up well short. Um good for climbing to admit that. I think all he did was admit what 16 18,000 people in the stands can see for themselves that this team is not close to Oklahoma City, which is why you needed to play this series so you can learn just how close you are to an NBA championship ready type team. The Grizzlies have had five years to get to this point. And then the reality is that they still may need another season or two of of tinkering and tweaking to get over that hump to be one of those Boston or Oklahoma City titans. Yeah. And he talked about, you know, we need some dogs here. Yeah. And it’s kind of like, okay, you’ve got players you look at, I look at the PAL trade, you know, PE Pal is in a Hall of Fame, right? Um, but Pal was a typical type European player who came over here young. He didn’t really look like he had that dog mentality like this city demands of his. You may not be the most talented, but as long as you’re diving on the floor, snot coming out your nose, everything else, getting after the ball. Hey, people will love you for it. Know, hey, that’s what they liked about the injury riddle season last year. And that those players, they went out and gave it all they had possibly because they knew they were fighting for their NBA lives, just about every one of them out there. But they still put it all on the line every game even though they knew they were overmatched. So you got to have that, you know, that Doberman type play. But but the thing about it, Jarvis, is that is again like we it’s okay to hold leaders accountable for what they say they want to do. Right. Right. Zack Kleman said next year will be year 10 that he’s been here or next month will be year 10 that he’s been here. You know who was on the team when he first got here? Tony Allen. That’s a dog. It’s not like he didn’t realize what a dog and and what a player that resonates with this city looks like. He came in and inherited that. So, it’s not it shouldn’t, you know, what is a dog in his mind versus what is a dog in everybody else’s mind. Look, it’s not about the dogs in that situation. You know, uh Kyle Anderson is a dog, but he doesn’t go out there and just do certain things that Tony Allen would do. You know, um Vince Williams is a dog. He just wasn’t good this year because he wasn’t healthy. So I think I think I think what Zach wanted to do and what he tried to accomplish in that sound bite was speaking to the fan base saying I’m with you and here’s why I’m with you because I’m going to start talking like you’re talking but the reality is a little bit disconnected also like you you don’t need 12 dogs. No, you just need like a couple and you know he mentioned they have a few but like you know thinking about and even if one of them’s crazy you know you got to have that crazy better but thinking about Palasold like Dylan was a dog you just had him. Yeah, but Palold like thinking about him like sure he wasn’t a quote unquote dog but when you put him alongside alongside Kobe Bryant or whoever you know other type of players our test then it’s fine. So I think you know maybe it’s just finding those other finding some dogs to put alongside what you have here and that’ll elevate everybody’s game. Marcus Smart was a dog. He just didn’t work out. Like it’s not like you don’t know what the blueprint is like you got to get guys that are working out and that’s where the the shortcoming was. I’ll just say this and we’ll move on. I think you could you saw in little glimpses what Marcus Smart could have done for this team in the playoffs if not for the finger that was going the wrong way after a Laker game out there where he shot a three and his finger came out of joint and then it came out of joint again and he missed what three quarters of the of the season. You never had a chance to really see what he could do and you didn’t know if you were going to be able to count on that if he were able to come back. How how much did he play with the Wizards eft when he was trained? I think 15 games or something like that and I don’t think anything was very notable in that. So, uh it’s just one of those things just trying to get through a season healthy, man. Get into the summer healthy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get that last check. But, uh speaking of guys that will be looking at checks, there’s one of them in particular, the big three, u J, Jiren, and Dez. One thing also that uh we that Kimman said in his exit interview, we have to be open-minded in what we look at. Jarant, Jiren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane. They have won only one playoff series. They go they only one playoff series win in five years here. Now there’s some mitigating circumstances with injury and all that stuff but still just one playoff series win. That was against Minnesota. The Grizzlies core three set to earn a combined 99 a.5 million next season as you pointed out Guru and that is without Jiren’s expected uh increase coming and he will get an increase of some sort. And uh Trip J and Bane they played 42 of 88 games together this season. That’s that’s not even half the season. So it’s so hard to say what you have and what you don’t have. But anyway, here’s what the players think about the season. We’ll start off with y’all. Um, obviously injuries that’s frustrating. Not being on the floor is frustrating. Uh, losing games is frustrating. Um, but I try to find a positive, you know, in everything. And, uh, you know, with us, uh, I feel like we showed, you know, signs of, you know, what we what we could be, uh, what we can be. And, um, that’s just, you know, what I I took from, you know, this season. Um just trying to make sure that the stuff we did right uh we continue to do, you know, consistently and day in and day out. Uh and just continue to get better. Uh I feel like our our organization’s done a pretty good job of um including us in in some of the stuff that’s that’s going on and um you know, their vision on on how we can can potentially get there. Um and and I I think we will. Um, you know, I think Zach’s very motivated um to to make that happen and um we’ll we’ll see what what the next steps are. Yeah, I mean should have, could have, would a lot of things. Um I wish I would have been better late. I think uh that’s what’s fresh freshest in my mind is just my performance and our performance late I think needed to rise to um another level obviously to to beat to beat the Thunder and uh yeah you know we were the two seed for a while we were the three seed for a little bit we were a lot of different seeds for a little bit of time so I think there there’s something to make of when we were playing really really good basketball and going on streaks and I think we need to tap into some of that to get back to that level of production and then go to a whole another level to have better success in the postseason cuz that’s what really what it’s all about. Um I definitely put like more of that on myself to like get us to where we need to go cuz I know like if I’m at that level then we’ll be even better. So it’s really just on me and yeah, you know, uh Trip’s holding himself accountable as he did in there. He said he does need to have more dog in him. Also, if you look at his playoffs numbers, his playoff numbers are not even close to what his regular season numbers are. He’s got to be able to step it up when it counts most. And I guess most people, you know, in the f in the stands that we’re talking said, we had a 29-point lead. Jo’s down in game three and you still got two of the big three there and you can’t hold on to it and close it out. That’s the bad taste in the fans mouth right now. Me personally, I don’t think they’re going to do anything with the big three. I think they’re going to try to go around the margins, but you know, there’s all kind of other ways to look at this when you look at Jaw’s 25, Jiren’s 25, Dez is 26. They’ve been together for a while now, as you said, uh, Michael Wallace. But, uh, you know, it it’s like put up or shut up now. We’re we’re at that point. And that’s a really tough thing in my opinion. John not tradable. He is your international star. Everybody knows about the Grizzlies and Memphis because of John Moran. the other guys, they got to put they got to pick it up in the postseason. That’s got to happen. Uh Lang Whitaker will go. But to me, the issue is the other guys, if they got to pick it up in the postseason, they’ve been doing it without Jaw um for most of the postseason series. They’ve been Jaw’s never finished the postseason series where we got knocked out. So if you’re those guys, like you know, you your role changes throughout the season. Sometimes we saw Jiren during this season when he was sort of the main focus point of the offense. He was awesome for most of the season, but then when J came back, Darren Jiren had to kind of take more of a back seat and struggled in some ways in that role. Um, so I think, yeah, to your point, Jarvis, I don’t think they’re going to move one of these big three guys in the offseason. Um, I think it’s probably easier to go around the margins and try to bring in someone here or there. We’ve seen him do that the last few years. If you do go and move one of the big three guys, especially if they’re so young right now, like if you’re going to go move one of those guys, like you got to get some kind of great value for that or it might signal the beginning of just kind of trying to start over. I I don’t know. Mike, what what do you think, man? I mean, you guys have laid it all out like that. And that’s what the point of the show is, right? To just lay all of these things out on the table and the people who get paid far more than us that write our checks have to make those decisions. And you know, just kind of just parsing through some of the things that you guys have said, these guys are still young, mid20s, right? And and I go back and I look at some of the other teams that got to this point without having won it all yet and they had a crossroads. Tatum and Brown got to year five before they broke through, right? And and and won won their championship together. Um maybe year five or six for them. Nola, Jamal Murray, and and uh Michael Porter Jr., you know, it took them a while, right? It took them four or five years together get battle scars and and then you had to pay them and then they won. They broke through. That’s where the Grizzlies are right now. The difference between the Grizzlies and those Celtics and and and theuh Nuggets is that you saw progression in the postseason, right? We have seen one series victory with these guys together. One Boston had gotten to the conference finals multiple times or the, you know, second round. Denver did the same thing. We haven’t seen these guys break through past the first round, but one time and it took them a miraculous rally to get past Minnesota in that first round, right? So, I don’t I don’t think you break it up, but I’ve also seen this team tinker around the margins and that hasn’t worked either. So, how much more margin tinkering can there be before you say the top three guys need to be re-evaluated? I give it one more year. Like honestly, I’m willing to sit through one more I don’t I wouldn’t even say one more full year. If this team isn’t first, second, or solidly third in the West by trade deadline, then you got to The thing is they were second in the West deadline this year. They were. But we knew we knew it was some some empty calories in that though. We knew that that record was topheavy against teams that weren’t good. And we knew that every time they played a team that was a quality team with the exception of Boston and maybe another Milwaukee at that time, it was it was empty calories and we knew they were trending towards a they weren’t playing well. They were winning games but weren’t playing well. But you’re right. You know, we can’t let our eyes deceive us though. Again, I get it. But if next year, let’s say next year they go into the trade deadline, they’re two in the West. Same thing. They’ve had some, you know, against the best teams they’re two and eight or whatever. Like, like then you kind of, it’s still a hard case to make to like say we should blow it up now when you’re two in the West. But think about it. When we when they were two in the West in February, did you feel like they would be able to catch Cleveland or Oklahoma City? So, you you could tell that, right? So, what I’m saying is that two in the West doesn’t mean two in 15 games behind one. No. like it has to be two and you’re right there having already split with those guys and shown that okay this is where we this is we got to look like what we’re supposed to be looking at in and also looking into it is a tough time though it’s a tough line it is well this is where you know you talk about above the pay grade this is where Zack Kleimman really is going to have to work the numbers and try to be able to crunch things because I can’t remember what the Celtics you know how what their situation was I know Danny A had a bunch of draft picks he was able to play with to bring some people in and then he made the trade to get Porzingis And that helped him helped him out. But he had Oh no, no. Angel was already gone. Already gone. Brad Stevens. Yeah. Brad Stevens. Yeah. Okay. Brad Steven. That’s right. He came in from Butler and was there for Yeah. But he I think he inherited he still had some of those draft picks in his pocket that Ames had gotten, you know, from previous campaigns. And and and one thing that was on that graphic earlier, the the big three’s only played 42 of 88 games and J has not finished the playoff series. That’s part of the evaluation though, Jarvis. Like at a certain point you’re injuryprone, right? At a certain point you cross the line from being, “Oh man, if they could just get healthy to these guys, we can’t bank on health.” Okay. And that’s part of it. That’s part of it. I mean, that’s part of what the that’s part of what the evaluation is. The best ability is availability. Availability. And also, you know, you had that problem with with Brandon Clark, who is a dog in my I think you would all agree he’s a dog out there, but he’s missed two of the last three uh playoffs on on kind of freakish stuff. Yeah, that that happened. You know, like all J are freak your stuff. Yeah, J, it’s not like he’s just running around and, you know, falls down. No, he’s been taken out. And I still don’t know why they haven’t called. I’m writing the commissioner. We need flagrant fouls called. I mean, dude, in that Laker game, so and so, I forget who it was, took him out on that alleyoop and then there goes his hip, his hips out. He misses however many games that you think the NBA would and then uh then uh Dort takes him out at the end and you could say, “Oh, yeah, he slipped.” He did, but then he’s throwing his hands up and that, you know, that takes Jaw’s legs out. You think the NBA would be more proactive about protecting guys like that? Because they’re high flyers. They can do things. They put out these tweets about how the NBA got 100 million views or that was the number one, you know, his reverse layup or 360 layup in Brooklyn was their number one social mo media moment of the year. So, the NBA probably makes a lot of money off that, right? Yeah. So, like, why don’t we protect these guys? Yeah. I’m not saying do anything that you know unwar make the you know make the game unfair or anything like that but I mean just call it like like you would call it. Goodness gracious. But anyway, that was getting I was getting off on a tangent. So are we in agreement here that we think that the big three will be back next year and then they’ll make some other moves here and All right. Let me ask you this before we move on from that. Uh well, who’s eligible? You got Vince, you got Gigi. Gigi didn’t play the last few games and and he was expected to be I was expecting him to be. Maybe he’s that big wing that the that the Grizzlies have been looking for. Both Vince and Gigi got hurt in the preseason. Gigi missed training camp, missed half the season. He didn’t get on the floor. Vince got hurt that bone thing in his leg. Came back, hurt his knee, came back, hurt his ankle. We were there that night. That ankle turned all the way. I don’t know. And it took him a long time to come back from that. And then when he did get in the games, he wasn’t Vince Williams until he finally started to look like it a little bit that last two games that he played and that. So, you know, what do you do there? Can you make some do you package something or do you say, “Hey, look guys, we we still believe in you.” And who wants to go first? Go ahead. You got it. I mean, the one thing when Kimman named off all these guys who are dogs, he didn’t mention Gigi Jackson. No, he didn’t. Which I thought was sort of interesting by the omission of it. U The one thing with Gigi, like you mentioned, Jarvis, like you know, we need that big wing. you need that other guy to be a complimentary piece. Like we don’t really need a scorer in that role. You need someone who can play defense, move the ball, don’t turn it over, all those things. And that’s not GG’s game from what we’ve seen. He he’s a scorer. He’s a guy who can put the ball on the floor, get you buckets. Um and that’s kind of not what they need at that at that spot. So maybe, you know, for him for development, like they had to send him down to the G- League to get him some some minutes late in the season. You know, maybe for for a player like GG, it’s better to go somewhere where you get a lot of playing time. I don’t know what the plan is for him long term. Um, but you know, Santi Odama also is a guy this off seasonason who’s restricted and they’re going to have to figure out what to do with him in the offseason. Mil Branch, take him down to Mill Branch up Chelsea and Bre. I’m still saying it. He showed it a couple of time. Santi has a skill. He can shoot and that’s undeniable. He can do that. Make good behind the back passes, too. Yeah, we we’ll see how that works out. One one person who was I think a dog. He’s just young. Jaylen Wills. What a find for the Grizzlies with the 39th pick in the draft. Jaylen Phillips, sorry about that. Jaylen finished third in the balling for rookie of the year, which is just tremendous when uh you you you think about that. And uh it’s like I don’t know that uh you know, he was not brought in though to be your starter at that wing position. and he was brought into, you know, Kleimman said himself, this is a guy we got to uh we thought was he was going to be in the G- League for a lot of the year, get some seasoning there and then maybe bring him up for a game or two, see how that works. But it just, you know, it turns out he beat out your veteran wing. Uh and then we got free agents here. Luke Canard, uh I I think we’re all in agreement Luke Canard will not be back. He signed that one-year 11 million dollar deal, and that was a a big reason why they only gave him one year. 8.9 points, 3.3 assists, 43% from three. Still one of the highest three-point percentages, but he just never shot the ball. Santi, as we were talking about, 12 and a half points per game, 6.4 rebounds. He had a bunch of double doubles during the year. 2.9 assists. He’s a guy that can do a lot of things for and he’s 7 feet tall. He can fill in at that center point. He block a couple of shots. Lamar Stevens, I love Lamar. Got a street named after him and everything, but I don’t know if he’s the answer at that uh uh small forward position. and he is a jack of all trades. And then Marvin Baggley who came in in the Jake Laavia trade from Sacramento. Um he had one he had a halfcourt fee from uh what wow 50 feet up in uh Oklahoma City and that was a highlight but that was about it. You know he had a really good game in the playin game and uh I think we may have seen the last of him. What do you guys think? I you know with those most of those guys with the exception of the last two guys Lamar Stevens and Marvin Baggley would be in a roster in a rotation guys and I think you could bring one or both back on on a on a fairly you know limited economical veterans. Yeah. Veteran veterans minimum type deals to be able to be your power rotation secondary guys. Santi is and Santi and Luke with Luke you have the option to do a sign and trade if you can find a partner where you you send them somewhere that you can get something back whether it’s an asset or another player uh that can help you. Santi is another guy that’s the big money free agent right there. So you know and this this would be for a restrict restricted free agent which means you can match any offer there or you can also facilitate it where you can sign him and then trade him as well too if that’s the case. Santi wants to come back. The Grizzlies like what he potentially brings, but I think they’re gonna let the market set what Santi’s value is going to be because it’s just so there’s not many teams out there that can pay Santi $20 million, right? He’ll be on the open market. I I think well he he would be looking at the the Dylan Brooks deal. That’s what he would be looking at in terms of what he wants, right? Um, I’m not sure if anybody outside of the Nets or the Hornets have that. But having said that, if he if they do have it, can you sign and trade them and add that fifth year and allow the Grizzlies to bring back something else that can help them from one of those rosters? We’ll see. But, um, you know, it’s it’s if if none of the four came back, it wouldn’t surprise me. If three of the four came back, it wouldn’t surprise me. But, I do think Luke is probably the most likely to be the a man. I watching Canard in the playoffs and toward the end of the season just every time I would watch him play I would think about how he was a type of like player 10 years ago who every NBA team was trying to find right like a Kyle Cor just a shooter just a shooter just a guy who could play off the ball catch and shoot at least those guys would shoot nowadays there’s such a value on three and D guys right you have to be able to play defense too and that’s not Luke’s strong suit like he’s an incredible shooter one of the greatest of all time but on defense teams are just targeting him over and over and you know I think there’s still a place for a guy like Luke Canard in the NBA on a team that just has a bunch of guys who can play a defense and needs off like a Houston or a team like that that just needs a shooter. Um so I think there’s some place they could probably find for Luke where you maybe get something back for him in some sort of a deal. Well, his percentage tells the story. I mean some you look at that and say, “Okay, let we’ll take a chance on him.” Not a chance, you know, he can shoot. Yeah, he can shoot. So just shoot the ball, Luke. We want to hear Luke. We would have liked to hear it, but I think we’ve heard it for the last time at FedEx Forum. That brings us to the first break here on Grisbee. When we come back, we’ll go around the NBA with a whole bunch of stories for you coming up next on Grisbee. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of trash talk in basketball, but the great teams let their performance do the talking. like Ford F-150 with Pro Power on board. A class exclusive industry first feature that turns your truck into a mobile generator and leaves the competition speechless. Ford F-150, official truck of the Grizzlies. Greatness starts here at your Midsouth Ford dealer. Classes full-size pickups under 8,500 lb. GBWR. Yesterday was the talk of the town. It was a cow on the side of the road. Do you live close to a movie theater? I’m just curious cuz maybe the cow was trying to go to the movies. [Music] Tune in to the Jessica Benson Show with CJ Hurt live every weekday at 8 a.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Marcus Jordan could get bookings. Don’t do that. You know what I’m saying? He had a lot of 30 balls in the NBA. on who? We better not see Marcus Thornton crosses over Tony Allen. Don’t let us find that. You forgot we got the internet, bro. You said you might have done that. Hey, you always forget the internet exists. The Chris Vernon Show live on weekdays at noon on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. the new issue of Slam. The cover dropped and it is our friend Jiren Jackson Jr. on the cover. And shout out to you, Lane. You kept I mean I mean we knew about it but you kept this a secret the whole time. So shout out to you for I wrote this story. We did the photo shoot a couple weeks ago here on a Sunday afternoon in uh in the practice court. The Sneakfest Show live Tuesdays at 2 p.m. on Grind City Media on X YouTube and the official Grind City Media mobile app. [Music] Hey, Grizz fam. 191 Collabs is coming back for the 2526 season, and the Grizzlies are looking for the next lineup of Memphis creators to design limited edition Grizz garments in their signature style. Take your vision from the drawing board to the team store and apply today at 191colabs.com. Welcome back to Beat Jarvis Greer Lang Whitaker in the studio with me here and we shift now to the fast break section of the show where we go around the league and right now we’re in the middle of the playoffs. The Grizzlies are out. A couple other teams are out but this is the rest of the bracket right here. And when you look at uh two teams that advanced uh moving on, Boston knocked off and completed uh their 4-1 series victory over the Orlando Magic. The Miami Heat got trounced as Jarvis mentioned in the beginning. Uh the Indiana Pacers held off in overtime and vanquished the Milwaukee Bucks. Guys, and I’ll start with you, Jarvis. When you look around where the standings in the uh playoff graphic sits right now, is there a series that catches your attention in terms of what you were most impressed by so far? Well, I that that Clippers Nugget series is just a lot of fun. It’s just a lot of fun. You got Nicole Joic doing incredible things. Talk a little bit more about him later. And then you got uh the Claw coming back and playing healthy with that Clippers team. That that has just been a back and forth amazing series right there that Hey, I’m so happy that the Pistons got a win and they got a win in New York. And you know, I’m have Jaylen Duran in company. Jaylen Duran of course being the the former Memphis Tiger and JB Vicker Staff being a former Grizzlies head coach, one of the best individuals you’d ever want to meet. They say, “Oh, he can only, you know, coach teams on the comeup, but maybe he’s not a a playoff coach.” Well, he’s he’s doing pretty well with a young team right now in that in that Knicks. And they got a big time win at the Garden last night to send that back to Detroit for game six. those mix uniforms with the New York and then New York. It’s kind of like the blend the Yeah, I thought I needed my 3D glasses on there to make it kind of come together. I got a feeling that one’s destined for game seven back in New York. I would love to see that go to game seven. Lang, what do you see? What’s another series that jumps out at you and and what you’ve been impressed with? I’d go we we already know that Cleveland’s going to play Indiana um in this next round. Indiana kind of had to play a wounded Bucks team and and put them out of their misery pretty quick. But Cleveland like very quietly because that series was all on like NBA TV and ESPNU. But Cleveland blew out 4:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. starts, right? Afternoon starts. Miami Heat and kind of did what they’ve been doing all season long and nobody really got a really good view of them. Um, and and you know, to be able to for Oklahoma City and Cleveland to kind of coast through that first round and now get a week off uh before they start that next series, I think it’s big for both of them. I I still think the Celtics are the best team in the NBA, but I guess we’ll see down the road. Okay. Okay. We’ll definitely see down the road, which brings me to my next question right there. I would say the most compelling series right now to me is the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. And right now, the Lakers are down 3-1 in that series, fighting for their life. Tonight, the guys over at Fox Sports One had a lot to say about the Lakers and whether their season will be done in the next game or two. Take a listen. He’s Well, you know, you have to start with JJ Reic right there. He’s lost confidence in his bench. But to his credit, he played this I mean, he coached this like a game seven cuz he figured if we lose this game, then the series is pretty much over. You know, I’ve seen coaches leave starters out, I mean, for extended minutes, maybe not a whole half like this, but this was pretty much their season on the line because we all know now that they’re down 3-1, they’re probably not going to come back. I mean, they they just they they look like they could they could have lost game two when they lit Minnesota back in the game. They just had one of the worst shooting performances of the year, but I just don’t see the way any way the Lakers can beat them. This team is young. They have a bench. They’re they’re better coached. uh they have a young superstar uh and just a number of things they’ve been together and that’s the thing people just think you can throw a team together and make a deep run in the playoffs too you know just because you got you ain’t been together like Lucas been there half the season not even that long enough and not only did you make a trade you brought a guy in to be the guy you know what I’m saying so I know I know it looks good and sound good on paper saying we got Luca Dangage and LeBron but it just don’t work like that you know they gonna need some time to develop a chemistry They going to have time to have to build out their bench because I I truly believe that their season is over uh at the end of this week. I think they’ll win game four, I mean game five and then go to Minnesota and probably uh get eliminated. Lang is Paul Pierce, does he have a point? Are the Lakers done either tonight or in game six? You think their week, their season will be over by the end of this week? There’s a reason they call Paul Pierce the truth because he was speaking the truth there. I think, you know, when they made the trade for Luca, I was on the grunt team media shows and I was like, he’s a great player. I get it. I don’t really understand the roster construction from the Lakers. And then they went out and tried to get Mark Williams from Charlotte, remember? And that was going to be their center. I’m just going to say and and it failed on the physical. Yeah. The Lakers failed him on the physical. He went back, played the rest of the season for Charlotte. Fine. It was good. Yeah. Now the Lakers have Jackson Hayes and nothing else really at at the center spot against a Minnesota team that has really good bigs and it’s just not a good fit for them. I think there’s a lot of matchups that would be bad fits for this Lakers team. Um, and they’ve got to figure out some stuff in the offseason to better construct that roster around Luca and LeBron. What do you think, J? What I’m thinking is the folks in Dallas are going, they are laughing their butts off it, thinking, “Ah, yeah, Luca. Wow, man. We miss you, Luka. No, we don’t.” Bye-bye, Lakers. They’re getting ready to get those fishing poles out. That’s that’s the main thing I think about this. The experiment didn’t work. But not getting Mark Williams from Charlotte I think really hurt what they were trying to do because we saw Mark Williams you know score 30 some 35 I think against Jiren here in a game that uh the the Grizz won the game but you know he looked like an an all-star stud like the second coming of an AD. So uh you know they lose AD they get Luca but they are basically back where they were last year. Nothing has changed. And you talked about it’s going to uh he talked about uh Paul Pierce. It’s going to take some time to get them together. You just say, well, you know, father time is still ticking on LeBron. I don’t know how much longer he can go at the level that he’s going. When it when it starts to drop, it takes a precipitous drop. And it hasn’t really done that yet. A little bit, but you know, he’s not what he was, but he was so far. It was like Oklahoma City against the West. He so far against the rest of them that he could, you know, go smoke a cigarette and come back and still be ahead of the pack. So, um, you know, I I, you know, I don’t have any love loss for the Lakers. I will make that. I’m so mad at say Faker fans that come in here and sit next to us and think that they are God’s gift to NBA fandom. That I I’m ready to get my keys out whenever the Grizzly beat them, say goodbye, stand crank up the bus, y’all can go back to the coast. But, you know, I and I I think that the coach, even though he’s in his first year, has done a good job with them. Yeah. But it is hard when you’re making a big move like that and expect it to come together. It better come together. It was such a major move to make on the fly in the middle of the season and you can’t really evaluate it until you give them a chance to tinker with the roster a little bit more. So, we’ll definitely see. I do think the Lakers get game five tonight and put some pressure on Minnesota. It’s not like we hadn’t seen Minnesota crumble away a series before. Maybe they show some maturity this time around. Ant Edwards looks like a different guy with these guys around them right now. They are healthy. Well, that too. They are healthy. And Nas Reed keeps bombing away from downtown. They’re healthy. They’re healthy. And um you know, like I said, but I mean they had they had the Grizzlies dead to right three years ago and couldn’t couldn’t The other thing to add to this is is Paul Pierce mentioned he said Minnesota has the better coach. He kind of just said it under, you know, as they were going along. But for all the talk about you hear Grizzlies fans on social media being like Grizzlies got to get a former player to coach. They got to get a Chris Finch didn’t play in the NBA and he was the coach of that team here a couple years ago right when they lost. So you got to sometimes you got to take your lumps with those guys and not play in the NBA. I don’t remember like a ref. No, he didn’t he didn’t play. He he came up through he was their Oklahoma City blue G- League coach and came up and and and through the G- League and did his thing there too. Um you know speaking of centerpieces, Nicole Joic is a guy that is at the center of Denver’s charge right now and they’re having a little bit of success. They just won game five against the Los Angeles Clippers last night. They get a chance in a couple of days to go put that series away. The crew at TNT had a chance to debate where Nola Joic fits in the top five category of alltime great centers. Is does he make the top five? Let’s hear what the guys had to say about that. We over here writing down centers. Yeah, they while you did that, they’ve been making a list. So, Kareem, yes. Wilt, yes. Bill Russell, yes. Yeah. Shack. Yep. And then him. No. What about Hakee? Thank you. Stop it. Knock it off. I keep telling you that. I love the game. I’m I’m Listen, I’m just going by what I see on I’m just like Wait, which one were you taking? I’m I’m not taking anybody out, but I’m just saying. Well, if you if you’re picking them in numbers, you got to take somebody out. I would never have taken Keem off. So, are we saying Joker is a top six center of all time? No. Listen, he’s one of the I I don’t like getting in this so debate. This guy is You did. You just made a list and said, “No, no, but we’re just talking about top five.” Yeah. All right. Top 10. This guy he easily top 10. He He is one of the most skilled basketball players that I’ve ever seen because he played a game with his brains. Yes. He don’t overwhelm you. Like you were just You’re the most physically gifted big man that I ever seen play. And I mean that. I had never seen a guy I’d seen big guys before. I played with some big guys, but you were the first big guy I ever played with in my life. I says, “Man, he can outrun most people. He can out jump most people, but that was a long time ago.” And you I could right now. Yeah. Okay, we’re just We’re not eating no donuts down if you do that. That’s funny, man. You always got to enjoy those guys when they start talking like that. Um I I had a hard time. I mean, Joic is a all-time great center. I had a hard time putting him in my top five and as the clip was rolling I wrote down what my top five would be and he’s right there on that line you know I go Wil one Kareem two Elijahan three Shaq four Bill Russell five Joic is six I can make a case to put him at four or five Bill Russell I love everything he stood for but the competition level at that position just wasn’t where it is in the game today and he absolutely struggled in matchups with Wilt Chamberlain in terms of that. So, how could he hold up physically against any of these other guys? I think Wilt I mean Joic is borderline top five. Jarvis, you had a chance to see all of these guys play. Yes, I did. Where do you put Yic? Where do you put Jokic in that? I saw Will toward the end of his career, but I did see some of his high Will was so far ahead of everybody else. I mean, he was he could run the open quarter in 40 in what 42 seconds or something like that. He’s a multiple athlete. Yeah. Yeah. And and the thing about Jokic is that makes him different from all those other guys is he could play point guard. He literally could play point guard. We saw that what in the in back during COVID when they had all the games down in Orlando, he was bringing the ball up and they were saying, “What is he doing? Why is he doing that?” Because he could do it and he was very good at it. Does he make your top five though? That’s the question. The question is not to read their resumes. We all know that they’re great, right? We all know that they’re great. I will have to agree with you. He is on that borderline there with with cuz you know uh uh uh the Celtics they had all those championships and uh you know Bill Russell was part of a lot of them. 11 titles. 11 titles. Oh my goodness gracious. Uh Jokic has one title. Um and I don’t think he’ll be around long enough to try to win 11. But three MVPs though. The hardest part of this argument is that you’re comparing finished products to an unfinished product. You think he’s pretty much I mean he’s not going to get what he is. No, I’m saying but we’re saying, you know, Bill Russell won 11 championships. We You can’t just say he won one cuz he might win another. We don’t know. You know what I mean? Like I mean, Hakee won two titles. Yeah. Maybe Joic wins another down the road. Like, you know, so I’m saying and if you look at like total points scored, I was looking up that while while we were watching that clip of all these centers. Um Jokic is 14th on the list, 16,000 points. He’s ahead of Bill Russell. He’s ahead of some of these other guys. You know, Russell wasn’t really a scorer though. It was his, you talked about Russ, he was out there talked about playing with his brain. That’s what Bill Russell did. He wasn’t out there trying to score a million points. He knew how to block shots, not to just block them in the maintain possession, keep them in the inbound constant. The other hard part of this is is you’re comparing apples and oranges cuz of the arrows, right? Like Bill Russell was 6’11, 225, 230, 610. Yeah. Like Shaq would have knocked him into the 12th row if they went one-on-one. Shaq was unstoppable. Yeah. And at his best, Shaq was incredible. So, like I think like I would put Jokic like five or six. I don’t know exactly. He’s right. Borderline. So, we all agree borderline. Yeah. Look at that. Borderline. And then like I said, right below him I got uh David Robinson and and Patrick me. Like those guys are are just incredible when you talk about the center producer. Shout out Hakee though, man. That dude, no question about it. I think he’s the most gifted of all the centers when it comes to the one everyone talks about like if he hadn’t got hurt was Bill Walton. Like I never saw him play but he was hurt his whole career. Oh, he he made me mad cuz he beat the Sixers. He was much greater in college because of his health than he was uh obviously in the in the NBA because of the injuries. And speaking of injuries, unfortunate injury obviously derailed the end of the season for Damen Lillard. And then on top of the blood clot uh issue that he was dealing with, he tore his Achilles tendon uh in uh in the playoffs. I believe it was game three, game four. And that series is over with now anyway. Milwaukee lost uh in in five games to the Indiana Pacers. But when you look at Dame Lillard, this tends to be a year plus injury. He’s already 36, 35, 36. I think we’ve seen the best of Dame Lillard, but have we seen the last of Dame Lillard? And I’ll start with you. Oh, that that’s exactly my when we heard the news that he had gotten an Achilles, which means he won’t be back on the court until this time next year. And that’s just back practicing, you know, that doesn’t even really mean about getting out there and going, you know, 100 miles an hour. At that at his age, he’s already proven a lot. He’s already done a lot. You know, he decided to make the move out of Portland and go to Milwaukee. I don’t know that, you know, why why would you try to come back from so that is you can ask Brandon Clark and anybody else. Heck, Jessica Benson, you can ask anybody about trying to come back, you know, from that injury. It’s really, really, really difficult. And at that age, is it something that you’d really He’s already gotten, you know, so many accolades in the NBA. And I think it’s a tough way to go out, but you know, if that takes him out, I think everybody would understand. You said we’ve seen the best of Damian Lillard. Have we seen the last? I think we’ve seen the last of his best. Okay. You know, great way to put that. I don’t know if if the one thing I would think thinking about him though, like he’s not one of those like super athletic guys the way he plays, right? like even when he shoots these jump shots from half court, it’s it’s all lower body strength, you know, and he just doesn’t jump 100 feet in the air and all this stuff. So, you know, that type of game might be more sustainable longer term if he wants to keep playing. The guy who he’s always reminded me of career-wise is Dominique Wilkins. And I don’t mean the way they play. I just mean like in terms of career accolades, tons of points, always been toward the top of the thing, never won a title, right? all in the list of like the top 75 players of all time, all that stuff. But never won a title. You don’t think he could be a Ray Allen type? I think that’s the thing. He’s going to have to like change the way he plays if he wants to to keep playing and to win titles. I don’t know if he does, but you know, if he wants to keep being the man or or you know, one of two guys on the team, great. But you’re not going to win a title that way. That’s tough though because again, changing his game means that at this point he’ll have to be a catch and shoot guy. And so much of Dame’s rhythm is off the dribble. off the dribble, off the pick and roll, get you moving, right? Getting getting you moving one way or another, using a screen to get his open looks and those kind of things. He would have to be more of a off the ball guy. But the one thing I do know about Dame is that he he’s going to go out on his own terms. And I don’t think limping off or being carried off is the way he wants to go off. I think he’s going to rehab like hell to put himself back in a position to play again and then make a decision. Maybe he goes back to Portland to be like a veteran guy with all those young guys, you know, like he could he could he could do that. and uh you know, we’ll see where it goes, but his off season is now, you know, the surgery recovery, his season is over. One team whose season is just getting started is the Oklahoma City Thunder. We had a chance to see these guys up close and personal. They look absolutely dominant to me in terms of where they are right now. We saw Cleveland say, “Hold my beer. Let me go do this to Miami.” And look at it the same way. But guys, I’ll ask you if you had a choice, Oklahoma City right now or the field to be raising the Lario Bryan trophy in June. What do you say, Lane? I’ll go with the field. Not not a hard decision to me. I mean, first of all, you get I mean, as the co-host of the odds couple on me, I’ll take the more odds I can get. Uh and you have a lot more chances if you take the field other than just one team. But I think we saw them get exposed a little bit down the stretch by that Grizzlies team. Um who fig is a little strong. Yeah. But like, you know, they won that first game by 55 and then 51. I’m sorry. Come on now. Give us some credit. 51. You win that first game by 51 and then games three and four were competitive. Game three, you’re down 30 or whatever, 29 to the Grizzlies, you know. So, I think the Grizzlies exposed a little bit like what you do against them in a series, you know. It’s not like I always thought the Thunder were more of a regular season team where you you go up against a team on the second night of a backtoback, that kind of thing. They’re going to overwhelm you with their athleticism, their depth, all that stuff. play them enough times the Grizzlies start figuring out, all right, you know, take that first shot because you don’t want to give them a chance to rotate and set up their defense. So, I I think in a series, it’s going to be tougher for the Thunder to to come out in the end. I still think the Celtics are the best team. I think they’ve been coasting all year, and they’re, you know, you always hear the coaches say, you can’t just flip a switch. I think the Celtics can, and I think they’re going to get to that point later. You know, we saw them kind of cruise through this first round. They’re going to do the same and they’re going to get back to the finals and win it again. I think it’s easy to say take the field because you like you said that’s where you get the best odds, the most odds. The only thing about the Thunder, they got a team full of dogs. I see Cleveland having some dogs. I see Boston, the thing with them is they got so many shooters that they get hot for three games, you know, they get hot for three games in a seven game series and all of a sudden, you know, you could be they’re going to shoot 50 threes. They’re going to shoot 50 or 60. They’re going to hit a lot of them. Can Oklahoma City uh match that? But I think they can. I’m still I’m kind of leaning more with Take the Field. What do you say, Michael? Well, I’m taking Oklahoma City. And it’s not a prisoner of the moment thing. It’s because of the way they defend right now. Yes, the Grizzlies did figure and I believe Jaw wholeheartedly when he said he figured something out and he did in the third quarter of game two and that carried over into game three, but it was him figuring it out. I don’t think the rest of his team had that same mindset until they absolutely got desperate in game four and just played on was all out effort. But what surprises me is that and lang you you you actually made me reconsider just mo momentarily uh a moment ago they are all about at least the game plan against the Grizzlies forcing you to pass up that first shot and question yourself. Boston doesn’t pass up first shots they take first shots and they take threes as first shots. So if you’re going to give Boston if that strategy is going to be the same against Boston man it’s going to be a great series. But I’m still I still think Oklahoma City has the youth, the athleticism, the flexibility, and all things in terms of health. If everything stays the same, I’ll take Oklahoma City versus the field. And right now, we’ll take a break because we have one more segment to get to on the other side of Grisbee. And it’s a look at Jaylen Wells and what his story, he tells his story for the first time of what that night was when he suffered that injury and came back and is already well into his rehab from that wrist injury. When we come back to Griby, Kroger shoppers and Grizz fans want exclusive last minute discounted ticket deals texted straight to you during the Grizzlies 2024 2025 season. Sign up with the new Kroger buzzer beater deal. Fans can sign up by texting Grizz 2636479 or visit your local Kroger store in the Delta division and scan the QR code. By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated promotional and personalized marketing text messages from the Memphis Grizzlies. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Yesterday was the talk of the town. It was a cow on the side of the road. Do you live close to a movie theater? I’m just curious cuz maybe the cow was trying to go to the movies. [Music] Tune in to the Jessica Benson Show with CJ Hurt live every weekday at 8 a.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. I see people who look like me. Mhm. And were born probably in the same decade as me. Watching all of these young people jump into the transport portal and saying it’s ridiculous. You got to stop thinking about this like it’s a normal college experience. It is not. You know what the priority is? Maximize your earning potential for every year of eligibility you have left. That’s what this is about now. These are jobs. The Gary Paris Show live on weekdays at 10 a.m. on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. The new issue is Slam. The cover dropped and it is our friend Jiren Jackson Jr. on the cover. And shout out to you, Lane. You kept you well I mean I mean we knew about it but you kept this a secret the whole time. So, shout out to you. We did the photo shoot a couple weeks ago here on a Sunday afternoon in uh in the practice court. The Sneakfest Show live Tuesdays at 2 p.m. on Grind City Media on X YouTube and the official Grind City Media mobile app. [Music] Alrighty, take your game and your swag to the next level this summer. Register your youth player for any Junior Grizzly summer camp presented by Ortho South during the month. Hey, you’ll become you’ll be have a chance to enter to win an autograph Nike Jaw one shoe. You want to get that shoe. I don’t know if that’s the Jaw one there. It could be that one. It could be one of the other colorways that he’s got. But just you can go when you go to camp, you can register to enter a Jaw one Nike Jaw one shoe. And I’d love to have one of those myself. Get one for my grandkids. For more camp information, go to grizzlies.com. Junior Grizzlies to get in on the action. All right. And talking about getting in on the action right now, some key dates coming up for the Memphis Grizzlies as we head into the offseason. Now, this is a very important time. This may be one of the most important periods in Grizzlies history since they’ve been here in the Bluff City. Coming up May 11th through 18th, that’s the NBA draft combine. The Grizzlies will no doubt look be looking at some players in there even though the team needs to get older, not younger. Then of course the drafts on two day over two days now that started for the first time last year. June 25th and 26 is the NBA draft. Free agency June 30. That is a big date. That’s when negotiations quote unquote can begin. We all know that they’ll be going on before that, but that’s when the news will start coming out of who may be going where. July 6th, that’s the official start of NBA free agency signings. We will actually see players sign on the dotted line with their new prospective teams or they staying with their old teams. And then July 8th through 10, it’s the Salt Lake City summer league. July 10 through 20, the big one, the Las Vegas NBA Summer League. Michael Wallace, you going out to any one of those summer leagues this year? Yeah, I’ll catch one of them. We We usually have the Grizzlies playing in both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. You’re going to Vegas? Come on. Just going to see. I actually prefer Salt Lake City. I’m a Salt Lake City guy. Really? Tabernacle choir. It’s just more chill than the Salt Lake choir out there. It’s more chill. But yeah, I mean, the Grizzlies will definitely uh we’ll see what they do in ter They have two second round picks. Um no first round picks in this draft. So, we’ll see what happens in over the next month, month and a half and see if they acquire something or do anything otherwise from that standpoint. But the uh free agency negotiations is going to be a big big big time date for them because what happens with Jiren, what happens with Santi, then that sets the tone for the rest of your summer. Real quick, you said that Grizz have two second round picks. Zack Kimman has been a wheeler deal. He always ends up with more picks than whatever you we thought he was. Do you think he’ll try to angle his way into the first round with a pick and a trade? Maybe. I don’t think so. just because they had that and they didn’t value it enough to I mean they attached it to Marcus Smart so to get off of Marcus Smart. I don’t think another rookie is necessary. I think in a lot of ways they did their homework early which is why um you know guys like Santi not Santi but guys like Scottie Pippen Jr. Vince Williams Jr. uh GG Jackson and and some of those guys are on those Yeah. on those low low budget you know uh yeah uh uh rookie minimum type deals. So, I think that’s what their rookie class kind of is. They got like a red shirt rookie class. Cam Spencer is the red shirt rookie for this year. Oh, he’s what? He’s the grizzly bear according to Zack Klein. I like Cam Spencer, man. At least he’ll shoot the ball and a lot of times it goes in and shout out to Scotty Pippen Jr. If you’re looking for a dog, he definitely has the Doberman in him. He definitely grew up. Yeah, he definitely has that. Now, uh you know, we talked a little bit about Jaylen Wells. Jaylen Wells, man. Uh he finished third in the balloting uh for NBA Rookie of the Year. And no one thought that when this season was going to was starting that he would be in the balling for one of the best rookies. He started 74 of 79 games played, averaged 10 and a half points, three uh uh uh 3.4 assists and one point or 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists. and he got that crazy season ending uh injury when he was going off for a dunk on a fast break and got undercut on a reckless reckless play. Fell on his uh wrist, broke his wrist, put a big laceration on his face. But you know what? He was back in the Grizzlies facility shooting left-handed. That’s how that’s how bad that boy wants to play. He led all rookies in team wins with 47, starts at 74 and threes made with 138. And it was the great Michael Wallace who sat right here in this studio before the season began and said that Jaylen Wells had the best three-point stroke on the team. You were correct, sir. Appreciate that. Appreciate that, man. Appreciate that. It wasn’t hard to see, man, with the kind of shooter that he was. And hopefully he can get back to being really, really soon. It turned out it wasn’t his three-point shooting that kept him in the lineup. It was his defense. Yeah. Yeah. But Jaylen Wells talked a little bit about the season he had. Let’s listen to see what he had to say. Feel great. um back motivated. Um you know, I’ve been doing a lot of left-hand work, shooting some left-handed jumpers, uh left-hand flossers, a lot of that. So, um you know, just having fun with it. Um but yeah, uh I think think we’re at the free throw line. Jaw was telling me to leak out. I was like, “Okay, I’m about to get this dunk right here.” Uh leaked out. I was ahead of him. I jumped from, you know, farther than usual. So, I’m like, “Okay, I’m I’m kind of coasting in the air a little bit.” And then yeah, that was it. I woke up in the ambulance. That that was that was the last thing I know. Um I think uh I think I woke up and I was just screaming like, “Ah, my back, my back.” They’re like, “Just just just stay calm for about five more minutes.” And I was like, “My back. Do something, please.” I think I saw Eric. Eric was like, “Just locking for five more minutes.” I heard something about heard something about fedinol. Boom. Woke up in the in the emergency room. Um, and then yeah, I think uh Zach was there, my aunt, my grandma was there. Uh, went to and uh I was just like kind of like just filling around just trying to see like what hurts. Um, and then it was like my wrist my wrist was just like really swollen and uh really painful. Um, and then they they came in and they just said like they fractured it. And I think that was like the first time like I really just couldn’t control like my emotions just hearing hearing how long I was going to be out. Um, I think that was probably the first question I asked was like how long is this going to take? Um, I wasn’t really wasn’t really concerned about my concussion or how my back felt or my foot or what any other pains. Um, so yeah, that was probably the first first moment of like I was really hurt. Yeah, that’s really tough to see him go down, but you know, he’s going to be back. He’s going to play in summer league and maybe he’ll shoot some left-handed jumpers out there. We want to thank uh Lang Whitaker for joining us in in here. The do everything. You you’re Mr. Do everything for Do you need a ride home, Jarvis? Oh, yeah. Had blowout on the way over here to ride my bike here, but hopefully it’s still in the garage. Jarvis got a bike helmet next to him on the desk. This your first person you want to believe. Yeah, look at me. Anyway, and of course the guru of Grind City Media himself, the great Michael Wallace, as my grandson says. And Mike, what we got coming up, man? What’s going to happen next when we going to be back? We’re still uh exit interviews, re recapping everything. Keep a lookout for the all rookie team and all NBA to see if Jiren is a third team all NBA. We’ll see. And that’ll mean a lot of money for Jiren if it does come true. And Zach Kimman’s got his work cut out for him. And we want you to come back for the next time on Grisbee. It’s going to be next Wednesday, Michael. Will we come back next Wednesday? Yeah. All right. So, we’ll see you next Wednesday 2:00 right here with more news on your favorite team, the Memphis Grizzlies on Grisbee. I’m Jarvo. We’ll see you later. That’s game. Thanks for running with us for another episode of Frisbee. Join us each Wednesday at Grime City Media for all the latest insight and analysis on the Grizzlies. [Music] All right.

0:00 start/panel introductions
2:00 Highlights From Grizzlies Exit Interviews
11:00 Taking inventory of the “Big” 3
21:00 What to do with Vince Williams, Jr. and GG Jackson
23:00 Grizzlies pending Free Agents
30:00 NBA Playoffs
38:00 Where does Jokic rank amongst top centers all-time
43:00 Dame Lillard’s achilles injury
47:00 OKC or the field
53:00 Offseason key dates
56:00 Jaylen Wells’ breakout season

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