What Memphis Grizzlies can learn from OKC’s run to the NBA Finals

What Memphis Grizzlies can learn from OKC’s run to the NBA Finals

It’s a Tuesday episode of Locked on Grizzlies. Demich Cole and myself back together. This time we’re talking Oklahoma City through the lens of the Grizzlies. Why are the Thunder so much better at grizzing than the Grizz? Pause. And then why are the Thunder starting to get some backlash? Maybe not exactly the same as the Grizzlies have gotten over the last few years, but there there’s definitely some disdain at least building online towards OKC. Why is that? We’ll talk about that more on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. Let’s lock in. You are Locked On Grizzlies, your daily Memphis Grizzlies podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome to this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, joined by my wonderful co-host to Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beatw writer for the Commercial Appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. to Michael. You had a nice little weekend getaway. I’m very jealous. I told our Friday audience that I live vicariously through you at this point, partner. So, no pressure. I hope you had a good time. Had a great time. I had a great time. You know, it’s okay, Joe, because one day I’m looking forward to, you know, my my family trips and things like that. So, you know, we’re going to flip the page is going to flip some point and I’m going to start living through you. So, I I think that’s just the stage we’re in right now. Happy Gilmore 2 is coming out. There was another movie, if you’ve never seen a partner, called Billy Madison. Have you ever seen that movie with Adam Sandler? You do it. Yeah, that one. That’s exactly right. Well, he there’s a scene in that film where he grabs the face of a young man and he tells them to stay here. Stay as long as you can. Cherish it. Not that I would say that in any way, shape, or form about my my life with my wonderful wife and my three beautiful children. Uh, make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing wherever you get podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Google. Make us a part of your Memphis Grizzlies NBA content consumption each and every time that an episode drops. Michael appreciates it. I appreciate it. We appreciate it that you are here. Hopefully, you’re an everydayer each and every time we have an episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. Hopefully, you’re with us wherever you take in your podcasts. to Michael. Yesterday on the show, I decided to preview the NBA Finals through the lens of Grizzlies Pacers. And there was some good and some bad with that. You know, as things tend to happen when you’re not around, I’m good at pissing people off in the comments. And uh you know, again, I appreciate that those folks listen and watch just like anybody else. So, uh, you know, my John Morant not being as good as Hallebertton, which again, you you you know, that eats me alive to say out loud. Hallebertton is better than John Morant. But that I I don’t know how you could say he isn’t at this stage. But anyway, this isn’t about the Pacers today. This is about the Oklahoma City Thunder. And if there’s one thing that I’m pretty sure everybody can universally agree upon, it is that the Oklahoma City Thunder are better than the Memphis Grizzlies. And they’re better than the Memphis Grizzlies in almost every way, which is really disheartening because they’re even better at the things that the Grizzlies like to do. Whether it’s transition offensive opportunities, playing good defense, whether it is having a guard who commands the offense, having an elite unicornesque big. There are so many boxes that you can check to Michael where you say, “Crap, OKC is just better at being Memphis than Memphis is.” Yeah. um they’re built around their defense and that is something that we’ve seen, you know, in Memphis kind of be the hallmark for years. You know, um even if you want to go back to, you know, 2005, 2006, those days, you know, with with Huey Brown, uh leading the way, uh those teams, you know, they weren’t really super talented or anything like that, but they played really hard. uh they they got a lot of deflections, they got a lot of steals, they forced turnovers, and you saw during the grit and grind era, you know, the grittiness that those teams consistently played with. And then when you got into this area, Joe, you saw some of the same thing from the standpoint of everything starts on the defensive end and and you know what comes of the team after that like this era has been more a little bit flashy, right? Aliubes, uh John, you know, uh you know, play style, Desmond Bane knocking down a bunch of three-pointers, things like that. You got that mixed in. But the hallmark has always been the defensive end. We’re going to turn you over. We’re going to force steals. We’re going to force blocks. They’ve always been near the top of the leagues in stocks. But OKC has taken that and gone to a whole another level. And they I mean they got it in abundance. Like it’s not a situation where the Grizzlies, you know, even Mike Connley was a great defender, you know, back then, but Tony Allen was next level, right? Uh Marcusaul, you know, was a really good defender back then, but Tony Allen was next level. You could look at Oklahoma City and you could say they have at least three guys who are next level. At least like I can make that argument for Chad Hunger. I can make that argument for Lou Dort. I can make that argument for Jaylen Williams. I can make that argument for Alex Caruso. I can make that argument for Kase Wallace. That’s five right there. Some people haven’t even brought up their best player, SGA, who is a good defender in his own right, if not better than good. And and you know, I’ve been talking about that for a while. And we saw it in that last series. This is another thing where you talk about being better at the grits in certain categories. Um I thought Anthony Edwards, he had the right idea saying, “Hey, look, you know, um Shay Gills Alexander, talented scorer, he works very hard on the offensive end. I’m going to attack him defensively. I’m going to create mismatches or quote unquote mismatches and isolate him against me and let’s see what he does. And every time, not literally every time, but for the most part, Shay Gills Alexander held his own and and it it wasn’t long before they realized this isn’t a matchup that you could just attack. Whereas we go back to those playoff series with the Grizzlies, uh, less of this past one, but you go back to that Lakers matchup, I remember vividly them, I mean, wherever John was, that man was coming to set a screen for LeBron, LeBron James, uh, to get John isolated against LeBron or to get him to hedge so the Lakers can create some type of advantage. Pretty impressive when you think about it, what SGA’s body of work is. And I said on yesterday’s show, you know, Nicola Joic is the, in my opinion, the undisputed best player on the planet. SGA wins the MVP. SGA is a better two-way player, I would say, than Joic is. It’s just Joic has such an extensive bag offensively compared to what SGA brings to the table. But again, SGA had a phenomenal year. Very deserving MVP. And I think that what the Thunder do especially well is not just on the court but off of it, right? It’s organizationally. Whether it’s Prey as the GM, whether it’s I always mispronounced Dagenald, I think is how you say it roughly. Yeah. Like they’re even better than Memphis at finding random members of a coaching staff and giving them opportunity. And I know Dagen’s been there for a while. Yeah. Right. I mean to the way that they’ve acquired draft capital, the way that they’ve built up this roster. Every single member of this team is under contract for 2025 2026. They don’t have to do a thing if they don’t want to. But they have the assets in place that if they want to go bring in a Kevin Durant, hell, if they want to bring in a Giannis, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility. They have one of the best possible trade packages alongside the Spurs and the Rockets. They’re right in that mix. And you could, we’ll make our official finals predictions later on in the show or on Thursday. Yeah. Uh but later on in the week, point being, you could easily argue that the the Thunder should be favored to sweep the Pacers. I don’t know that they will, but we’re talking about one of the most dominant teams in NBA history, and they could run it back word for word, piece for piece, if they wanted to. That’s absurd. Yeah. Um, that’s definitely one of the best parts when you talk about this Oklahoma City team is to me, you know, uh, we talk about the hate watch. I think we’ll get more into that in the second segment, but, um, when you talk about the things they’re good at, the things that they’re great at, a lot of people say, “Oh, it’s team’s going to be broken up in a few years anyway. It’s it’s okay.” And actually, they’re built for the long term because Shay, they can pay him. They we’ll see how the Jaylen Williams, Chad Hungren contracts end up, but they in theory could pay all of those guys and then they have all these draft assets and this draft capital where they can go get really talented players with that draft capital to put around those players and kind of replenish that group when other guys like Kase Wallace looks like the type of guy they’re not going to be able to pay in three, four years. Like he he just gives me so much Drew Holiday. when I see him, I see Drew Holiday and um they’re not going to be able to pay him if he really turns out to be that type of player. So, um turning back to the Grizzly side, like that is something I think about, you know, uh with the Grizzlies, whereas uh the Grizzlies are in a position they have all of their assets for the future, right? After you get past the first round pick that they traded for Market Smart, they control all their future first round assets and they have several second round picks as well. they can theoretically put themselves in a position where you know um they’ll be able to build around those core guys but it all goes back to the fact that do we trust these secur I think in Oklahoma City you could look at that group you say oh yeah we trust that group but in Memphis JZ Jiren it’s it’s still an incomplete situation so I think the Grizzlies are built right now to kind of uh build around their core. But the question is if they trust that core. The fascinating thing about OKC is that they could literally keep all three of those guys together, Williams and Homegrren and SGA, pay them all max contracts and then just draft a bunch of dudes over the next six or seven years and rookie deals and they’re the ones that replenish. And that’s possible. There’s so many different angles that they can take. It really is fascinating. Let the Michael and I know on X. hit us up in the comments. How are you feeling looking at this OKC team? Again, one of my biggest takeaways from the playoffs was Memphis is far away from OKC, but so is everybody else. And we’re about to find out just how far away they are from the Eastern Conference here in a couple of days as the NBA Finals get underway. When we come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies, we will discuss some of this Thunder backlash that we’re seeing. There’s multiple reasons for it. How we can connect it to the Grizzlies. Such a big topic, I think it can cover a couple of segments. We’ll talk about that next here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Stick around. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about the last time that you had an urgent need. Maybe a plumber or a service provider. If the first person didn’t answer, did you wait around and hope that they called you back? Probably not. You moved on along. That’s why you need Open Phone. It’s the number one business phone system to build up and streamline your customer communications, scaling it for you all from an app on your phone or computer. Open Phone lets you manage business calls and texts from a single app. And their AI agent handles afterhour calls, answers common questions, and captures leads so you never miss a customer. Open Phone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com/lockdownba. That’s op ho ne.comlockdown NBA. And if you have existing numbers with another service, Open Phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. So to Michael, I remember, you know, I like to think back on these times longingly. I wish we had like a sounder where it could be like a back in the day kind of stuff. Um, Memphis was OKC before OKC was OKC. And as I’ve said several times, I don’t need people yelling at me in the comments. The Thunder are clearly better at it than Memphis, right? Clearly, they’re like we said earlier in the show, they’re better at grizzing than the Grizz, but it was the Grizzlies bit first, the celebrations after wins and the dancing next to uh, you know, Andrews from ESPN and all these different things that the Grizzlies were. The energy, it was immaculate. The vibes were immaculate. That was Memphis first and then it became the Thunder’s thing. And again, they’ve done it better than the Grizzlies ever did. But you’re starting to see some backlash to the Thunder around this mindset of whether it’s SGA is a free throw merchant. Maybe we can touch on that a little bit here. Uh the idea of the Thunder being this young and brash team. I don’t think that they get the same rep that Memphis did because SGAA as a superstar is different than Jaw was as a superstar. The audacity, the way that they played the game, the way they interact with people. I don’t envision, and maybe I’ve missed this in a presser, uh, Deichel, I don’t envision SGA going out there and talking about pigeons or anything like that, right? Like, I don’t think that’s going to be a thing. Um, so I do think there’s a difference organizationally what Jaw does compared to SGA as the two superstars, but I do think that there are some common threads in terms of Memphis’s backlash very different in terms of how it came about, but you’re starting to see some people hate on this Thunder team, which, you know, is fascinating because there’s not really much to hate. Yeah. I mean, when you when you look at the team, right, they uh they’re opposite for the Grizzlies in in certain ways. One thing when you talk about the 202122 Grizzlies, uh, 56 wins, hit the scene, youngest team in the league, just like this OKC team. Uh, those are the parallels. But when you get past that and you peel it back another layer, those Grizzlies teams, Desmond Bane was telling LeBron James, “We ain’t scared of them footsteps.” You know, uh, John Mor was talking trash. You know, they were actively getting in people’s faces. Isn’t that where the we ain’t ducking no smoke, we’re running up. Yeah, we’re running up the chimney. That was that year. Yep. And then of course the next year the fight in the west happens. But like but yeah, that was kind of the persona. It wasn’t just J. It was more so Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks was the captain of that ship. And we see people talking about it now like oh, you know, uh some of the the swagger of the team left when Dylan Brooks left. And you can say however you feel on that end, but that’s been a a point of, you know, conversation over the last couple years since he’s been gone. Uh whereas OKC, they’re quiet. They’re a lot more methodical. Uh I saw it actually um in an SGA uh press conference a day or two ago, you know, uh they were asking him about, you know, trash talk and things like that. Well, handling his emotions. He said, “I feel exactly, you know, like trust me, I feel it. Like the emotion is there, but he’s learned how to like compose himself and bottle it in and things like that.” And look, at the end of the day, these guys are completely different people. So there’s no one way of doing this. Michael Jordan talked, you know, a bunch of crap. Kobe Bryant talked a bunch of crap. Larry Bird, some people say he’s the greatest trash talker of all time. All these guys were champions. It’s not to say if you talk trash, you won’t win championships. Like, that’s not the point. It’s more so we’re pointing out just some of the, you know, uh, the parallels and the differences when you talk about the Grizzlies and the Thunders. The Grizzlies have been more of that trash talk uh type of team and they’ve kind of, you know, walked away from that over the last uh year or so. Uh but but yeah, that’s one thing that stands out to me. But then when you look at it from the fans point of view, Joe, and you just touched on it a little bit there as well, like it was probably a month before I joined the beat. I got here December 2021 and I believe it was November 21. It might have been earlier in December. Uh, but it was the 2021 season where the Grizzlies 202122 season, the Grizzlies beat the Thunder by 73 points. 73 points. It set an NBA record. Some of those guys, if you go look at the box score, there are multiple guys who are on that Thunder roster. They’re on this current roster. Like, they witnessed this. They were a part of it. And there were a couple guys like I think Shay Gil is Alexander didn’t play in that game or whatever the case may be, but he was on the roster, you know. So, there is this part as a fan where I can I can understand if you say, “Man, we were the youngest team in the NBA. We had J on a rookie deal at the time. We had Dez on a rookie deal at the time. We had Jiren on a descending contract. Why didn’t we strike then?” Because that’s what OKC is doing right now. OKC had Shay on a second contract. Yes. But um Jaylen Williams, rookie deal. Chad Hunger, rookie deal. You know what they did? They went and paid Isaiah Hardinstein. They paid Lou Dort nice extension a whole bunch of money. Went and got Alex Caruso because they were able to do that. And that’s where, you know, we talk about the front offices and and how they handled those situations. um in particular and Joe we’ve talked about it a hundred times over. It’s a situation where I think if I’m if I’m drawing if you’re watching on YouTube you’ll see this but if these two teams are going in the straight going towards the same destination and where they rived off towards different exits was when the Grizzlies said we’re trading the Anthony Melton David Roddy Chickavia Vince Williams Kennedy Chandler you’re up. You know what the Thunder did? Josh Giddy, you got a whole lot of potential. You’re going to be a nice NBA player. Get out of here. Let’s go get Let’s go get Alice Caruso. NBA champion. Played over 20 minutes per game in the finals before. All league defender. Been there, done that. Let’s go get a vet. That’s the word. Let’s go get a vet. Uh Chad Hunger, you held it down as a big. Let’s go get you some help. Let’s go pay Hardenstein close to 30 million a year. Big three-year deal. So that’s where they went in different directions. The Thunder with all that draft capital, Joe, you know this, I know this, everyone’s listening knows this. The Thunder with all that draft capital could have said, “Man, let’s package some of these picks. Let’s move up in the draft.” In the Grizzlies situation, they moved up in the draft. Well, they traded Death Melton, first round pick, David Rody. Doesn’t pan out. Oklahoma City took the more aggressive route. They took the more sure route. They went and got a all league defender. They got one of the best rising bigs. Isaiah Hartstein, I think he had a strong year. And that’s the difference, Joe. That is literally if you talk about where these teams just drifted in different directions. The Grizzlies went younger. OKC emphasized putting vets and those vets have been important. Isaiah Hardinstein has been important. Alex Caruso, I mean, he’s been super impactful. You put that with what they have in those young guys, that’s the winning recipe right there and they have an identity and they know who they are, right? Like I think you could say very clearly, you know, we we make fun or I make fun for the sake of clarity. I make fun of the the we need dogs, right? Like we need dogs. That’s what Zack Kimman says. Well, OKC knew they needed dogs three years ago and look at where the Thunder are. Those veteran presence guys, and Memphis needs that. Are they going to be able to get that? That’s the question that we’ll continue to tackle here on Lockdown Grizzlies as the off season uh grinds forth here in the coming days and weeks. When we come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies, we will close out this episode of the show. I want to come back to the free throw merchant topic and how uh how Deichel who watches so much basketball, you know, that that seems like the the biggest knock on OKC at the moment is it’s like watching, you know, there there’s watching the OKC team. There’s a video that somebody made online. I get emails about this. The OKC team that had Russell Westbrook and James Harden and all the entertaining Kevin Durant scoring and and then here’s this OKC team with SGA at the free throw line, right? That’s the highlights. Um, what we we’ll dive into that and maybe connect it to John Morant and his highlight uh reel being a little bit more impressive coming up next here on Lockdown Grizzly. Stick around. 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Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/lockdonba. That’s betterhelp.hp.comonba. So, Michael, we were talking about why there’s this thunder backlash, right? And the connection to the Grizzlies. I thought you did an excellent job breaking that down. Uh, I really want to dive into this SGA free throw merchant thing because as I mentioned before, the idea of, you know, Russell Westbrook and how to me that is the closest comp to Jaw, right? Not necessarily in terms of playing style. I’m talking about like the highlights prime Russell Westbrook. You want to talk about going viral? This dude was violent. If Jaw is audacious, Westbrook was violent at the rim. And that, you know, stands out in your mind’s eye, in your memory when you think about those old OKC teams. And I don’t think it’s everybody online. That’s important to point out, but it’s prevalent enough that you even hear Doris Burke bringing up the free throw merchant stuff uh during, you know, ESPN broadcast. That was wild. Yeah. And I mean, and Doris Burke is phenomenal, right? I for my money, she’s the best NBA analyst there is. Uh but for her to bring it up, right, it’s almost like, you know, your your mom or your dad or your grandma and grandpa learning a new term and and maybe using it at a time or place that they’re not supposed to. But I’m curious, you know, again, you watch so much basketball, obviously Grizzlies ball, but other hoops as well. Going into this final series, going back to the Thunder Grizzlies series, what do you make of this free throw merchant thing? Because when I watch SGAA, it’s kind of like watching James Harden in that it it’s not so much about seeking out fouls. It’s seeking out contact and understanding how to utilize and position your body, which is a skill in and of itself to get those scoring opportunities that allow for greater offensive efficiency. It I mean, it’s kind of like the tush push in the NFL. As a Commanders fan, I hate the freaking Philadelphia Eagles and I hate that they can do the tush push. But you know what? Everybody has the ability to do the tush push. The Eagles are just the best at it. Yeah. Everybody can play the system, so to speak, when it comes to being able to draw this contact. It’s guys like SJ that have it down to an art. And that is the difference, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s the difference. And and look, this is someone talking who the Michael Cole I get very annoyed and and I got I got the names off the top of my head. I was very annoyed when James Harden used to do it. I’ve been very ignored. You know, I was in Philly for a few years and Embiid being 280 pounds and falling over the floor. It’s like, come on now. You, you know, them guys ain’t really knock you down like that. Like, come come come on now. Like, like, let’s let’s be for real here. and Sheay in the same way uh is equally as irritating but in the same light with Joel Embiid. I don’t give Harden the same amount of credit as as I do now as a facilitator. Yes. Uh but there are a lot of ways when you take away the free throw shooting, he’s still elite. like you take away the free throw shooting, his field goal percentage numbers are still really efficient. Um he can still get to those same spots. He has the ability to play through contact when the rare times that it does happen. Um you might disagree with me, but you watch it. There’s been several I mean there that Grizzlies there were a couple Grizzlies games where you know he had and ones where guys knocked him off his spot and he converted the shots. So, um, here’s where I stand on it, Joey, because I I want to take a strong stance here and, um, I I I hate everything about it and I want the league to just like every summer we talk about this. It feels like re-evaluate the rules around this. And with each player, it’s something. Uh, with James Harden and Joel Embiid, Joel Embiid had it bad, too. It was the low rip through, right? They’d have the ball feel like all all always down to about their knees and they just rip through going up and then as soon as you touch them they just scream and they throw the ball in the air and it’s like come on. James Harden the other one that he had bad was he would, you know, grab the opponent’s arm. You remember that one, Joe? Where he he’ll wrap his arm around the opponent’s arm and then make it look as if the opponent uh was clinching onto his arm and like he’s trying to pull away. And you had a lot of opponents like holding their hands up like what am I supposed to do? He’s literally grabbing my arm and like but the league corrected those things. The rip through is still, you know, u like we see Jaw doing it. Dez does it. Like I’ve talked to them about this, you know, someone like incorporating it into their game. Like the rip through because at the end of the day, the rip through is a legit thing. It could be a foul if you literally do a rip through and they hit you on the wrist or whatever the case may be. But I don’t think that was the initial idea when they started doing that move. It was more to like kind of bait guys or whatever the case may be. The one that I hate more than the spirit of the rule. Right. That’s what we’re talking about is spirit of the rule here. Joe, I got one that I hate as much as any of those. When Sheay goes up the court and he bumps into a guy like he seeks them out, bumps into them and then knocks himself off platform and gets what’s it blows my mind. Blows my mind. It happened against the Grizzlies. Happened against the Timberwolves. How much of that is his fault and how much of that is the fault of the officials? Like like that’s kind of where I’m at. If he if if he understands that this is happening, everybody in the NBA can do this. He’s just the one that’s doing it. So saying that, you know, it’s against the code. Is this like a Steve Kerr it’s the code BS kind of thing? Or is it just Yeah, it’s not ethical. That’s right. That’s how you say it’s not the ethical hoops, right? And what the hell does that even mean? Ethical hoops. guy’s playing the game the way that’s being officiated. How is that any different than framing a pitch? Yeah. How is that any different than a catcher framing you you watch the Atlanta Braves? Yeah. It’s it it it’s not much different because it’s it’s it’s the game within the game. This is just like when me and you used to talk about the difference between a hooper and a basketball player and those type of thing. It all Yeah, it’s all one and the same. So, with that being said, my thing with Shay, is he’s incredibly skilled, too. Like, a lot of his fouls, Joe, are because he’s so slippery. He’s always been that way. He was that way at Kentucky. Like, he’s not the fastest guy, but his agility, his left to right, his back and forth is as good as I’ve ever seen, ever. Genobiesque. probably better than but it it reminds me of watching Manu play. It’s I mean the left to right there are a lot of guys that have that but you you got to like usually you can distinguish the two like Gobbi I think he was really good left to right. His his agility was very good but the step back was more of the James Harden thing. The ability to drive to one spot and then stop on a dime and just create space that way. Luca using his size, using his shoulder. Shay does both. And and here’s here’s a conversation I had with a Grizzlies player one time. We were talking about cuz news flash, Grizzlies players hate the way that he draw fouls. And as soon as that matchup was up, I already was thinking like they got to win the mental game before they even try to beat OKC on the physical standpoint because they’re already thinking, “Oh, here we go.” And that’s what most teams are thinking when they go against SGA. So, he already has that mental edge against most teams because they’re like, “Well, we can’t guard him.” Like, I saw Anthony Edwards say that uh before and I was like, “Oh, he he’s toast. He’s already toast. He lost mentally.” Cuz what you do is you go in playing your game and then, you know, you adjust accordingly. But with all that being said, talking to a Grizzlies player one time, he just pointed out these little subtle things to go with the left to right, to go with the back and forth that Shay Gilis Alexander does that just makes you so uncomfortable. And he was telling me, it’s conversation from a while ago, so I don’t remember it verbatim, but he was like, Shay has this unique ability where he’s better than most players where Joe, he will attack the point of one of your feet. Like he’s looking at like I forget who the player was. I was talking to the Grizzlies, but he’s telling me like he’s looking in at the positioning of your feet. And as soon as he sees you shuffle one foot in a direction, he’s tacking the point of that foot. And when he does that, you know what you’re going to start doing? You’re going to start playing defense with your hands cuz you can’t slide your feet to an optimal position. So you got to the next if you can’t play with your feet, what are you going to do? You gonna play with your hands or you going to play with your chest? And either way, he’s going to get the whistle. So, a lot of it is, as you pointed out, the skillfulness that he has as well. Again, everybody can do it. It’s available there for all. I think that unless they’re going to take it out of the game, again, spirit of the rule. Uh why not take some take some keys from what SGA is doing. I think the Grizzlies could do that across the board, not just with SGA, but the entire organization. Uh thank you guys so much for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is much appreciated to Michael. Obviously on tomorrow’s show, uh we we’ll be looking ahead a little bit to the NBA finals. Obviously revisiting, talking about maybe Jiren’s extension a little bit because again, literally the day after the finals are over and I feel like most folks are expecting a quick NBA Finals. Um literally after that’s done, we’ll be able to talk Jiren extension more extensively. So maybe kind of revisiting some of those things. Maybe there’s anything you’ve heard of late, that kind of stuff. And not just Jiren, not just Jiren. Santi Santi. Yeah, Santi’s big, too. Yeah, that’s that’s another big one. And I know when we talked about it on the previous show, there were people on both sides of the fence when I kind of made the case for Santi in a reserve role or whatever the case may be. But, but yeah, that’s another big one that uh as soon as the season ends, the Grizzlies going to be able to, you know, have some conversations and and try to figure out some things. So, uh yeah, a lot of relevant conversations about to happen around here. Now that you have made lockdown Grizzlies your first listen today, for your second listen, you should check out the Locked on NBA Big Board show. NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout, interview, and rumor leading up to the NBA draft. Find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you are liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing wherever you get podcasts for us as well here at Lockdown Grizzlies, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube. It is all good. We will continue to grind forth heading into the rest of June, heading into the NBA finals, talking Grizzlies basketball and so much more here on Locked on Grizzlies. For to Michael, I am Joe. Stay locked in. We will be back tomorrow. Make sure that you are there wherever you get your podcast the next time an episode drops. See you.

The Memphis Grizzlies were the trendy young team in the Western Conference before OKC’s recent run. In this episode, co-hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax break down how OKC overlapped the Grizzlies.

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