Jaren Jackson Jr. INJURED: Where does Memphis stand out west?

Jaren Jackson Jr. INJURED: Where does Memphis stand out west?

It’s a Wednesday edition of Locked On Grizzlies. The dynamic duo rides once more. Deich Cole, Joe Molenax with you talking about Ty Jerome actually helping the Memphis Grizzlies. We’ve been building up to this for a couple of days here in my absence, but we have to of course lead off with the news that broke on Tuesday night. Jiren Jackson Jr. toe injury out for a while. How long could it take? How much does this screw over the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference? 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, welcome, welcome to another installment of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullen, back after a couple of episode break. Thank you to everyone for the condolences on social media and the comments. Very kind. uh family uh funeral over the over the weekend and happy to be back with you guys now and happy to be here with the wonderful the incomparable to Michael Cole Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the commercial appeal but of course to Michael we know and love as our co-host here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Thanks for filling in for me partner.
Look anytime Joe and um again I’ve sent sent them to you personally but just on the show well wishes to you and your family and and I’m sure everyone who’s tuned in on YouTube. We’re happy to see you back in the fold, Joe. And I mean, and you came out firing, too. I mean, you’re back and you’re right back at it.
I was quiet for a couple of days and, you know, I just can’t hold it back. I’m just too too fiery with my takes, but we’ll get to that uh later on in the program here. Thanks for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing. Wherever you get podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, YouTube. It is literally all good. each and every place that you can get a podcast. You can almost certainly find the Michael and I and Locked on Grizzlies. Make sure you’re becoming an everyday dare. If you’re not already an everyday, what are you doing? Make sure that you’re becoming one and checking out an episode every time that it drops. Speaking of dropping things, uh what was it? 7 something 7:45 on on Tuesday night. Check my check my email and wouldn’t you know it, because I’m still on the media mail list. Wouldn’t you know it, there it goes. Bang. pop right there in the old email uh medical update. And those are terrible, terrible emails.
Usually not a good thing.
And this one was about as bad as it could be. Could be worse. It could always be worse, but it was still not a very good medical update. Let’s check out what the Grizzlies had to say. The Memphis Grizzlies today provided the following medical update on Grizzlies for/center Jiren Jackson Jr. Remember, and I know you talked about this, partner. This is the same Jiren Jackson Jr. that just signed a what, fiveyear, $240 million contract.
Yeah. Agreed. or just agreed to. Excuse me. Thank you. Yep. Agreed to
while participating in a live basketball run off site, which is my first problem, although everybody does it. Jiren Jackson Jr. sustained a turf toe injury in his right foot, which upon expert evaluation yesterday was determined to require a procedure to repair. An update and preliminary timeline will be provided following the procedure, but Jackson Jr. is expected to make a full recovery. So, first off, these live basketball runs off site. Again, that mildly annoys me because it wasn’t something that even involved the Grizzlies organization or a practice with a Grizzlies coach or anything like that. But important context, literally every NBA player does these things, right? Like, this is something that is not uncommon in any way, shape, or form. Mo, a lot of them do.
Um, and I think that that’s important to point out. Like, you shouldn’t be like, “Ah, Jiren, how dare you do this?” like this is very common place that a player would do this type of work in the off season. You see all sorts of Instagram reels about it, but in this particular case, the turf toe injury, uh Brian Winhorse of ESPN says it’s uh usually a four to five month recovery period. This is similar potentially. We don’t have all the details obviously. I believe Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers just had a similar injury. Again, he he’s a point guard, different than a big like Jiren Jackson Jr., But so much of Jiren’s game is dependent on movement, especially offensively. This is a kick in the pants to the Memphis Grizzlies partner.
Yeah, it is. And I mean, the timing, right? Like one day ago,
uh, everyone’s kind of like relieved in a way. Well, a lot of people were. I saw some people weren’t exactly relieved, but uh, you know how that goes. But Jiren Jackson Jr. gets this, uh, at least it’s agreed upon deal. Five years, $240 million. Life-changing money right there. Right. And it’s all
generational wealth. That’s what you’re looking for. That’s it. That’s it. That’s what that’s the goal, right? And all these great deals come about for the Grizzlies and everyone’s feeling good in a decent spot about the team and then boom, you know, uh and it’s not just the fact that Jiren is is hurt here. Um this is a procedure. I mean, you you just uh rattled off a timeline. Um but this is not something that’s he’s going to be back in a couple weeks from or anything like that. uh this is something that’s going to take months. And when you talk about months, you eventually get into the conversation of will he be back for the start of the season. Right now, the season is a little bit more than three months away. Uh that sounds like at least it’s going to be an obstacle for him to be back at that point. Now, when you factor in the fact that Zack Edy is going to be out at the beginning of the season, this is where it gets frustrating. This is where it’s just like you want to pull your hair out. If you’re Joe Mullen next, you probably just want to smack yourself on the top of the head. But
Oh, why is my male pattern baldness catching strays? I don’t appreciate that at all, Carter. It’s gonna come for you eventually. You make jokes now, young bull, you’re you’re going to have a hair similar to mine here in about 10 20 years.
It’s it’s it’s coming. It’s coming. And I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna I’m gonna have fun and until it comes. But there’s no fun. There’s no fun around here right now for the Grizzlies because now we have leaned into it and I’m sure we’re going to talk about it a lot later in the show. I don’t want to take one of your talking points, but you’ve talked about the fact that when Jaw isn’t great, a lot of things don’t matter. And I think to a little bit of a lesser degree, you could say the same with Jiren Jackson Jr. Now he there’s positives and negatives when you kind of uh restructure the way you’re building the team in the way that the Grizzlies are. you know, when when you’re building around three guys, usually the positive is if one of them goes down, you can still kind of have two guys to kind of carry a bulk of the load. Um, we saw with Desmond Bane and Jiren Jackson Jr., it worked at times when Jaw was out previous seasons. Then we saw in that OKC series where Jaw went down and it didn’t work. So, usually you have two other stars where you say, “Okay, these guys can both average over 20 points per game and shoulder the load.” But when you’re depending on two stars, you get this depth, right? you get better continuity around the roster, complimentary players. Uh that’s usually what you have when you have a two star system, but when one of those guys goes down, you’re in a really tough spot. And now considering the fact that Jiren Jackson Jr. and Zack Edy are at risk at missing the start of the season. Uh it’s a tough spot for the Grizzlies and are already crowded in very competitive Western Conference.
It’s going to be fascinating to watch how they proceed, right? Because I think that it’s going to say a lot about Brandon Clark. We got to remember Brandon Clark’s coming off of an injury, too, in terms of a PCL with his knee. Not as serious as what Stephen Adams was dealing with. It’s believed he’ll be ready for training camp. All that stuff’s important to point out. But what if Brandon Clark has a setback, right? Or what if they are not as confident that Clark will be ready? Are you really prepared to go into the start of this season with Jay Huff as your starting center? I don’t think the Memphis Grizzlies should be unless unless and this could be Zack Kleimman in the Grizzlies front office telling on themselves a little bit unless they are okay with what happens this season come what may
they currently have 15 contracts again once everything’s signed there’s stuff the Grizzlies haven’t officially announced anything yet right
so once everything is officially signed and not just agreed upon once that occurs they’re going to have 15 contracts on this roster and multiple of them, Jiren, Brandon Clark, Zack Edy, are on an injury timeline in some way, shape, or form, and they all play similar positions.
How do you replace those guys? Do you trade somebody like a John Kar? Are you going to go the two-way contract route and try to find a young big that you think can eat some minutes alongside Jay Huff? Do you believe in Santi Alama and Brandon Clark enough and you just lean into being small? You and I have talked for a long time about GG Jackson as a four. Is that better use of him at this stage of his career? Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. A conversation needs to be had. But how the Grizzlies respond in this space is going to really bear watching because in my opinion is going to say a lot about how they view themselves. Are they trying to get through getting Edy and Jiren back and hang around in the Western Conference, which we’ll talk about more here in a minute, or are they saying, “Eh, we weren’t really expecting much this season anyway. Let’s see what these young guys can do.
Yeah. A lot of times with these moves, what we talk about, Joe, is the ripple effects, right?
And with Jiren Jackson Jr., it’s not just about him playing the four because if it was about him playing the four, quite frankly, I don’t think he’s easy to replace, but I think that is a manageable replacement. We saw Santi start the beginning of a season before uh just a couple years ago, and the Grizzlies kind of held down the fort until Jiren Jackson Jr. got back that season. Uh so I can survive Santi uh playing starting at power forward uh at the beginning of a season and then having some small go small ball guys you know GI Jackson um John Kar maybe or Howard depending on the matchup we’re talking about six 72 wingspan he’s more of a guard than he is a big I’m not disputing that
eventually eventually yes but
but depending on the matchup that I I agree with That’s a lot to throw at a spot where this hurts more.
Yeah. And and that’s the problem because when Zack Edy goes out of the game, uh you have the ability to say, “Oh, Brandon Clark may be a better matchup this night.” Or, you know, they’re they’re interchangeable. Brandon Clark and Jiren Jackson Jr. That’s one of the things that makes them really good. But people have been we’ve been seeing people say, “Oh, the Grizzlies need another center.” I haven’t been pushing that train as much. even before free agency got here. It’s one of the things I was saying that that just wasn’t as big of an urgent uh move that the Grizzlies needed to make um based on what I’ve been hearing as opposed to all the other things that we’ve seen, you know, getting shooting, getting defenders and all of that. So, with that being said, now I think this kind of changes the envelope a little bit because you have the ability to say Zach is the starting center. When Zach is in foul trouble, you can just slide Jiren over there. And then you got Santi who’s a $17 million a year player right now and averaged over 12 points and six rebounds a game last season. You have the ability to slide him in the four and at least get moderate uh to above moderate. Um you know like Santi is above league average replacement player. You can talk about his um shortcomings or whatever you want. Uh but the ability to have him as an option a double- digit score to just slide into the starting lineup. A lot of teams do not have that. But with all that being said, Joe, uh I think it hurts the center spot more than it does the four and it probably uh makes us have to revisit the urgency of the conversation of going to get another big that can play the center spot. Once all these deals are finalized, the new contract for Jiren, the waving or however they get rid of Cole Anthony off the roster, uh all that sort of stuff, I think you’ll see some sort of movement in terms of Memphis trying to address this. They can’t just kick this can down the road. I think it would be really difficult and it could inhibit the development of players like GG Jackson who we’ll talk about here in a minute. I I am far less likely to trade GG Jackson now and I will explain why later on here on Locked on Grizzlies. So let us know in the comments. Hit us up on X at Michael C at Joe Mullenax. How are you feeling in the wake of this Jiren Jackson Jr. toe injury and how does it impact where the Memphis Grizzlies rank out in the Western Conference? The Michael and I are going to tackle that question which I, you know, blew up the internet a little bit or at least Grizzlies Twitter a little bit on Tuesday. We’re going to tackle that next here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever wished managing your money would feel easier? With Monarch Money, it certainly can’t. Whether you’re growing savings, planning a big purchase, or whatever the case might be with your finances, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. It’s much more than a budgeting app. It’s a financial command center. You track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. I got to tell you, it has helped me manage my finances with my wife tremendously. She is much more frugal than me. I’m the guy that wants to order takeout all the time. I’m the guy that loves the delivery apps. No longer now that there is a a shared accountability that Monarch Money provides within our relationship. And I mean that in a good way. It’s helped me see how quickly spending adds up and how important it is to save and think before you make a purchase. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchoney.com code lockedmbnba for half off your first year. All right, Deichel. So, let’s go to the scene of the crime here. All right. And I want to point out this was done before the Jiren Jackson Jr. injury, right? So, before all of this was even an actual, oh god, this might this might actually hurt them a little bit. Before that occurred, this was uh you know, 10,000 views on X. I’m good at this. This is a strength of mine.
You should start getting paid for it.
Uh people said I I think you could argue I kind of do. Um, I said somebody asked me because I said that I was watching other teams get better as the Grizzlies take a step back and look forward toward potentially having two lottery picks in 2026 with one of them being their own.
Somebody said they can’t tell if I’m trolling or if I’m serious. Uh, if I am, this is Jeffrey O. Goldberg on X at Jeffrey Gberg. Want to shout him out. If you are, then you must think Jaw Triple J won’t play 130 plus games between them. Well, again, I I want to stress I’m not a genius and I’m not a a soothsayer. Uh I I was more leaning towards Jaw not playing these many games because Jiren has a more recent uh uh sample size of playing a lot of basketball. Um yeah, so anyway, uh if and and Jeffrey to close it out, if they do, there’s no way we are not making the playoffs. Here was my ranking of the top 10 teams of the Western Conference before
Jiren Jackson Jr’s injury. I had Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, and while I still think Houston is a clear number two, Denver is a clear number three. They have had a phenomenal off season.
Then I’ve got Minnesota, Golden State, the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs. Can’t forget about Wemi and the Aaron Fox. Uh Los Angeles Clippers, the Dallas Mavericks, the Memphis Grizzlies. So I have the Grizzlies number 10 in the Western Conference out of 10 teams. And I go on to say, could the Grizzlies make the playoffs as currently constructed? Yes. Could they miss out entirely? Also, yes. So, obviously, there are things that can still happen in the wake of the Jiren injury, as you talked about earlier, Demich, certainly, you would imagine they have to do something at center. They have to, and that will have an impact on what those rankings look like. But not to put you on the spot in terms of a full top 10, but how do you feel about the where the Grizzlies are in my mind’s eye? Do you think that they’re in the right spot as a play-in team currently or should they be a little lower or a little higher?
They’re a play-in team right now. Um it’s it’s just uh kind of more about the Western Conference and how stacked it is than the Grizzlies roster just uh being not good or average or whatever words you want to use. Uh, I mean, you just touched on it like I I think I I have Golden State for right now because I I just think we didn’t see uh the full picture with uh Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, a couple Yeah. the young guys they have. And quite frankly, if they go out and, you know, Al Horford has kind of been a rumored target for them, I think that would be a very nice addition. They would be a very old team, but uh it would be a nice addition. But with all that being said, uh I I think when you talk about the top six in the West, it’s going to be very hard for the Grizzlies to to crack that. Um if you look at a lot of the weaknesses that the Grizzlies had uh last season, it’s the same, it’s kind of the same picture, so to speak, in terms of you’re depending on youth to correct those problems. Again, we saw this story in 2023. We saw this story in 2024. We saw this story in 2025 where the Grizzlies somehow someway end up relying on younger guys to do um I mean they’re grown men but you know like like the the older guys work like and it gets them in trouble you know because you get the inconsistencies you get the flashes right and that’s why everyone’s like oh you know Vince is going to be this or Gigi’s going to be this or you know whatever player and then there’s these flashes of inconsistency and that’s completely normal for young players because they’re learning everything so fast on the fly. With all that being said, you just have so many teams in the West that are just much more stable. Uh you have Dallas uh very low. I think at the D’Angelo Russell move, I mean D’Angelo Russell isn’t amazing to me, but I I think quite frankly you don’t have to do that much at point guard for Dallas when you got Klay Thompson, Cooper Flag, Anthony Davis, and then you could Derek Lively and Daniel Gaffford, you know, uh rotating at the center spot. I mean, that team is frightenly big. They are going to be scary defensively just like Houston’s going to be scary defensively, just like OKC is going to be scary defensively. Uh, man, look, the West is really good and and Luca’s Luca like at the end of the day, wherever Luca plays is is going to be a team that you can’t count out because he’s just that good. Um, all that being said, yeah, I think the Grizzlies are somewhere in that playin range, seven, eight, nine, 10. Of course, as I said before the start of last season, a lot of the West’s makeup depends on health and injuries because the West can be so tight. We saw it play out with the Grizzlies, saw it play out with a bunch of other teams. Uh you lose a star player for two weeks, you end up going from the two seed to the five seed just in that short span of time because the West can be so compact. But when we’re talking about talent up and down the roster, uh Joe, I think you make a fair point. I’m not going to argue against you. I think right now um this is a playin team which is uh brings a a bigger picture point which I think you were kind of talking about uh as well you know about the idea of the Desmond Bane is the roster better without him is it is it improved is it marginally improved is it the same uh no matter where you are on that line I think uh the roster isn’t to a point where uh they could be compete for championships right now I think that’s you know point blank period where they are
there’s a reason the Orlando Magic did what They did because Desmond Bane is a player that is ready ready to help them win a championship at least in their eyes and they went almost all in on that philosophy. The Memphis Grizzlies saw Jaw and Jiren and Dez together in those competitive moments and it wasn’t enough.
So, they made the choice to step back and step away from that big three era compacted with the CBA and all the things with roster building moving forward. I want to stress I have the Grizzlies at 10. I had them at 10 before the Jiren injury. Now they’re a lottery team in my eyes.
And I want to make something very clear.
I’m I’m okay with that.
Okay. And you’re Oh, Joe MX is a loser. Are you about to Darren Peterson Darren Peterson to the Grizzlies? Is that is that what you are?
They’re going to rip me apart. But I want to stress Zack Kleimman read the room. Okay. And he saw Oklahoma City and the monster that they are. and he saw Houston aligned to go and get Kevin Durant to become a monster in their own right. Probably saw the ability for Denver with new management to go out there and rebuild that roster, which they’ve done a tremendous job with. You talked about Golden State as the four. That would make the Minnesota Timberwolves who have made the Western Conference Finals twice in a row. That would them fifth best team in the Western Conference.
Yeah. who are the Grizzlies jumping of those five. He read the room and he said, “You know what? We’re not going to say we’re rebuilding because we’re not. They’re going to compete. They’re going to be in that conversation. We have to remember the space between the three seed and the 10 seed as the season was closing was what, three games, four games, something like that. It’s going to be like that again. I’m not saying Memphis is going to completely fall apart. Yeah,
I’m saying that the West is so competitive and you have so many teams that are going for it that you are not going to be able to hang when you have something like a Jiren Jackson injury. John Morant hasn’t played more than 65 games more than once in his entire NBA career.
So, you have to bank that he’s going to miss time. And that means you’re going to be depending on people like Scottie Pippen Jr. That means you’re going to be depending on people like the guy we’ll be talking about next to close out the show, Ty Jerome. Are you comfortable with that reality and saying that you are a playoff, not a play-in team? Again, playoff in this era of the NBA means one through six.
And in no way, shape, or form am I comfortable with saying the Memphis Grizzlies as presently constructed are a one through six team in the Western Conference. If you disagree with me, if you uh again, I’m going a little bit harder than to Michael. If you disagree with us, let us know in the comments. hit us up on X and this is a topic partner that we will surely revisit for the days and weeks to come when we come back here on Lockdown Grizzies. We’ll close out this episode of the show. For those of you that are everyday and you’ve heard to Michael over these last couple of days, you know, he’s maybe not as not as hot to go uh to quote Chapel Ran about these Memphis Grizzlies bringing in Ty Jerome. I on the other hand am very hot to go no pause when it comes to Tai Jerome and we’re going to talk about that next here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Stick around. Welcome back to this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, back from a couple episode break. So happy to be back with my wonderful co-host of Michael Cole, the incomparable to Michael Cole, the award-winning to Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beatr writer for the commercial appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. So glad to be talking Grizzlies basketball again. And it’s so wonderful because we agree so often, right? Right? Like we agree playin team. Again, I I think I’m a little more aggressive with it than you, but we’re in the same ballpark when it comes to that idea that we just discussed. We both agree that Jiren Jackson Jr. being hurt is bad, right? I hope I think everybody can agree with that.
But we we take different paths, my friend. We we go down we we come to the fork in the road and you go one way, I go the other when it comes to national champion Tai Jerome. Okay. So, when I
I never heard you refer to Jay Huff like that. Why? Why you?
Well, because I have it being Oh, like what’s
For those that have been around the show for a while, you know I have an irrational love for Desmond Bane.
This is not quite the same, but it’s close. We’re in the same realm when it comes to the irrational love of Ty Jerome. National champion Ty Jerome. And go and check my X feed if you don’t believe me. Every time Ty Jerome goes off, I’m like, “Oh, that’s an interesting job by Ty Jerome. I wonder how he would look in a Memphis Grizzlies uniform.” And here we stand at the precipice of greatness. Ty Jerome is about to become once he signs his deal, which has not been formally signed. It’s been agreed upon,
but once that occurs, Ty Jerome is going to be here. He’s going to be in the flesh in Memphis. And you, sir, are not nearly as excited about it as I want you to be. M
and I’m going to let you state your case, but I just want to reiterate
that when you look at the numbers for this dude,
45% from three last season, 45%. This guy was in the 100th percentile. That means the best of the best among NBA combo guards when it comes to mid-range shots. This dude was elite shooting the floater. Do you know any teams that really prioritize the floater in their offensive sets to Michael? Yeah, I I know one
I know one that we cover on a daily basis. The Memphis Grizzlies. So, offensively, and I will stress the word offensively.
Yeah.
Ty Jerome, tremendous, tremendous fit for what the Memphis Grizzlies need as a reserve player. I’m not even going to say sixman because you know who the six man is now on the Memphis Grizzlies? Santi Alama. When Jiren Jackson Jr. isn’t injured. Santi is the sixth man. He’s your seventh guy. He is your 20 to 22 minute a night. Go out there, be a microwave scorer. Ty Jerome this past season is what people wanted OJ Mayo to be. That is my statement. I if I had a flag, I would take it right here and I would plant it in the middle of my keyboard. Mic drop. Ty Jerome, national champion Ty Jerome will eventually be partly responsible for bringing the Larry O’Brien to Memphis, Tennessee. It won’t be this season, but it might be in a season or two. There it is.
We getting OJ Mayo strays, man. Not OJ. OJ was Well, you gave my You gave my hairline a stray. My hairline was the 50 Cent me. I’m like, what did I do? What am I talking about?
OJ was God,
man.
Ty Jerome finished third in MVP voting this or not MVP. Ty finished third. Look at you.
I’m fired up.
Ty Jerome finished third in sixth man of the year.
I voted him third. I look, this is proof. I’m not a hater. I voted this guy third. Uh a hater.
At the end of the day, here here’s the thing. When when I started thinking about guys that, and look, you go back and listen to the old shows we were talking about. Uh guys that the Grizzlies could use with their mid-level exception. If you you remember this very well, Joe, I was talking about guys that I feel like could be in those closing lineups, guys who could help the Grizzlies late down the stretch, clutch time, fourth quarter moments. Uh, in the simplest form, Ty Jerome with the way that the roster is currently constructed, it’s hard to see him being that guy because if you go Ty Jerome, John Morant, Jaylen Wells as your quote unquote backcourt to close the games, uh, it’s counterproductive to the point that the Grizzlies have been making this entire off season about getting more defensive versatile around Jarant. The idea has been to put jaw around defenders, defenders who guys can definitely put on the offensive end, but more that was the whole point of, you know, Desane. Des okay defender, but they’re looking at what OKC just did when OKC has, you know, all these great defenders over there with Shay Gilchas. They’re looking at what the Boston Celtics did the year before when he got Drew Holidayiday, Derek White, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown all on the floor together and say, “Hey, pick your poison. Who do you want to go at?” Uh, that was the advantage that the Celtics had. That was the advantage um that OKC had. That’s the advantage that the Warriors have had during most of their run. Like sure, Curry may not be the greatest individual defender, but you weren’t going to go at Clay. You weren’t going to go at Andre Gadala. You weren’t going to go at Draymond Green. So, that’s kind of the idea of the makeup. But now, when you factor in Tai Jerome, it’s counterproductive to the reason that you let go Desmond G. And now, I know I saw some people saying, “Yeah, he won’t be asked to play the same role.” Of course not. Of course, he’s not going to be asked to play the same role as Desmond Bane. I completely agree with that point. But in my mind, this I’m telling you how I feel. I feel like that role uh that mid-level exception, you should have been eyeing a player who can say, “Okay, this is a player that we feel like in the fourth quarter, not just in the regular season, uh in in in the playoffs when you’re playing those more physical, more athletic defenses, uh can really uh kind of stand the test.” And when I talk to people about Tai Jerome, because you you don’t have a lot of these in the Eastern Conference. You got a few, but you don’t have as much of as you do in the West. Athletic physical defenses is something that I keep hearing about with people in uh in Cleveland. That that’s something that he he tend to struggle with. Uh in the playoffs, Indiana when they became a top 10 playoff, I mean top 10 defense uh towards that part of the season, that’s what they were. They were physical and they were very athletic with guys like Andrew Nimar, Aaron D. Smith, uh, all just destroying guys at the point of attack. Now, when you go to Western Conference, you have Ty Jerome going against Anthony Edwards, Jay McDaniels. You’re gonna have Ty Jerome going against Lou Dort, um, Kase Wallace. You’re gonna have Ty Jerome going against Fred Van Vleet. You have Ty Jerome going against uh what potentially I mean the Rockets are huge so probably Dorian Finny Smith or or something like that. Like it just it’s not the most ideal matchup. Now look, if he’s playing off of like I said, you got Scotty Pentatri uh being primary ball handlers and he’s kind of more of a spot-up guy, secondary creator, like there is some good to that. I’m not This is not a terrible move by any means. It would have been a terrible move if you were playing him 14 million a year uh with that middle mid low exception. But at the $8.8 million mid low exception, I’m I’m fine with it. But at the end of the day, I’m telling you, Joe, it won’t just be you. You remember me saying this because it’s going to be some other people, too. When the playoffs get here and you guys are staring and you’re saying, “Man, why can’t Tai Jerome uh elevate his game in the playoffs?” I’m going to point back to this moment. I’ll ask you the same question I asked on social media, and this might be an actually, you know what? I’m going to save it for tomorrow. I’ll save it for tomorrow’s episode. something to ponder. And again, I asked this before Jiren Jackson Jr. was hurt.
Who’s the Memphis Grizzlies third best player right now? Just think about that. Again, we might lead off tomorrow’s show with that. That’s cliffhanger to Michael. I’m going to give my answer, too. But again,
you could probably make an argument for four or five different names. And that’s part of the logic behind what the Memphis Grizzlies have done with this roster. You want to have versatility, you want to have viability. You have four non-negotiables, in my opinion, in the starting lineup at this point. John Morant, Jiren Jackson Jr., obviously Jaylen Wells, Zack Edy. When those guys are healthy, those are your starters. Those are also your closers in my opinion. So, and and you could interchange Ed defensively with Clark if you want, right?
100%. Yep.
Or offensively with Santi Alama, right?
Why can’t you do that at the wing?
Why can’t if you need a bucket at the end of the game, I I Contavius Cowwell Pope should absolutely be out there if you need a stop. Shouldn’t be on the court anywhere anyway, shape, or form. You can make an argument that John Morant shouldn’t be on the court if a
I remember a playoff game where the Cleveland Cavaliers needed a bucket and you know what they did they went to the bench they said Ty Jerome come in the game and Ty Jerome came in the game and guess what there was a missed field goal or a missed free throw or something like that and the Pacers just like they did all throughout the playoffs it was kind of their signature you know what they did when they got the ball Joe they didn’t call timeout so when Tyrese Hallebertton bought the ball up the court in the last seconds of the fourth quarter guess who he saw on defense he saw Ty Jerome and You know what he did? He had a game-winning step back against mild defense. So,
if I remember correctly, Tyresese Hallebertton did that like four other times, right? Against four other dudes. All right. So, just making sure we’re on the same page. This is going to be a fun conversation as we go through the off seasonason. I am obviously much higher on Tai Jerome than Deichel is. Let us know in the comments. Hit us up on X. How are you feeling about Tai Jerome? And again, I don’t want to speak for for Demichel. The 8.8 room exception, that is a good deal.
Yeah. I I agree.
Not going to disagree. Full mid level. If Memphis did that, it would look a little bit worse. Uh but yes, terrific deal. Ty Jerome is going to be helpful. We’ll talk about all the different ways he can be helpful as we continue on in this off seasonason here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode of the show. As I talked about a moment ago, a little bit of a cliffhanger. Maybe we lead off with now that Desmond Bane is gone, we have Jiren and Jaw and as long as they’re healthy as the two best players on the team, maybe we start taking a look at this new uh new depth and who who the third man is to Michael a little Hulk Hogan to the nWo reference. Who’s the third man for these Grizzlies now? Do they have one?
Yeah, we we just touched on how it’s kind of being rebuilt right around these two guys. So, and you’re in a situation where it’s it’s the the complimentary players around those two. So, it’s a lot of guys on any given night that can be that guy, but I think I have a player in mind. I got one player in mind who stands out for me. So, I’m looking forward to that conversation.
Looking forward to it as well. A good place to be is with us tomorrow here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Wherever you get podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Google. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, ringing, viewing, subscri subscribing. Be here with us for tomorrow’s episode and every episode of Locked On Grizzly. Become an everydayer if you’re not already one. And again, we’re so happy that you made Lockdown Grizzlies your first listen today. Now, for your second listen, you should go check out the Lockdown NBA podcast. There is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. They are proud of part just like us, of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team each and every single day. For the Michael Cole, I’m Joe Mullen. It’s good to be back and we’ll be back with you for our Thursday episode tomorrow. Until then, stay locked in. Make sure you’re subscribing, liking, rating, reviewing, all those fun things. And make sure you’re staying safe out there. We’ll catch you back here tomorrow. See you.

Even in the offseason Memphis Grizzlies fans aren’t safe from the dreaded “medical update”. Hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax react to the Jaren Jackson Jr. toe injury news, plus measure up Memphis to the rest of the west and debate Ty Jerome’s fit with the Grizzlies, on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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