Which NBA Finals participants would make the best Memphis Grizzlies?

Which NBA Finals participants would make the best Memphis Grizzlies?

It’s a Thursday episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. Joe Mullenac’s with you here alongside the Michael Cole. We’re gonna dream because we’re dreamers here on Lockdown Grizzlies. We’re going to think of Pacers players, Oklahoma City Thunder players that we would love to have in Memphis playing on the Grizzlies roster within some logic and reason. And we’ll also give you some NBA Finals previews and predictions on this finals game one episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. No, the Grizzlies aren’t playing, but again, we’re dreaming, you dreamers. 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. It’s a Thursday episode, as previously stated. And as previously stated, I am Joe Mullenax, joined by my wonderful co-host, the Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beatr writer for the commercial appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. Make sure you’re following him on X at the Michael C. Make sure you’re following me on X, Joe Mullenex. And make sure you are following our wonderful podcast. Each and every time an episode drops, Lockdown Grizzlies. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. We’re free and available wherever you get podcasts as proud members of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team each and every single day. Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, YouTube, literally anywhere you get a podcast, you can make the Michael and I part of your NBA and Memphis Grizzlies content consumption each and every time that an episode drops, we ask that you do so. Be an everydayer if you’re not already one. And if you are an everydayer, thank you so much for hanging out with Michael and me each and every time we have a show come out. Happy NBA Finals game one day to you, Demich. Obviously, a very important day in NBA schedules and calendars. It’s a day that small markets should rejoice. No teams to to sniff. No, nobody out there. Let me but because you’ll like this. Um I I saw Adam Silver uh was talking about the finals. Uh you you’ll have fun with this, but I’m only bringing it up because I’m a Green Bay Packers fan and he missed the mark on this one. and he tried to kind of use an NFL analogy and as to like what this finals matchup looks like and I’m paraphrasing Joe, but he basically was like I mean this is like you know if the Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers were in a Super Bowl he said and he goes like two two smaller markets I’m like Packers and Steelers two of the most storied franchises in the entire National Football League. Yeah. So just just to give you, you know, some I know you like the pow on him a little bit. So he he missed the mark. Yeah. Yeah. He’s the worst commissioner in sports, so it’s not surprising that he would be so off understanding what an actual good league, the NFL looks like. Um I Joe Mlack’s here, y’all. Well, and let me stress, I’m an NBA podcaster. I think the NBA is a good league. So let me rephrase the work of what an actual good commissioner looks like is what I meant to say there. Because again, it’s hard to say I don’t like the NBA. I do like the NBA. Um, yeah, that’s I guess the actual comp would be something like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers or something. Carolina Panthers. Yeah, something like that. Maybe not the Panthers. Houston Texans. Well, that’s a big market. That’s a big market. But, but they’re new. Hopefully, it probably could be a team like I don’t want I don’t want to say the Jets. I’m intrigued. Like, but maybe keep it in Indiana and it’s like the Indianapolis Colts. Uh something like that would be a better comparison. But anyway, um small markets rejoice, right? If if Indiana can do it, the Grizzlies can do it. Maybe not so much. If OKC can, like we talked about this week, the Thunder are pretty head and shoulders above everybody. And we’ll talk more about that as the show goes on, I would imagine. But to Michael, let’s have a little fun. Let’s dream a little bit on this Thursday. Some ground rules here. If we are going around on podcast like I have the last couple of days and we are saying Jaw’s not getting traded, Jiren’s not getting traded, Dez is getting traded. Yep. For this mental exercise, we’re going to do the same thing to these two teams. We’re going to start with the Pacers. No Hallebertton, no Seakum, no Miles Turner, right? I think you can maybe debate who the third best player in Indiana is, but we’ll say it’s Miles Turner for the sake of Okay, those guys are off the table. We’ll start with Indiana. If you could have any other player from the Pacers become a member of the Grizzlies within the realm of at least hypothetical possibility. Yeah. Who would be somebody from this Pacers roster that you’d love to see in Beiel Street Blue? I’m gonna say Andrew Nimhart. Nobody said it would be N Easy, right? Shout out. Shout out Caitlyn. Shout out Caitlyn Cooper on X. Shout her out. Shout out to her. Shout out to her. She does great work, by the She’s phenomenal. Legitimately one of the best basketball writers I’ve ever read for for sure. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. She’s Oh, it’s not even It’s not even really close to be honest with you. Like Zach Low, her Yeah. Deich Cole, they’re all in the same all in the same realm. No, no, no. I’m not not Zach Low in case. But Andrew Nimhart for me, uh, is my pick, Joe, because you gonna like this, Joe. You talk about those dogs, right? Getting those dogs out there. Yeah. Yeah. Andrew Andrew Nimhart. He’s a dog. Um you if you watched him these last couple series, I mean the way he he guarded Jaylen Brunson, I don’t think this is too expressive. He he guarded Jaylen Brunson better than he won this season. Um at least with that level of a sample size. Uh he’s physical. He’s not, you know, the hugest guy in the world, but he is compact. Uh we’ve seen him play against the Grizzlies sometime. He gets in he gets in those guys grills and he’s a playoff shotmaker. This isn’t some guy that you just put in the corner and hey, I’m opening it whenever you need me. Uh he takes pressure off of Hallebertton and one of Hallebertton’s things coming into the league was his ability to play on and off the ball. So having that type of guy like Nimhart who pretty much came up as a point guard and is playing more off the ball because he’s playing with Hallebertton but he’s playing on the ball, you know, he kind of split it a little bit which plays into the pace that they play with. uh which is why I think he would be a seamless fit as like that third guard for the Grizzlies, but in closing lineups, you could put him in there with Dez uh and uh Jaw. And he has the ability to create his own shot off the dribble. Uh the ability to guard one through three, the ability to uh be a secondary playmaker as we’ve seen in Indiana. He’s a seamless fit to me. Andrew Nimhard would uh be really solid over here. Fun fact, it’s really hard to find. I spent about 10 minutes the other day. I’m embarrassed to admit that out loud trying to find all my takes on Andrew Nemhard from several years ago. I was very on Andrew Nemhard and unfortunately he did not come to the Grizzlies. Uh but I was a big fan of his going back to when he was in school. So Oh wow. Shout out to Andrew Nehard. I I wanted him in Memphis pretty badly. But again, it’s impossible to find anything on X these days. Uh shout out to the new owner. I guess he’s not new anymore, but anyway, this isn’t locked on, you know, poor social media platforms. This is a chance for me to talk about my boy Aaron Nesmouth. Okay. Liked this guy a lot. And shout out to our mutual friend Parker Fleming. Parker is huge on Nesmith. Uh and I agree with him. A remarkable three-point shooter. And this is a guy who if I remember correctly to Michael, he was selected around the same draft or in the same draft as Desmond Bane. So get that. Yep. Correct. Nath was selected 14th overall. Tail end of the lottery. obviously goes 30th over overall. Safe to say that Bane has had a better NBA career so far than Nesmith. Their salaries suggest that. But at the same time, Nesmith is a guy who has found his shooting stroke in recent years in 1100 minutes played for the Pacers this year. And all my stats as usual come from cleaningtheglass.com. Should be sponsored by them at this point. Uh 43% from beyond the arc. 84 of 195. This guy can shoot the three ball. He did extremely well. the prior season as well. So, this is a guy who can shoot the ball at a very high clip. Not the best defender. He’s improved in that regard. I think you can make an argument the way that the Pacers play kind of plays a role and and how his defensive He’s a test defender to me. Yeah, I think that’s a great way to put it. I just J Wells, you look at Jaylen Wells advanced numbers, they won’t scream like, “Oh, wow. This guy’s” But we see it. We see what we see. Correct. And you’re a step ahead of me. You’re exactly right that there there’s two different levels to this. If all you do is look up cleaning the glass numbers and you say, “This guy is an average defender.” It’s important to understand that there’s an actual basketball game that gets played, right? Yeah. Like there’s the saying in boxing, you know, at some point the bell’s got to ring. At some point, you actually dribble the ball. And if you watch Nesmith play, he is better than the numbers. I agree with you completely. So, he’s an above average defender. He’s an elite three-point shooter. Uh, you got to talk about money when it comes to this Grizzlies roster. $11 million over the next couple of years. Nothing ascending, nothing descending. He is a steady as she goes. $11 million the next couple of seasons. He would make a lot of sense financially for this Grizzlies roster. So, I’m a Nezmouth guy. You like Nemhard. I like the Pacers in general. I think they’re a fun team. We’ll talk more about overall finals predictions here later on in the show, but you know, they play fast. Hallebertton’s extremely efficient with the basketball. I talked about both of the he and seakum at length earlier in the week. Uh lots of good stuff there from the Pacers. And I do think and again we’ll talk more about this as the show goes on. I think that they can give OKC trouble in certain spots. The the Thunder the Pacers have never seen a team like the Thunder, right? They just don’t exist in the Eastern Conference. But at the same time, I think it’s fair to say that OKC has not seen an offense the caliber of the Pacers when it comes to combining a scoring mentality and pace with the ability to protect the basketball. Memphis played with tremendous pace, too. Y, but again, the turnover issues were more real for the Grizzlies. The Pacers do a much better job keeps it on the string, man. He keeps on string. Mhm. And we’ll talk more about that as we go. But when we come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies, we’ll do the same game with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Obviously, they have they don’t have to trade anybody, right? We’ve talked about that recently. That’s the scariest part about OKC. They can trade if they want to. They can keep it exactly the same if they want to. Uh who would we take from the Thunder if we, you know, could dream a little dream on this Thursday? Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are not just in full swing. The finals have arrived. And every game delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot, a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. And FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game both before tip off as well as live. With player props, performance trends, and same game parlays, fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. What would it look like to combine live prop bets midame based on how the action unfolds? You can do that yourself tonight and moving forward as these games play through. And imagine how much more exciting the game could be if you could get a $200 bonus in bets added to your first $5 bet if it hits. This is important. If you’re new to FanDuel, it’s the perfect time to sign up. Head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you will get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the National Basketball Association. All right, to Michael, same rules apply. So, no SGA, obviously. No Williams, obviously. I guess with the Thunder, we need to specify which Williams we’re talking about here, right? Jub, right? No, no JDub, right? Can’t have JDub. And you can’t have Chad, right? No Chad Homegrren here. Uh, everybody else is fair game. I uh I I am excited to say that I’ll go first here and I’ll go with you know shout out one of my former players and students Chris Suber Suber just graduated from high school good happy for him played quarterback for me I don’t know if I’ve told you the story before or not partner but oh no um we were on the bus ride home and I think Memphis was playing OKC it was either early regular season or it was a preseason game. there was something going on on the way home from a game and uh Suber who’s playing point guard in college uh also played quarterback for me. He talked about watching Kase Wallace highlights and the kids know that I’m into basketball, right? It’s not it’s not put out there all the time, but every once in a while somebody makes like a locked on Molenax joke or something like that. Yeah. Um shout out to that. But uh you know I was I was like Wallace he can’t play. Come on man. and he was like, “Coach, Kase Wallace is nice.” And he he he’s not wrong. Kase Wallace is indeed trying to tell you uh he he’s exactly right. This is a guy who we were talking a little bit before the show and I think you’ve talked about him earlier in the week as well. His ceiling is probably Drew Holiday, right? And we got this guy’s 21. This guy’s 21 years old. So his ceiling is Drew. I think his floor, which is where he might be literally right now, is like the Anthony Melton 2.0, right? like an improved DeAnthony Melton in terms of how he plays the game, his defensive vision, his his stocks, his just absolute chaos he can create on the defensive end. Again, the Thunder run a scheme that kind of benefits, right? Plays to his strengths, but at the same time, I think if you put him in the Memphis scheme, he would do a lot of the same kinds of things. A really impressive player, a defensive maven, shoots about 38% for his career, roughly around on the three. So he was 36% this past season for the Thunder. Not great, right? You like to see that number be a little bit higher, but still all that all that he can do defensively. And you know, we talked, you know, Jake Laravia obviously used to be a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. And you used to say all the time, partner, you could tell by his mechanics that the guy can shoot the ball. And Wallace is another good example of that. The numbers maybe this past season he had a little bit of a down year, but you don’t look at Wallace and say that guy’s not going to be able to shoot the three in the NBA as he improves. It should only get better. So, Casem Wallace would be my guy from the Thunder if we were able. And again, I’m not saying the Thunder are going to trade him. They would be crazy to trade him. Uh, but that would be who I’d love to see be a dog for Memphis if if we were allowed to have our dreams come true here. Yeah, I like that one. And and and you you listed out the non uh the names we can’t use for OKC. And there are some of the more obvious ones that still feel like cheat codes because they’re just that deep, right? like obviously uh the Harden Stein, but that contract is big. Um Lou Dor, you know, but with Lou Dor, I feel like he fits, you know, in OKC a little bit better because, you know, they have a couple guys who can make plays for themselves and their teammates and at a very efficient level. You know, like he’s almost Lud Dort’s Tony Allen or he’s almost Oklahoma City’s Tony Allen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. right? Like he will be more valuable to the Thunder than anywhere else in the NBA. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh with all that being said, I’m I’m going to go with Aaron Wiggins. Aaron Aaron I like that pick is is is my guy. You talk about a guy who I think if you ship him out somewhere else, he explodes onto the scene. I mean, the talent Grizzly fans should know this. I mean, he he has the makings. I’ve I’ve mentioned it on X a couple times. uh when he plays the Grizzlies, it’s it’s like he doesn’t miss, especially in the regular season. Then he had a couple games like that in the playoffs. Uh but, you know, his his his minutes are a little bit limited on this OKC team. He’s definitely a rotation player. Uh but the ability to score the ball, watch Oklahoma City in the non Shay Gills, Alexander lineups, uh over the course of this finals because those lineups haven’t been really good, so to speak. I mean, they’re good. they’re good enough. Uh but they aren’t like, you know, world beaters, uh when he’s out of the game. But what makes those lineups go is when Jaylen Williams and Aaron Wiggins are really knocking down shots. And Aaron Wiggins, uh when he gets in that kind of elevated role, when they take Shay Gil Alexander to the bench in that little small window of time, uh he tends to excel. So, uh, I think if you talk about him with his three-point shooting efficiency, with his ability to create shots, like we talk about your guy Luke Canard being super accurate, but the downside is we don’t get to see that accuracy as much as we want because he’s not generating those open looks. Uh, Aaron Wiggins can do that, and I think of him as that third guard, someone who could really score it behind those guys. He really gives me uh that type of potential. Not not really a bad defender either. Like he’s not one of their top defenders, but he’s not a bad one, too. So, give me Aaron Wiggins. I don’t talk about this much. This is actually one of the things I rarely talk about when my basketball stuff, which is hard to find this many years in. My three-point shooting preference. I like guys that can make threes that aren’t in the corner, right? Because the corner three is the most efficient shot in basketball, right? It’s closest to the rim. There’s all sorts of analytics that go into, you know, just why that shot is the best shot. Shout out PJ Tucker. Yeah, there you go. This guy, Mr. Aaron Wiggins, non-corner threes over the last three seasons for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And keep in mind, he’s played at least a thousand minutes over these three seasons. Yeah. 46% on non-corn corner three two years ago, 52% on non-c corner threes last year, and then this regular season that just concluded, 42% on non-corner threes. And that’s on 200 attempts, 86 out of 205 from noncorner threes. So, this is a guy who actually shoots pretty poorly from the corner to be honest with you. Where he does his damage is beyond the corner three. And something else that I like, we’re talking about numbers. Check out this guy’s contract. $10.5 million. Beautiful. 9.7 million 8.8.0 in the last year of a fiveyear deal is a team option for extended deal. Yep. That is a phenomenal contract and impressive work and it’s one of the reasons why the Thunder can look at their roster and say say he masterpiece we don’t have to do anything. He signed that deal like early in this se early on in this season I remember and I was like why did he do that right now? But but you know some guys like to get the security you know you never know what’s going to happen with injuries and all that. Get your security get your money now. Um, so shout out to him for getting that security uh going forward. But yeah, that’s a that’s a great deal for OKC. Phenomenal contract for the Thunder. It really is. And to your point that you made earlier, partner, we could go up and down this roster of guys that really check this box. Like Isaiah Joe is is somebody that has come along and really had a really impressive run. My boy Kendrick Williams. I’ve loved Kendrick Williams. That’s a dog. That’s a dog right there. You talk about Desmond B guy, too. That is a dog, right? That is somebody that would be awesome on this team. So, you could go up and down the list. And again, we want to stress the Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have to do anything. Every single one of these guys are under contract. They have so many first round picks. If they like their team, they could literally run it back. And that is phenomenal GM work. They they just are one of the they’re the class of the NBA right now. They just are from top to bottom. And it’s going to be fascinating to see what that looks like given their youth going against a team like the Indiana Pacers. And we’ll talk about the NBA finals, give you some previews and general takeaways from the series that starts tonight. Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Welcome back to Lockdown Grizzlies. I’m Joe Mullenax joined by my wonderful co-host Demich Cole Memphis Grizzlies beatw writer for the commercial appeal award-winning Memphis Grizzlies beatw writer for the commercial appeal is Demich to Michael again the finals begin tonight no more dreaming although it would be nice to dream of the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA finals that would be you maybe you know somewhere in Indiana I guess or New York or something like that for a game one uh you know how wonderful that would be but that’s not the world that we live in um it’s OKC in Indiana. What are you looking for from this series? I know you’re a big hoop head. You’ll be watching the game uh just like everybody else. How do you see the series playing out? What are your keys? Obviously, this is locked on Grizzlies, but the eyes of the NBA and sports world to be honest with you. The Stanley Cup started yesterday, so the we are locked in on NBA Finals game one. What are some of your thoughts about this series? Yeah, I I’ll make a Grizzlies tie in here and uh and and I’ll bring it back for you. And you mentioned that I’m a hoop head and as a hoop head, I can’t wait to see the contrasting styles that are so good just collide. And let’s see if the cliche wins. The cliche is defense wins championships. Uh but some people will say, “Hey, offense wins games. Defense wins championships. Offense wins games.” Uh, how many games can the OKC offense, I mean, not OKC, uh, the Indiana Pacer offense win? And will OKC’s defense, uh, win this championship? Now, tying it back to the Grizzlies side, I think the Grizzlies can learn as much as any team in the league from this series, from this series in particular. Now, there are some teams that could, everybody could learn from OKC on the defensive end, but there’s only one team that played faster than the Pacers. It’s only one. Now, I remember Grizzlies. Yeah. Yeah. Memphis Grizzlies. And And it’s funny because I remember earlier this season, um, when the Grizzlies played the Pacers for the first time, we’re in the locker room and some of the players are huffing and puffing, Joe. They’re like, it’s just it’s a different speed pandmic. And I’m like, you guys play like that against everybody else. But when you play another team that’s like, all right, you want to make this a a track meet, let’s do it. It it’s it’s a different feeling. When you got the other teams, hey, hey, let’s slow it down a little bit. we’re not trying to play their game. Indiana’s trying to play their game uh and your game because both of them are playing really fast. Uh so with that being said, you pointed out earlier the fact that the Pacers have specialized in playing fast and taking care of the ball. And I’ll go even a step further than that. Uh taking care of the ball, that’s part of their efficiency, right? The efficiency is to another level when you talk about the level of shot making that they have now. um you you question some of it because like Andrew Nimhart goes from shooting like below league average in the regular season and then he turns into a above league average three-point shooter in the playoffs and he did it last year too. So, it’s like, hey, I mean, the guy’s just a playoff riser, I guess. But Aaron Neith, as you mentioned earlier, when you’re talking about him, uh, another guy who shot the ball really well from three-point range. Uh, so not only do they play fast, but they can efficiently score. The Grizzlies were playing fast. They would score a lot in transition, but the Grizzlies needed to get a lot of offensive rebounds and stuff like that. So, it’s a different type of dynamic, but it’s something the Grizzlies can really learn for from because even with Iselo leading the charge, they’re going to emphasize playing fast. So, with all that being said, I just can’t wait to see got this offense that is giving the Cavaliers trouble. It’s giving the Knicks trouble and in the regular season at times gave the Celtics trouble. Uh the the Pacers can can hoop, but you got this defense that is historically good. You say we got Tyrese Hallebertton, they say, “Okay, that’s fine. We got Kase Wallace and we got Lou Dorton.” You get Lou Dorton foul trouble. Okay, we’ll slide Jaylen Williams, second team all defense over on him. Okay, you don’t want Jayla Wilgar? Okay, that’s fine. We’ll bring Kase Wallace off the bench. Okay, that’s fine. We can bring former first team alldefense member Alex Cruso just a couple years ago was first team all defense. So, we’ll slide him on. And then you say, “Okay, you got Seakum. Okay, we can put Jaylen Wells on him.” No, we’ll start the game. We’ll put Chad Hogre on him. Let’s see if he can score over some sides. We put Hartstein on. We can put like they can come at you in waves. Uh they have the bodies. They have the answers individual matchup wise. So Indiana, and this is again something that I think the Grizzlies could potentially learn from. They won’t be able to win this game just by saying we’re going to beat you with individual matchups. They’re going to have to play their style and they’re going to have to execute. And uh it’s gonna have to be playing with pace and try to create efficient opportunities. I can’t wait to see it. Miles Turner is gonna have to be the best player for the the Pacers in my opinion for them to win. If Miles Turner can be an MVP caliber player for the series, I think the Pacers can win. That to me is the key because we’ve seen throughout this might be cooked. We I’m with you. I’m with you. We’ve seen throughout this playoff run, the Thunder are capable of neutralizing your best guys, right? They have an Alex Caruso that was able to frustrate Jokic. Nicola Joic, you’re not stopping him, you’re just slowing him down. But they have different ways, like you said, different body types, different archetype of defender. They have so many different looks, so much length. You know, Hallebertton, the lanes are going to close faster than he’s seen this entire season. And he’s an elite decision maker, as I’ve talked about on here. you have as well, but how he’s going to be able to translate that in a way, as I talked about on a show recently, he’s better at it than Jaw is, but Jaw has that athleticism advantage. And it’s going to be a fascinating thing to see. Morant saying that he had OKC figured out. Is it because he was able to get to certain spots because of that athleticism that Hallebertton doesn’t possess? Hallebertton has better decisionmaking on the court at this moment, but how will that connect? And the floater is so is so significant in this series as well. Hallebertton has to be able to knock that shot down. Um I I’m intrigued by Miles Turner because I think he’s a guy that theoretically should be able to win his matchup, right? He’s unique enough as a three-point shooter on the perimeter. They have Seakkum as that creator of his own offense and of offense for others. I think Turner’s the X factor for the Pacers. But I’m with you, partner. I don’t think that’s going to be enough. I think that you’re looking at a Thunder team that is just destined. This is their time. This is their run. You never want to say it’s a dynasty because of the parody that the league does have. The Western Conference is loaded. We ain’t jumping the gun. Yeah. Right. But this particular time, they got the makeup. It It’s the time. The time is now for the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think they’ll be the youngest team since those uh those Blazers back in the 70s to win a championship. I think the Thunder win game one and two. I think the Pacers take game three in Indiana. Uh the the Pacers fans are some of the best in the NBA. The energy in that building is going to be phenomenal. And we’ve seen Oklahoma City struggle in game threes. So I think Indiana wins game three. I think the Thunder bounce back in game four. I think the series ends in Oklahoma City and game five. Thunder and five is my official prediction. What say you, partner? I think that’s that’s sounds about right. Thunder and five. Um, defensively overwhelming, but they’re a really good offensive team, too. And, um, the Pacers, you know, they’re not a bad defense, but they aren’t frightening on that end, uh, as well. So, I think, you know, I’m I’m I’m really watching that Andrew Nimhard and Aaron Nmith, uh, those guys, uh, how they guard Shaiel Alexander where they get their opportunities. We talked about how Nimhart, you know, did well against Shaylen Brunson. Uh, we know that Shay Gills Alexander and Nimhard know each other very well. Canadian background playing together in Canada and whatnot. Um, looking forward to seeing how that plays out. But yeah, OKC and five. Look, I I just trust defense and um the end of the day that defense has the ability to to limit uh anyone and and we talked about how the Pacers have taken care of the ball. I can’t wait to see how that plays out. Like uh if you can limit turnovers against OKC, you can win. The Grizzlies were limiting turnovers uh in game three really well uh in the first half and then of course they end up turning over in the second half. Child goes out and they lose. But if you could limit turnovers, you give yourself a real chance against them. Let us know in the comments. Hit us up on X at the Michael CJ Mullenax. Pacers players you’d love to see in Memphis. Thunder players you’d love to see on the Grizzlies and your finals predictions. Demo and I on the same page as we often are. Uh Thunder and five sounds good to me. I I I agree with that take. Let us know what you guys are thinking as well. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode of Locked On Grizzlies. Tomorrow is Friday. Friday, you’ve got to get down on Friday. I will be flying solo on the Friday show. Lots of fun things that we can discuss. We can obviously talk about the start of the finals. We could go down the angle of reviewing some of the players that are no longer with Memphis and how they could have helped in the long run. you know, Jake Laravia, did they really miss him? The Marcus Smart trade. There’s lots of whatifs because that’s how I’m feeling watching these NBA finals. Not what if the Grizzlies made the finals, but again, Memphis was the two seed back in January, right? Everything collapsed. I kind of want to play the what if game a little bit to Michael and try to be hypothetical on a Friday. You know how I get down on a Yeah. I was like, it’s it’s not bad. Yeah. And you got to get down on a Friday. You got to. So, yeah. got to it’s fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun as we look forward to the weekend shout out to Rebecca Black shout out to Demich and shout out to you hopefully for joining us uh and me excuse me on Lockdown Grizzlies on Friday thank you for making Lockdown Grizzlies your first listen today for your second listen check out the Lockdown NBA big board show NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft find NBA big board on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts we got to find a reason to get him on the show he’s phenomenal I’m guessing He’s too busy to talk about late second round. We’ll get him on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know that’s your guy. So maybe we’ll be able to get him on here in the next couple of weeks. Uh thank you so much for being with us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you’re hanging out with Demike and I each and every time that an episode drops. Become an everydayer if you aren’t already one. If you are, thank you so much. Hopefully that means you’ll be back with me tomorrow as we close out the week here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Enjoy game one. Have a blast. Be safe. Small markets unite. Cheers to the small markets and shout out to the small market.

No, Tyrese Haliburton and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are not on the trade market. But ahead of the NBA Finals getting under way, there are some Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers role players that’d look great in Beale Street Blue. Hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax dream Memphis Grizzlies dreams and preview the NBA Finals on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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