Grizzlies are out on Kevin Durant/Early Memphis NBA Draft thoughts

Grizzlies are out on Kevin Durant/Early Memphis NBA Draft thoughts

no no no no no no no no we are not doing this again i refuse more importantly to Michael Cole Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Commercial Appeal my co-host on this podcast refuses kevin Durant will not be a member of the Memphis Grizzlies we’re going to squash that bug and more on this episode of Locked On 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 Thursday edition of Locked On Grizzlies it is I Joe Mullenax one of your hosts joined by my wonderful co-host the incomparable the award-winning Memphis Grizzlies beatr writer for the Commercial Appeal there in Memphis Tennessee to Michael Cole we are happy to be with you this and every episode of Locked On Grizzlies thank you so much for being with us today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the Game Time app create an account use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase we are free and available wherever you get podcasts we’re proud members of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team each and every single day like comment rate review subscribe on Apple Spotify Amazon YouTube Google literally anywhere you get a podcast you can find Demich and I as your hosts of Locked on Grizzlies make sure you are becoming an everyday dare if you are not one already I don’t know if you saw in the comments or not yesterday partner we we earned several subscribers thanks to you standing up standing on business for the 901 for Memphis uh standing up to the nonsense of Stephen A smith and we’re not going to go back down that road again welcome to Lock on Rizz shout out to the new everydays welcome just got more ridiculous just got more ridiculous it’s not worth our time anymore i thought Deichel hit a hit a grand slam so to speak talking about it yesterday so we’re going to get back to actual basketball and Demich getting ready to go on a nice little vacation a well-deserved break ahead of the draft you are still doing work up to the last hour partner breaking news over on X according to sources and this is at Demich on X always nice when uh we can lead off with a scoop from our wonderful Demich Cole the Grizzlies are not interested in trading for Kevin Durant they contemplated an offer at the trade deadline but they haven’t and don’t intend to engage on a trade for Durant this off season this is in response to an Evans Cittery uh post I believe of Forbes that’s where he uh contributes on the NBA talking about the Grizzlies entering the Kevin Durant sweepstakes again and as much as I know that you’re phenomenal Demich you know how much I appreciate your work i literally subscribe to the Commercial Appeal still because of you no offense to Jonah uh but because of you is why I subscribe to the commercial appeal i don’t know that Evans entirely wrong because I do think that not necessarily that I’m disputing your sources because you’re much more sourced in than me the Grizzlies make a lot of sense as a third team in a trade to facilitate a deal to Kevin Durant going somewhere else so it could be one of those things where he could and you and again I don’t we don’t have Ev we have you here i fully believe your reporting that Kevin Durant is not going to be a member of the Memphis Grizzlies however the way that it’s phrased there and I don’t want to put words in your mouth partner they are not interested in trading for Kevin Durant that does not necessarily mean that the Grizzlies would not be interested in helping facilitate a deal for KD to go somewhere else yeah um Yeah yeah i I I’m picking up what you’re putting down Joe but I I think you’re you’re you might be giving him a little bit too much credit ah dang it i think I mean in in his You know how I love trades i’m sorry i just love tradies in the photo i think it was he did and it does say Kevin Durant sweep stakes specific yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so look I’m not It wasn’t I know people wanted to to laugh and joke about how it played out i wasn’t really trying to take a shot at him personally or anything like that it was more so just like you know like uh correcting the you know you know like clear air what do they say uh so when it comes to being a Memphis Grizzlies beat writer to Michael Cole is a dog hey hey hey you’ve been getting a lot of lot of compliments on that bark too so I think it makes me feel good when people you know I may not be a very good podcaster but I’m a good barker yeah you’re a good podcaster great podcast great podcaster he said I’m great i was fishing and I caught one great you you caught it and with with Kevin Durant um there’s going to be interest out there right there’s going to be other teams but I think when people saw the Grizzlies make that trade and now that we’ve put into the to the air and and people are coming you know uh around to the idea that the Grizzlies are not about to rebuild you see those draft assets and you say “Oh well are they going to go after Kevin Durant?” There is one thing that Mia and uh Evan Cid’s post had in common and that was the fact that the Grizzlies were interested uh in Kevin Durant at the trade deadline u we didn’t talk about it much at the time but yeah that that that was the case you know right the Grizzlies were very interested in the idea of pursuing Kevin Durant back then however things change uh specifically to this situation not only you know it’s the interest not the same uh but it would be hard to even acquire him now because of the contracts uh I think when you talk about trading them for players and um I I don’t have the CBA right in front of me so I don’t have the wording uh down to a te right now because it’s just off top of my head just you know knowing what I know about the CBA uh they can’t just move uh the the KCP and uh Cole Anthony contracts right now uh for players you know that would have to be something that’s done uh I believe a couple months from now so and if you don’t have either of those contracts uh to to play along that you’re not doing it because you’re definitely not trading J or Jiren in this case based on what we know uh so uh yeah it’s one it’s kind of an unrealistic idea uh just from a you know a asset standpoint at least from the financial like of course you know with picks and stuff the Grizzlies could make it work but financially uh there’s there it’s it would be really difficult to do I think you would have to kind of like sign and trade Santi Alama or something like that but that’s Phoenix is not doing that like it’s it’s an extreme long shot uh even from a financial standpoint but uh again the Grizzlies are retooling this thing you got John Moran and Jiren Jackson Jr in their mid20s kevin Durant will be 37 when next season starts i’ve been Look Joe you saw it i was I was advocating for the idea of going after Kevin Durant uh earlier you know uh this month or whatever the case may be and uh I was advocating for that in the case that they did trade Desmond Bane and move Jaylen Wells over to the two so they can play Kevin Durant at the three that was my scenario so it’s like my scenario is right in front of me and it’s a possibility but again uh talking with people around the Grizzlies uh there there there is an interest there so you know you heard it straight you know from me and I got it straight from them like it this is not uh something that the Grizzlies are intending on pursuing but there are other players out there i’m sure the Grizzlies will will kind of pivot in different directions we’ll talk about that over the course you know the next week or so but yeah Kevin Durant will not be a Memphis Grizzly this offseason that’s one of the great ironies of all these trade value things and I know Matt Moore has talked about this at HP Basketball i think you’ve posted about it a little bit the idea that Desmond Bane got four first round picks including the number 16 pick that we’re going to talk about later on in the show oh my gosh m Kevin Durant must be worth seven first round picks now that’s not necessarily the case just like Desmond Bane is more valuable to the Orlando Magic than Bane would be to the Phoenix Suns right the Phoenix Suns already have Deon Booker why would they want Desmond Bane that’s a very fair thing to say whereas the Magic had no Desmond Bane they wanted Desmond Bane right so that is a significant piece to the puzzle devin Booker is better than Desmond Bane all those sorts of things bane makes more sense in Orlando they’re willing to pay that price that’s one of the reasons maybe KD because of his age and his contract and all that sort of stuff maybe he’s not going to get a similar package to what Desmond Bane got even though I think everybody would agree KD is a better basketball player uh I I have to be fair here i also talked about the possibility of Kevin Durant coming back to Memphis so I can’t just make fun of Evan Cury the entire segment here it’s not fair to him i I do want to acknowledge though that we always said at least since the Bane trade happened it feels like it was so long ago they can do whatever they want right they could have gone after Durant if they wanted to you’re reporting that they don’t want to i think it’s much more likely now that they find that middle road that you’ve heard more and more people talking about in this new CBA era the two max contract players and you build around those guys and you supplement as best you can and the Bane trade allows for them to do that however they see fit whether it’s through the draft free agency probably not free agency trade more likely than free agency they can go and get these pieces that they’re looking for using these tradable contracts and these assets to go and take Desmond Bane and turn it into a Kevin Durant doesn’t make sense because the same financial problems will still exist even though it’s obviously a much shorter contract and Durant would almost certainly not resign in Memphis yeah uh that that’s also something you know uh that that you have to factor in like what is Kevin Durant’s interest or whatever the case may be but again the Grizzlies did their you know due diligence um at the trade deadline it seemed like at the time the Suns were still kind of going for it in their situation uh trying to push for a playin spot or whatever the case may be that didn’t work out now it’s becoming you know overwhelmingly clear that the Suns are going to uh attempt to find a partner for Kevin Durant you felt like oh this would be a good time for the Grizzlies uh to get into that sweet stakes uh it’s it’s fair to to wonder about the idea of you know playing keep away or or all that because the other teams who are pretty interested in him are so happen to be kind of your division rivals you know Houston and San Antonio at the top of the list houston San Antonio is right at the top of the list uh so it’s like hey if if you’re not interested in him you’re basically saying fine let’s play them four times next season uh and you know that’s the situation that the Grizzlies are probably going to be in but again it’s it’s all about you know your timeline and in the Grizzlies case you you got these guys in their mid20s and it seems like they’re trying to retool this thing a little bit differently uh and and they’re not wanting to go all in on a 37 year old uh in that process makes sense when you think about it that way again shout out to Demich Cole make sure you’re following him on X Dichc if you don’t already do so he is the Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Commercial Appeal that’s his day job obviously he is uh the my better half here on Locked on Grizzlies make sure you’re following him at Michael C i’m Joe Mullenex how are you feeling about KD not coming to Memphis let us know in the comments all that fun stuff when we come back here on Locked On Grizzlies again we we mentioned this yesterday holy crap the Grizzlies have a first round draft pick now let’s do some early takeaways certainly a lot more deep diving we can do in the leadup to the draft here in a week or so uh but let’s you know let’s take a a quick read of the situation with this number 16 pick stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies deich it’s that time of the show i don’t know if you’ve got your can i don’t I want to put you on the spot you don’t that’s okay i’ve got us covered i’ve got a delicious can this is crisp i’ve heard good things about the crisp apple let’s listen that’s a good pop top right there this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Ollipop let’s see oh man that hits that hits different it’s a new kind of soda again it’s crisp apple soda it’s made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health two to five grams of sugar this can has five grams right on the dot plus they have a lot more fiber right nine grams of prebiotic fiber in every can lollipop is reimagining soda we talked about it the other day 39 grams in a regular Coke of sugar 44 grams in an orange Fanta ollipop flips the script a fraction of the sugar with no artificial sweeteners and it has gut friendly ingredients like Olly Smart a blend to support digestive and overall health it’s a soda that tastes like the real thing but actually does something good for your body i got to be honest after drinking Ollipop thank you so much for sending all the delicious flavors like classic grape my friend Chris Apple over here I’ve noticed that I’m not craving the same sodas that I usually crave i I’ll still drink them i’m not going to pretend like I don’t but a good lollipop fills that void and then some at least for me be like me be like Michael get a free can of lollipop just buy any two cans in store and they’ll reimburse you for one head to drinkallipop.com/lockdown NBA to claim your free can and find Ollipop near you that’s drinkly.comlockedonba let’s do this one more time that is refreshing i’m not going to lie so as we mentioned to Michael the number 16 pick in the 2025 NBA draft is now in the possession of the Memphis Grizzlies how long will it be in the possession of the Memphis Grizzlies a very fair question very possible this pick gets traded but in the here and the now the Grizzlies are slated to be on the clock at number 16 and there’s names like Jace Richardson floating around of Michigan State names like Nick Clifford of Colorado State y I love Clifford of Colorado State but I can’t I’m not going to lie the the the Colorado State David Rody stuff I you know it’s not fair to Clifford but yeah very very fresh in my mind i’m gonna plant my flag and we’ll talk more about this on tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Grizzlies because I’ll be out most of draft week on my vacation i’m gonna plant my flag on Cedric Coward Island i’ve talked about him before that’s my guy i think that he makes the most sense again you’re not going to be able to replace Desmond Bane right that’s impossible if you’re trying to replicate him in the aggregate moneyball style this is a valuable offensive weapon who can score in a variety of ways plus even though he was not as good of a defender as you would think he would be in college he has a 72 wingspan this is a 66 and a half wing with a 72 and a quarter wing great measurables man great measurables a impressive score and impressive 38 inch vertical not asking this guy to be a starter from the jump he can be a rotation player can ease into things i think he’s capable of being a rotation player again if we’re trying to replicate Bane over the next couple of years if the Grizzlies keep the pick we’ll talk more about them trading it on tomorrow’s episode if the Grizzlies keep it Cedric Coward’s where I’m planting my flag but I know you’ve got some other names to keep an eye on as well yeah uh that’s that’s one that I like too uh you mentioned that that wingspan over you know seven 7 foot2 wingspan the long arms uh just the defensive potential is uh something to point out there uh uh one thing that stands out to me you say early number 16 pick takeaways one takeaway that I have is there are a lot of quality wings expected to go somewhere in that range and that’s important to me because if you look at the Grizzlies roster I think it’s overwhelmingly clear of where they should target someone uh from a positional standpoint if they use this number 16 pick i’m not looking at a point guard uh you got John you got Scotty Pippen Jr and right now you got Cole Anthony too uh I’m not looking you know at another big right now the Grizzlies have to me you can make an argument the the deepest one of the deepest front courts from power fourth to center in the NBA and while that sounds cool and it’s amazing and it’s nice uh look at the NBA finals right now tell me how many bigs do you see playing those teams are playing roughly two bigs you know for the most part like really one maybe two you’re not seeing a lot of bigs i mean Miles Turner has not been great in this series chad Hungren has not been great in the series isaiah Hardinstein just got back in the starting lineup like uh I point all that out to say that the Wings are where it’s at the Grizzlies have a lot of depth in the front court they have depth at point guard right now so get you someone who can play the two play the three who can have some position versatility now with all that being said Joe uh the guy that I’m going to point out and look Cedric Coward is is my 1A too and this would be my 1B right now and that’s Rashir Fleming St joseph okay and it’s it’s not just me i’ve been talking to people you know I got the Philly ties uh so I’ I’ve been keeping tabs on him and uh they love him up there you know he’s he’s third year he played under my guy Billy Lang up there at at St joe’s uh I covered that you know covered that program you know for a couple years goodness gracious you talk wingspan 7 foot five wingspan seven 75 and guess what Joe he can shoot and he can rebound you talk about a plug and play uh defensively averaged over a steal and over a block per game uh in the A10 uh this past season that’s that’s that’s what you that’s what you want right you want someone can shoot the basketball you want the defensive activity he gives you that uh 69 220 pounds uh a natural four but with the way that he rebounds the basketball we’re talking about a guy who averaged over eight and a half rebounds per game that’s the type of guy that I could see playing alongside of a Jiren and uh and you know you’re having some success there in different lineups so uh I’m looking at Rashir Fleming uh as a guy who can come in uh his defense could be impactful from day one uh he’s not going to be a guy that needs the basketball in his hand to do too much uh so you talk about plugandplay guys uh he he’s right there at 16 like I said Cedric Coward is is is at the top of the list for me but uh I like Rashir Fleming and uh talk to Jay Bilis on uh yesterday too and Jay Bilis uh is also a big Rashir Fleming guy i was asking him about his gems uh in this draft and he he couldn’t he couldn’t stop talking about Rasheed Fleming i gotta tell you that that wingspan ratio is phenomenal i knew you like that does Jay Bilis think he can play the three that’s my only thing and again I’m a big tankon guy i’m acknowledging like there’s other websites and other analysis our buddy Parker Fleming’s putting out his mo his draft stuff on Monday very excited about that so I’m going to dive in over the weekend here and certainly on my vacation uh my only concern is can this guy play the three because it’s almost like if you’re keeping Santi Alama he becomes not redundant necessarily because this guy’s clearly a better rebounder but between Aldama and Clark being on the team would he almost be like a replacement for one of those guys if they moved on or got traded that’s how I look at it that that’s how I look at it i mean it it’s about what he does on the defensive end he he could shoot the basketball like the whole identity shift of the Grizzlies that’s about to happen they they are really prioritizing uh defenders i I think uh with this first pick we’re not looking at a I mean you know I’m just thinking of guys off the top of my head like a Kanipple type kanipple is one of the best prospects in this draft to me and and you can make an argument that he’s one of the safest picks in the draft like he he’s a pretty sure bet highest floor yeah he’s a pretty sure bet to be a solid player like you said highest floor one of those type guys but at the same time when you look at the Grizzlies uh what they just did by getting Cavius Cwell Pope what they’ve been emphasizing in terms of wanting dogs wanting to get guys who are really going to uh lead to a shift on the defensive end I think uh if you get to the draft and a guy like Rashe Fleming is there and the Grizzlies you know feel the way that I feel about him and Jay Bilis and some other people that I’ve talked to uh I say “Hey why not?” And then guess what when you get to the point where we talked about yesterday and the and the Pistons say “We’re ready to give Santi Alama four years 72 million what are you going to do?” It’s all right there there you go i’m going to say “Thank you so much for your services Santi Alama.” Rashir Fleming let’s roll so that’s that that’s kind of my thought process like it it gives you a little bit more optionality uh can he play the three um I I’ve not seen him play the three much um you know based on what we’ve seen I know he moves very well but again you’re talking about a guy who’s every bit of you know 69 220 like he’s very much a more natural four but he does have position versatility like he he could play the five and stretches and you know in the A10 but we’ll see you know how that translates over uh to you know uh the NBA goodness gracious almost 6’10 with a 75 wingspan he could probably play the the five against half of the NBA teams right you just talked about how in the finals you’re not seeing a bunch true centers on the court zack Edy is clearly a part of the Grizzlies future but it would be nice to have some versatile guys that can give you a different look he can rebound though i gotta keep going back that’s intriguing i like that i like both of those options let the Michael and I know in the comments hit us up on X how are you feeling about this number 16 pick again Deichel is going to go more in depth next week i’ll go more in depth tomorrow uh we’ll start really getting into the the number 16 pick and how Memphis can maybe move around the draft board somebody like uh who Deichel just talked about Rashier Fleming maybe he’s available a little bit later in the draft and we trade back a little bit get more assets you have a team like Dallas who only has one pick in this draft it’s it’s the most important pick number one uh but the the Mavericks desperately need a point guard to fill in for Kyrie for much of the upcoming season maybe they want to get in at number 16 and try to draft somebody like Water Clayton Jr florida so there’s lots of different ways this could go and we’re going to talk about that and more starting tomorrow and all through the next several episodes leading up to the draft so make sure you’re with us here on Lockdown Grizzlies when we come back we’re going to close out this episode talking about the Lakers being sold a ridiculous amount of money $10 billion the biggest transaction in professional sports franchise history we’ll talk about that and how it impacts Memphis this is Lockdown Grizzlies after all stick around today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Game Time the playoffs are winding down the NBA Finals could conclude tonight there’s nothing like it right the intensity the buzzer beers the fans losing their minds it’s the kind of atmosphere that you have to experience live and this year’s matchups throughout the postseason 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were sold for 10 billion with a B dollars $10 billion the bus family making a lot of money jerry Bus purchased the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million mark Walter has purchased majority ownership or is entering an agreement for it per shams about $10 billion the largest sale of a professional sports franchise in the world the Lakers were valuated by Forbes forbes does a franchise evaluation every year uh they were valued at 7 billion by Forbes that’s a pretty big difference 30% difference right in terms of look at 10 billion yeah you know I’m not a math teacher but I can do a little bit i I’m in I’m and I’m probably wrong somebody can let me know in the comments and if I am wrong I’m not a math teacher but I will say to Michael you know how connecting this to Memphis right whether it is the fact that expansion uh is all the more likely now that the value of an NBA franchise has literally never been higher and that’s more money in the pockets of all these owners what or governors however you want whatever you want to call them um whether it’s you know Desmond Payne talking about the resources of Memphis the biggest thing for the Lakers now is because this is the same guy in the same group that owns the Dodgers and the Dodgers are not afraid to spend money in Major League Baseball obviously the major difference is there’s a salary cap in basketball not in baseball but there is no salary cap on paying coaches there is no salary cap on state-of-the-art facilities right so the Lakers will have the nicest of everything you’d imagine moving forward and another way to connect it is the idea that with this move it makes it seem even more likely that there’s a massive conspiracy a foot that impacts the Grizzlies because the Dallas Mavericks were involved how convenient to Michael that the sale goes through after one of the more lopsided trades in NBA history and oh my gosh look at all this money that just fell out of the sky and the Mavericks get paid in the number one overall pick in exchange i’m not a conspiracy theorist but that it looks even more shady now so there’s lots of different angles we could take here partner how it impacts Memphis yeah um I mean I tell you what that that kind of makes the trade feel a little bit more even you know when you uh when you throw in all the con conspiracy uh theories and whatnot but but yeah uh uh we’re starting to see you know the value of these sports franchises not just NBA franchises but sports across are are at an all-time high and what a lot of these newer owners are doing is when they come in they kind of immediately kind of uh put their their prints onto something and and sometimes it’s not right then and there but you remember you know like um you know I think Matt Ishbia is a is a good recent example when he took over boom we’re going to make all the games local free you know it’s accessible over the air to to everyone and things like that uh so so you’re starting to see you know all these little tricks of course you know the main thing that people talks about is is the uh the game viewing experience whether it’s in person or and whether it’s you know on TV uh all those things but uh how that ties into the Grizzlies uh we know you know the Grizzlies right now with with the regional you know sports they’re they’re going through that whole situation and you know we’ll see how that ends up playing out for the upcoming season if there’ll be some overtheair games we saw like we saw towards the end of the season or whatever the case may be but um in a way I just feel like the Grizzlies got to do something uh a little bit more uh I don’t aggressive isn’t the word but something that’s really going to you know catch the ice they they added the you know the standing room only section uh I think it was two years two three years ago uh to the FedEx Forum but this is literally you know kind of at the top of the arena you know um so so whether it’s for the viewing you know pleasure of the fans or whether it’s something for the players like you mentioned Desmond Bane’s comments we talked about those and we were just kind of mentioning the practice facility from the standpoint of where the the courts but there’s also the gym you know room uh and and and the weight room or whatever the case may where the players are after the games before the games and things like that and you know it’s actually if you talk to people around the league uh the Grizzlies aren’t just some super outdated team when it comes to the weight rooms it’s just other teams like I mentioned with the 76ers like we saw with the or Orlando Magic they’ve put resources into something that’s uh kind of a out of out of the arena something that’s away from the arena and they’ve got their own facility where you can pretty much go all in uh you have all the windows you want and uh players have access to those facilities whenever they want so uh that that is something that you start to wonder like you know I think about it in college football right in college football we used to kind of call it like an arms race like I remember uh when I was in college so this is you know roughly in the last 10 years there was this whole attendance thing that was taking place right uh boom LSU’s adding 10,000 seats and boom here comes Georgia adding 4,000 more seats oh Tennessee’s adding this many seats to Neland Stadium and then there was the whole thing with alcohol being starting to be allowed right into SEC stadiums and oh now this school’s going to allow alcohol in the games so now this school’s going to allow alcohol in games so in a way you got in my opinion you got to approach this like an arms race now of course it comes down to the owners which the Grizzlies so happen to have one of the richest ones we keep going back to that but um you know he hadn’t spent like it so far so that’s where I am they they got to kind of modify the approach a little bit and I don’t think Grizzlies games are some terrible experience at all uh based on you know like I have a lot of friends here who love going to Grizzlies games and things like that but uh if you be honest with yourself uh the Grizzlies were not near the top of the league in in attendance at all uh this past season and they were a decent team so to speak like they still were a playoff team they weren’t some team that was tanking or anything like that so uh there are some things that you should do especially with the in arena experience to kind of modify that experience to kind of get those people in those seats and get them there a little bit more you know what my biggest takeaway reading up a little bit about Mark Walter throughout the day as this massive transaction was announced what you got what you got what you got my understanding of Mark Walter is and you can see it with the Dodgers right hire smart people to do smart things i would say Robert Pere has done that so far you can critique Zack Kimman like you can critique anybody but I don’t think anybody’s calling Zack Kleman a dummy unless you’re irrational uh so hiring smart people to do smart things leaving people to do their jobs right like Robert Perah might as well be a ghost at this point we’ve seen him what twice in the last five years if that number three and this is where Walter or uh this is where they differ the two this is where Pah and Walter differ walter is willing to spend money adapt or die that’s where you’re at and the Memphis Grizzlies have got to start spending money on in these spaces where there is no salary cap right there is no salary cap there’s nothing stopping Robert Pah from going out to Eids or some area out in the suburbs of Memphis and buying a plot of land and building a hundred million dollar facility he he could do that snap his fingers in the next week he could get some contracts drawn up that that is something that would make the lives of his players better that is something that could allow for the space in FedEx Forum to be utilized differently there’s so many different things that you can do beyond the salary cap but that hasn’t happened yet for the Memphis Grizzlies so much of the financial discussions how much money is the state going to put in what is the city going to do in these negotiations steve Balmer’s out there dropping money left and right the Washington Commanders uh Josh Harris so much of the money for their new stadium in DC is going to be privately financed one of the most privately financed stadiums in the history of stadium being built yep at some point what good is it to be one of the wealthiest owners in the NBA if you’re not willing to spend that money got to spend it got to spend it i I think that’s my takeaway from the Lakers sale the ball’s in your court Bob uh it’s up to you to see how you want to handle this thanks so much for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies as I mentioned a couple of times Demich and I we we go our separate ways for a little while here just a little bit of a break the Michael’s going on a vacation i’ll have the Friday episode and then Demco will have most of next week himself as I am on vacation uh NBA draft is going to be our dominant piece of conversation partner whether it’s me hosting you hosting lots of different angles trades all sorts of different things and I’m sure there’ll be some news reports to be able to talk about as well over the next few episodes yeah uh really interested to see one where where you going to go with uh your ideas of of traits and everything uh on on the next show but uh yeah next week you know of course we’ll we’ll do some preview content ahead of the draft but uh remember on both days of the draft um we are expected to talk to Zack Kleimman so that will be an opportunity uh to talk to him after the first round after the second round and then of course eventually they’ll do player introductions and things like that so a lot of great content and just a lot of uh you know words coming from voices within the organization exciting again climbing is we see climbing a lot more than Pah but he doesn’t he’s kind of like it’s almost like Groundhog Day right it’s climbing day where’s he going to show up uh so lots of different stuff coming from Demich and myself over the next week or so make sure you stay locked in with us here thank you so much for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies thanks for making us your first listen today for your second listen check out the 2025 locked on NBA mockdraft a five episode series with the most comprehensive NBA draft analysis from NBA experts college experts and NBA draft experts find the 2025 locked on NBA mockdraft on NBA board and locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts thank you so much to Deichel for his great work great reporting all that stuff welldeserved break coming up for him it’s going to be hard to get down on a Friday without you but everybody knows I get down on Fridays so we’re we’re going to make it happen uh we’ll miss the Michael but we’re still going to get down on a Friday we’re gonna have some fun fun fun make sure you’re liking commenting rating reviewing subscribing wherever you get podcasts become an everyday dare if you haven’t already done so what are you doing hang out with the Michael and I each and every time that an episode drops apple Spotify YouTube Amazon Google it is all good we’re free and available make sure you’re with us tomorrow and every day moving forward here on Lockdown Grizzies

And just like that, the Memphis Grizzlies are no longer interested in Kevin Durant and have a 1st round NBA Draft pick again. Hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax talk no more KD in Memphis, the Lakers being sold, and much more on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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