Breaking down Grizzlies NBA Draft Scenarios | Jessica Benson Show

Breaking down Grizzlies NBA Draft Scenarios | Jessica Benson Show

as of today the Grizzlies do have that number 16 pick and you just never know what will occur on draft night but the energy at this point seems to lead towards the Grizzlies being interested in being able to use that 16th pick to hopefully find a piece that adds into their equation of upgrading this off season who are the names that you are most focused on going into tomorrow’s draft that you think could be of most help for the Grizzlies well those names you know have kind of you know been within that five any you know whoever’s available or projected to be available anywhere from 12 to 20 and there’s some names in there it just depends on how the Grizzlies want to address some of those needs so when you look at where they are right now to me their most pressing need is for a big is for another big a guy that can rebound set screens uh block shots and be a presence um not just because Zack Ed is going to miss the beginning of the season but because they needed that anyway in terms of depth so if they go in that direction I mean there are a couple of names that could be there from that situation um the the the uh the Frenchman Maxim Rainol is a guy that uh you know jumps up the Stanford center who can shoot who can block shots who shoots threes really well um offensive guy gets gets downhill he’s one of the names that has floated in that range if you want to get a wing and the Grizzlies have always talked about you know trying to add uh wings and shooters uh with some length and some size that could be defensive presence on both ends of the floor uh defensive presence and also an offensive presence so you got a couple of guys in there as well nate Clifford Colorado State is a veteran older kind of guy um they’re not paging for me but he’s an older guy from Colorado State who can do a little bit of everything it’s Chris Army knife kind of guy from there and then if you want to go in the back court with some shooters you know those are some options there too so those are some names that that have come up and we’ll see where they land and whoever drops there’s always a guy that’s going to drop from the top 10 into the mid teams and there’s always you know you got to take the best available in that situation i certainly understand the need for another big and particularly with the status of Zachi going into next season so that case can absolutely be made i think what gets tricky is you can make a case for multiple positions and if you want to look at getting a a three and D wing because you did lose a significant amount of three-point shooting with Desmond Bane getting traded to the Orlando Magic and I know the hope is that KCP reverts to a better shooter than what he was last year for the Magic and his numbers improved on the latter portion of that season but still it was a bit of a disappointing fallout obviously you get a really solid defensive player in KCP however what that means from productivity at the three-point line in a league that gets more and more three-point heavy uh feels like something that is an important thing to address so that’s where I’m curious Mike for you obviously everybody still this time of year gets focused on what trades can be made so if there were to be a trade that were to make sense that could involve this number 16 pick what are some of the factors around that that you think could ultimately move the needle for this Grizzlies front office if they were to go off of that pick and look for something else well I I think some of these things have to be you know multi-team trades you got to see if you can get in and maybe be the third or fourth team that uh that that gets into the mix for a major trade what what we’ve seen so far is two major trades happen that only involved two teams right like Desmond Bane going to Orlando was a onetoone deal in terms of the Orlando Magic and the Memphis Grizzlies kevin Durant going to Houston was a onetoone transaction you know Phoenix and Houston from that standpoint usually when guys of that magnitude or names of that magnitude are getting traded uh even the one that uh came out this morning or last night you know between Boston and Portland with Drew Holiday going to Portland um you know that’s a onetoone deal usually those kind of deals involve two or three teams sometimes three or four teams sometimes and that hasn’t happened so the Grizzlies will have to identify a team that is is sees a player that they really want a younger you know team that really wants to build through the lottery and then they’re willing to come up off of a piece that you really need so that’s why I’ve always been a proponent of the NBA adopting the NBA uh the NFL style go free agency first and then do the draft open free agency first and then you can allow your teams to address those more pressing needs with with their salary space their salary caps and those kind of things and then make the draft secondary after that because you know who’s pretty much on the board in the draft at that point but free agency is such a fluid situation i think if it was the other way around like the NFL does it it will be more advantageous to a team like the Grizzlies i will say this you know I was on a conference call yesterday with uh Bobby Marx from ESPN and uh Jonathan Jonathan Javon and you know those guys said the Grizzlies are in a precarious position because they can literally go either way they can go to a complete retool and rebuild and stockpile these uh young assets and these draft picks that they have and go in that direction or they can pivot out of it really quickly and say you know what let’s take advantage of this this trade opportunity use these assets and then get a veteran i think they’re going to do more the latter and they’re going to be opportunistic in this draft uh tonight tomorrow uh Zack Kleinman always makes trades man he hasn’t let a draft go by without making some kind of draft day deal i think that trend continues

Michael Wallace joins the Jessica Benson Show from New York City to discuss the different directions that the Memphis Grizzlies can go in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Will they go with a big, draft a wing or will Zach Kleiman make another draft day trade?
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