Which Grizzlies player is best suited as Ja Morant/Jaren Jackson Jr.’s sidekick?

Which Grizzlies player is best suited as Ja Morant/Jaren Jackson Jr.’s sidekick?

It’s a Thursday edition of Locked On Grizzlies. Who is the third best member of the Memphis Grizzlies roster right now? Demich Cole and I are going to debate that. Plus, an update on Jiren Jackson Jr.’s toe injury and what is the actual level of urgency for a true big man to come fill the void left by Jiren and Zack Edy to start the season coming up. All that and more on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. Let’s lock in. You are Locked On Grizzlies, your daily Memphis Grizzlies podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Thank you for being with us on this installment of Locked On Grizzlies. I am one of your hosts, Joe Mullen. And as always, it’s good to be able to say one of your hosts because that means Demich Cole, the incomparable Democrat at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. We’re free and available wherever you get podcasts. As proud members of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team each and every single day. Like, comment, rate, review, subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube, literally anywhere you get a podcast. Make to Michael and I part of your NBA and Memphis Grizzlies content consumption each and every time that an episode drops to Michael and I truly appreciate it. And to Michael, the comments have been hopping, right? Whether it’s me mispronouncing drop pick names or or uh you know folks saying that I’m bringing you down with me. My negativity is bringing you down. They’re they’re saying it’s my fault that you see the Grizzlies as a playin team coming out of yesterday’s episode. Funny how that works. It always goes back to you, Joe. Huh? It always goes back to you.
Back to me. It always comes back to me because you know what? When you think hm on locked on grizzlies,
who do you think has the bigger pool and sway when it comes to influencing opinion? Is it the big loud old guy that has been screaming into the void for the last 12 years?
Actually, probably is.
The comfortable actual beat writer for the Memphis Grizzly. You really think Deichel is going to be swayed by my opinion? I’ll take it as a compliment to be honest with you. Uh, safe to say that Michael is a freethinker and
you can be you can be persuasive, Joe.
Unless it has to do with Ty Jerome, we agree on most things. Uh, speaking of agreeing on most things, we’re going to put that to the test here to start the program. Partner, taking a look at the third best Grizzly on the roster right now. So, we’re going to put Jiren’s injury to the side. We’re not going to worry about that again. We’ll worry about that later on in the show, but right now Jiren is 1B to Jaws 1A. Or you could pretty easily argue it’s vice versa, at least for the moment, right? Jiren 1A to Jaw 1B. Uh that could flip pretty easily from night to night on a nightly basis to be truthful. But who is the third best Grizzly? I’m going to let you have the floor first here, sir. I have a feeling that we’re going to agree on this one. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m going to say Santi Alama. That’s what you’re thinking. I know you, Joe. I know you. I know you very well after a couple years and some change on this show. But you know what? I’m gonna start off. I’m gonna play into that a little bit first. Uh I think right now at the present moment, Santi Alama is the third best player on the Memphis Grizzlies. When you talk about production, when you talk about uh comes into the game, he gives you the three-point shooting. He he averaged over six boards a game. And then there’s the playmaking standpoint, right? When he was in the starting lineup, he averaged over four and a half assists uh per game. So probably I mean, we’ll talk about it in the next segment a little bit. We might see him in the starting lineup a little bit more. So, uh, Santi Alama just having that reliability of a guy who can step into the starting lineup and close games. Uh, he right now is the third best. But here’s the butt, Joe.
I think before we get I won’t even say to the end of the season, by the halfway point of the season, Jaylen Wells should be the third best player on the Grizzlies. Hands down.
Wow. Hands down. This summer, this summer is a huge one for Jaylen Wells. This is this is one of I think with the way that this off season has gone uh Jaylen Wells and Zack Edy are two players that need to you talk about if you don’t want the Grizzlies to be a playin team. Uh Jaylen Wells and Zack Edy will have to be the reasons they’re not a playin team in my opinion. Those two players in particular, you know what you’re going to get from Jaw uh you know what you’re going to get from Jiren Jackson Jr. on most nights. But when it comes to who’s going to be those next players to step up, it’s got to be Jaylen Wells. It’s got to be Zack Editi. But in Jaylen Wells case in particular, uh, you know, he’s going to shoot the three-pointer decently well. He’s going to compete on the defensive end. He’s 67. He’s going to be bigger coming into the next season. Uh, you you remember he injured his right wrist and he had all that time working on his left hand. Well, guess what? Summer league’s coming up here soon. Uh, even if we don’t get to see him much in summer league, well, so what? NBA regular season and preseason action coming up. Let’s see how he uses what he learned from pretty much relying on that left hand uh during the time of the injury. if he can add some playmaking to his game. That’s my one big question mark more than anything. And this happened with Desmond Bane. This has happened with some other guys. It’s not unrealistic that a guy goes from being particularly a spot-up shooter most of his first season and then takes a playmaking jump. Uh because quite frankly, Jaylen Wells wasn’t asked to do that and he was like the fourth to fifth option within the offense. Now, as the offense shifts a little bit, uh he’s talked about the idea of being able to play and pick and roll a little bit more of being able to have the ball in his hands a little bit more. And if that’s the case, Joe, I’m expecting the offensive leap where we’re talking about a more well-rounded offensive game. Not now, he doesn’t have to be Desmond B. He doesn’t have to average four and a half, five assists. Just show the ability to, hey, when when teams close out, I’m going to attack the close out. I can go here, I can go there, or I can score it. You add that with his ability as a mid-range shooter, with his ability as a three-point shooter. Uh, I like the idea of him becoming the third best player hands down on this team going forward.
I could 100% see that happening. I think that there is a realm where that is the most likely scenario to be honest with you for these Grizzlies. And I also agree completely that if you want this team to be better than the ninth or tth team in the Western Conference, what the Michael just said has to happen. those two guys.
Right now, I agree with you. Santi Alama is the third best member of the Memphis Grizzlies. However, I am going to divert a little bit and this might surprise you a little bit because you again, we know each other. You might think that I’m going to say Ty Drone. Yeah,
that is not who I’m going to say. Good.
I have fully drank the Kool-Aid. The third best player of the Memphis Grizzlies by the end of the 2025 2026 season is going to be Cedric Coward.
Oh, this dude should have been the second pick
in this draft. The second pick according to somebody whose basketball opinion I followed back to when Chris Vernon was on Yahoo Sports 7:30 back in the day. All right. So, I have followed Coach Thorp for a long time. Henry Abbott, the True Hoop guys. I respect them a good bit. And I read that article. I was already in on Cedric Howard. You and I had talked about Howard being one of the two guys we would trade up for in the draft and it came to fruition.
I read that article and Deichel. I’m not saying that this guy is Kawhi Leonard because I don’t think that’s fair to him.
Do I think this guy could have the impact on Memphis that JDub did for Oklahoma City three years from now? I absolutely think that’s possible.
And I think that this is a guy who has the mentality. You read the quotes from this dude saying that he thinks about killing the guy in front of him when he’s playing. This guy was compared to Michael Jordan in the Coach Thorp article on True Hoop. And in terms of his mentality was compared to Kobe Bryant in the wake of the draft. I don’t know what I’m missing in terms of how this guy doesn’t succeed. Now, the one glaring hole in his game, kind of similar to Wells, he has to work on his handle. And you and I have talked about that a little bit. That is the one thing that you look at and you say,
is how’s that going to translate from six college games to the NBA? I’m much more worried about that than his shot or his finishing at the rim or anything like that. I do think he’ll have a slow start. I think that is very likely. However,
I think he’s going to figure it out. And once he figures it out, the sky’s is the limit for this kid.
Joe, I tell you, if you’re right, or the championship window is sooner than later.
Uh, and maybe not this season, of course.
No, I I again, if he’s the third best player on the Grizzlies this season, they’re probably a playin team. Yeah,
I think that’s the reality, but that is good for the long term. if that becomes the reality.
Huge for the long term because I mean the potential that he has as I mean his his numbers I I just can’t get past the fact that he shot 72% two-point field goals that that Dorp said in that article like you you go watch a college basketball practice and kids going against a coach with a don’t shoot 72%. This dude did it across two years of division one basketball.
It does not happen Joe and and I just I’m mesmerized with those numbers. But you know what? Um, I I like this selection and and I’ll kind of uh lean into it a little bit and say that I think, you know, as as good as Jaylen Wells played as a rookie, we could be talking about Cedric Cow potentially having a bigger impact
uh as a rookie now, is he going to be the third best player uh by the end of the season? I don’t know. I I just think the opportunity, the trust with Jaylen Wells is going to be there for him to to do more. Uh, we’ll see how he takes advantage of that and whatever the case may be. But, um, I I like I like it, Joe. I tell you what, if if you’re right, based on what we know about the rest of this team, the ceiling and, um, everything that’s going to be going forward, I mean, they really are going to enter a championship window if this guy truly turns into the third best player on the team uh, in in the next year or so.
Cedric Coward is going to be undeniable. That is my bold prediction. Spoiler alert. When all the season preview stuff happens here in a few months, yeah,
Cedric Coward is going to be undeniable. He’s not going to start as a starter. He’s going to win that job.
Yeah.
It’s not going to be because KCP is bad. I do believe Cwell Pope is going to have a better season this coming season than he did in Orlando this past year.
It’s going to be because Coward’s that good.
And I am excited about that kid. So, to Michael and I watch him
agree Santi is the best right now, right? But we see the team evolving in the games and weeks and months to come. And whether it’s Jaylen Wells, whether it’s Cedric Coward, important to point out both of those guys under team control for the foreseeable future. The future is bright. And going back to previous conversations, that is the main cog of the Desmond Bane trade. Even before the Desmond Bane trade, things looked like, oh, how are they going to pay all these guys? It is much more fluid now. The Grizzlies are in a much better place to keep this core together for the long term. went to Michael and I know on X at the Michael C at Jamalax. Hit us up in the comments. Who is your third best Grizzly at the moment and who do you foresee being the third best Grizzly at the end of the season when we come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies? We will talk about Jiren Jackson Jr. We got a pretty quick update partner. I always like when those medical updates come through quick from the Grizzlies PR folks. We’ll talk about that next. Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever wished that managing your money felt easier? I know I certainly do as a teacher and a football coach. I don’t have a ton of money to manage anyway, so I need help. And Monarch Money provides that assistance. Whether it’s growing savings, planning a big purchase, or everything in between, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility, control over your finances. It’s more than a budgeting app. Monarch Money is a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one spot. So instead of going to all these different apps and websites, you’re in one place managing your money and not just managing money, but building wealth. It’s amazing how easy it is. That sounds like a lot, right? You got credit cards and debit cards and checking accounts, joint accounts with your spouse, all sorts of different things. Don’t even mention IAS and 401ks and all these other letters and acronyms that I barely understand because again, I’m poor. I don’t have a ton of money. But Monarch Money allows for me to manage what little wealth I actually have and feel like I’m building in a positive direction. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked onmbba at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. Code lockedonba for half off your first year. The Michael, I feel like you got to start doing those Monarch Money reads. You’re the one who has the wealth to manage. I’m the lowly. You are an you are the incomparable to Michael Cole. I’m sure the Commercial Appeal uh supports you very respectfully and you don’t have to answer that for the record. That was again we have to do this every once in a while on the show. That was Joe Mullenex making a comment about the commercial appeal respecting to Michael Cole. Michael Cole did not bring that up in any way, shape or form. Let’s move on before Demich gets mad at me. Deichel, um speaking of your beat writer job, you had an article that you put out on Tuesday, an update
Jiren Jackson Jr. moving quickly through this turftoe thing and to be honest with you, a much more positive prognosis in terms of how long he will be out than I was anticipating.
Yeah. Uh 12 weeks is the re-evaluation period, which is not bad at all. Uh if you just line it up and you say, “Hey, 12 weeks from now, you’re talking about the last week of September.” Uh you’re talking about a time frame. Uh if you go back to last year and the year before that, the last week of September is usually when the Grizzlies are either in starting training camp, the beginning like the very beginning of training camp or uh it’s right before I think two years ago they started at the beginning of October. Last year they started around September 28 29th somewhere around there. But at the end of the day uh this re-evaluation points uh kind of tabs him to get uh checked again somewhere around the beginning of preseason camp. I think that’s a great time because you even at the pre at the beginning of preseason camp you still have roughly two and a half in some cases well really three weeks. Uh I I know last season the Grizzlies didn’t play until October in the 20s. I think it was like 24th 25th uh when the Grizzlies started. So, hypothetically speaking here, if if he’s re-evaluated um in in late September or at the beginning of October, there’s still a 3-w weekek period uh for him potentially to get ready for the regular season. So, you’re talking about a best case scenario here of Jiren maybe playing one preseason game towards the end of the preseason, maybe a couple preseason games and being ready for the beginning of the regular season. But I think this is good news from the sense that uh I see worse well not the absolute doomsday uh scenario. We don’t want to talk about setbacks and stuff but uh based on this timeline the worst case scenario is the fact that Jiren Jackson Jr. uh could potentially just miss the beginning of the season just just a few games. uh if he’s re-evaluated at some point, let’s say if it’s even early October, uh I would suspect that uh he would only miss a few regular season games if the Grizz are very cautious with his ramp up. And I want to point that out because we’ve seen this happen before with them. So, this is why this is there’s another reason why this is good news, right, Joe? We’ve seen this happen before and he missed, I believe, the first 14 games to start a season. Santi Alama stepped in as the starter. Jiren Jackson Jr. went on to win defensive player of the year that year. So, uh, all good on my end. Joe, how you feeling about this, uh, injury update from the Grizzlies? I’m feeling fantastic about it. And I think you make a really important point there that I’ll build off of a little bit.
Jiren hasn’t officially signed it yet, right? None of this has actually officially come from the Grizzlies yet. Everything’s agreed upon at this stage and reported,
but Jiren has agreed to a five-year with a player option, fiveyear, $240 million extension. Correct. Am I right on those numbers? Yep. Yep. No longer do you and I need to sit on this podcast, which is kind of sad because it’s good for content, and talk about, “Oh well, is Jiren going to make all NBA, is Jiren going to make defensive player of the year? Oh my gosh, he needs to get to the supermax. He’s leaving money on the table.” There’s no money to leave on the table. It’s all there now. We talked about it yesterday. Generational wealth.
It’s already been established. So Jiren can sit down with the Grizzlies at this reevaluation and say, “Yeah, I’m feeling good. Let’s have some time to build this thing up, right? Let’s take a moment, take a breath, take a beat,
and really make sure that I’m healthy so that when I come back, I’m not looking into it. I’m not I’m not nervous. I’m not like Vince Williams Jr., not his fault. Vince did his darnest. You’ve talked about this numerous times on the show. Vince did his very best to come back from a serious ankle injury. Vince Williams Jr. was never the same. You don’t want to be in that spot if it’s your second or first best player having the issue, right? So, you want him to come back fully confident in that toe. Turf toe is one of those things that can be nagging. It can stick around. I think that this allows for them to be even more patient. And even if they are patient, that would still enable them to have Jiren back likely before Zack Edy will be back. Yeah. Uh it’s a good case scenario. Um, and I I spoke to, you know, a couple doctors actually who have experience, you know, with NBA players, you know, it’s kind of kind of become my thing now, like anytime Grizzlies players get like these major energies, I go speak to these doctors or whatnot about
uh uh Yeah. And you learn a lot uh in that process. And one of the things that stood out was that,
you know, with this injury
um I mean it’s really a football injury, right? We hear about I mean turf toe. Exactly. It’s not really the most common basketball injury, but there’s a mental adjustment that happens with this thing. Sometimes guys have to change their footwear. We saw remember when Desmond Bane had that uh toe injury that he was dealing with. Desmond Bane um went went to wearing uh I believe it was LeBron 20s. Uh he he started wearing LeBron uh 20s and he’s been wearing them in his career for the last two seasons uh ever since he dealt with that injury. So be interesting to see, you know, the mental component to this, right? Uh like I think they said Jiren Jackson Jr. should probably be wearing a boot for a few weeks here and then it’s just going to be a ramp up kind of around uh the physical part trying to get the full range of motion and then it becomes a mental thing at that point, right? He he has to trust the toe again. He has to be, you know, able to push off, be able to do everything that he could do beforehand uh and basically uh put himself in a position to trust his toe again. But overall, this sounds like something where uh he should come back and when he’s back, there should be no looking back. like like I said, he might wear a different shoe or he might have a certain type of shoe that that’s going to be suggested or something like that, but that’s not really, you know, a major thing when you when you factor in all the other possibilities. So, at the end of the day, um I think with the Grizzlies being a team that that now has seen two starters have uh surgical procedures done in the offseason, which is is wild to say at this point. I mean, Joe, we haven’t even we haven’t even got the summer league yet. But but with that being the case, um it is still I guess there’s light at the end of the tunnel knowing that I I think in my opinion that both of these guys will be back rather early in the season. Probably Jiren a little bit earlier than Edy, but still Edy I I don’t think he’ll miss too much time as well. So, uh put it like this. I think when we get to preseason camp and me and some of the other local riders are there, you’ll hear us talking about, hey, those guys will be in uniform. They might not be doing the full five on five up and down that the other guys are doing, but I suspect they’ll be out there doing something. Uh, which is a positive in itself because they’ll be able to technically go through camp even if they’re not doing uh every single uh little detail or whatever the case may be.
It’s just nice that especially for a big who is so perimeter dependent, right? Isolation scoring, pressing off of that foot. You don’t realize how important your big toe is until it’s gone or until it’s injured. your balance, the way that you press off of it, all those sorts of things. It matters a lot more than you think that it does. So, I am very happy that the contract stuff has been settled, and we’re not going to go down that rabbit hole. A lot of folks aren’t happy that the contract stuff has been settled. I personally am thrilled that Jiren has gotten his money because he deserves it, and I’m thrilled that he is going to have a chance to come back fully healthy and not feel like he has to meet some threshold for games. That’s just one man’s opinion. Let me know on X. Hit us up in the comments. Let the Michael know on X out at the Michael C. I’m at Joe Mullen X. How are you feeling about Jiren? Feeling better, feeling worse. Again, I’m positive about where it’s at. And it sounds like the Michael is as well as as positive as you can be at least when you come or when we, excuse me, come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies. We’ll close out this episode piggybacking off of that conversation. What is the urgency to bring in a big in the wake of this Sharon Jackson Jr. news? Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Welcome back to Lockdown Grizzlies. I am one of your hosts, Joe Molenax, joined by my co-host, Demich Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Commercial Appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. Very excited to have Deco with me all the time. I would love to have him on every episode, but he’s a busy man. He’s got stuff going on. Have Are you going to Summer League, partner? We’re going to talk more about Summer League tomorrow. You heading out that way? I
I’ll be I’ll be out there. I’m not going to go to Salt Lake City, but uh I will I will be out there in the in the hot city of uh Las Vegas. So, I’m I’m there. Yeah. Oh, I’m gonna have to give you some. I I know you’ve been to Vegas before, but there’s casinos to avoid and that sort of thing. Just remember, the casinos are big and shiny for a reason, partner. They’re big and shiny. House doesn’t lose very often.
Yeah, they they they don’t get me. They don’t get me these things. I just walk in and and I look up and I look down and I just just walk around. That’s it.
Good. The smart man. So, anyway, uh now that I’ve given that big brother advice,
Yeah. There we go. Here is the reality of the situation. We talked about it a little bit earlier in the show.
Zack Edy out at least for the first 10 to 15 games. Jiren Jackson Jr. out. Optimistically, he’s back a week or so after opening night. Something like that, right? So, and maybe a little bit earlier. So, we’re looking at a situation where the Grizzlies are down both of their starting bigs. You mentioned earlier in the program when we were talking about the third best Grizzly. We both agree that right now it’s Santi Alama sliding Santi into the starting lineup. Fairly simple. Maybe you’re a believer in Brandon Clark. Shout out to Modern Medicine. Maybe you think BC is going to be ready to rock and roll. In theory, you can slide him to the starting lineup, too. Is Jay Huff your only backup center? And that’s where the conversation becomes. What is your sense of urgency for a true big man partner? And if you think that it is urgent that they bring in a big,
who would you suggest the Grizzlies try to go get?
Well, I think the conversation starts here. We talking power forward. Are we talking center in this case? And I think uh the need even though we’ve talked about the Grizzlies potentially missing a power forward and a center at the beginning of the season. Uh I think it has to be a center based on know about this roster based on the makeup of the roster.
Uh based on the fact that you have several wings who are what I like to call jumbo wings, you know, right? Like uh Gigi Jackson 69. He put on some weight going into last season. He’s going to put on a little bit more weight now. He’s going to continue to fill out. Uh you talked about Cedric Coward. uh in in a recent episode. Uh and that makes sense when you think about the seven two and a half wingspan that he presents that he could be, you know, an option uh that could play at the four from time to time. But then you got other guys John Cont played at the four some, you know, one of Joe’s favorite basketball players in the world. He can get you a rebound here and there.
Hopefully John Kar is getting traded for whatever bigs we’re talking about because we have to we have to remember they have 15 contracts. So who are we moving on from
there? There it is. And and and Joe Joe just couldn’t wait to get that out. He couldn’t wait. That was that was going to be the point that eventually we eventually have to talk about, right? Like this all sounds good in theory. You know, who will the Grizzlies bring in? Who could they go sign? But at the end of the day, what makes this tough, what makes this difficult is you’re talking about someone has to go. Even if you remove the Cole Anthony contract, the Grizz are still at 15 standard contracts. They also have three two-ways filled. So, it’s not like, oh, just go get some young cat who can get put on a two-way deal and and he plays, you know, some prominent minutes. Uh, even in that case, right now, the Grizzlies don’t have a big uh on a 2-way. They they potentially will have Javon Small, maybe Jamaak, and then potentially Zion pulling at least. That’s the way that it’s looking now. We know these two two-way things are subject to change at any moment. We see a lot of times even with Jay Huff, he wasn’t a Grizzlies 2-way option when he first got here and then I think in summer league u he replaced I think it was Trey Jimson at the time. Trey Jimson was on two-way after summer league uh Jay Huff gets the two-way spot and the rest is history. But uh to get into some names uh if they go the free agency route which let’s say they make a trade and you know they ship out someone for cash cash considerations whatever the case may be. Uh, but if we’re talking about free agents, I’m just going to throw a couple names out there and it just depends on what you want. What do you want? You want the big physical uh brute center who’s just going to do his job or do you want the center who’s a little bit more of a splash play? And the splash play at this point, like at end of the day, we’re what three three days or so into free agency. Uh, I’m look, there’s no huge names out there, so to speak. So, you just got to deal with it. But, uh, Thomas Bryant is a guy who has the ability to shoot three-pointers, very offensively gifted center. Uh, the reason he’s still available because he is not a good defender, so to speak. But when you talk about his offensive game, and a lot of people will remember Thomas Bryant as the player when LeBron James uh, shot his uh, fadeaway shot to to break the record uh, for most points scored in NBA history, Thomas Bryant was in the post calling for the ball. So that that tells you how confident this guy is about his offensive game. But I like him as a splash play. You talk about he has the ability to set screens. Uh he got a lot of he got a lot of minutes at time for uh the Indiana Pacers during their playoff run. I know at one point they shifted to Tony Bradley a little bit more. But offensively Thomas Bryant is is really gifted. And then if you’re looking for the other option, right, you’re looking for the guy who I’ve talked about the Grizzlies needing someone who can do some of the things that the team has struggled with for the most part. And that’s when uh DeAndre Jordan comes up to me. Now he’s older. This is a 30 37 year old center we’re gonna be talking about.
Sorry to interrupt you.
I know what you’re about to say.
DeAndre Jordan like of the Lob City Clippers. DeAndre Jordan.
Joe,
that’s who we’re talking about here.
Joe. Joe. There’s this song and you you probably watched it with your kids, Joe, because you’re you’re a great father. But but it goes it’s it’s on Disney, right? And it go
Are you gonna sing to me right now?
It goes Let it go. Let it go. Yeah, I know. You know it.
There he is.
Yeah.
Don’t Mack’s father of the year, everybody. I put him on the screen.
He is fantastic. Frozen two soundtrack is better than Frozen one, though. That’s my hot take. That that
Oh, but listen to the soundtrack. Have you listened to the Frozen 2 soundtrack?
I I listen to the Frozen one. And I know
if you’re a dad and you’ve listened to both Frozen soundtracks, hit me up in the comments. Let me know on X. Frozen 2 soundtrack better than Frozen one. But anyway, DeAndre Jordan, I’ll let it go. twotime rebounding champ and he’s not the athlete that he used to be. Of course, like you say, 37 years old, but we’re talking about what needs to be done when Zack Ed’s out of the game. What does Zack Edy give you that no other Grizzly center gives you? He gives you great screen setting. He gives you the ability to be physical and a great rebounder. When you take Zack Edy out of the equation, there is no one else on the entire Grizzlies roster that is great at those two things. being very physical from the standpoint of he’s gonna bang, he’s going to set hard, rugged screens and he’s gonna get on the glass and he’s gonna wipe those uh we’re going to wipe the ball off the glass. Zack Edit does that. No one else. So, you take Zack Edi out, the Grizzlies are going to be a bad rebounding team. How do you avoid that happening? You sign DeAndre Jordan. He’s a free agent right now. You say, “Look, DeAndre, we look, Zebo comes to the games from time to time, but he he’ll play nice. You know, Tony Allen’s at a game every now and then, but look look, we we’ll talk to him. We’ll hash all that out and we’ll bring you in here and we want to you to do what exactly what you did uh in your minor role with the Denver Nuggets uh over the last couple years. Last season, Joe, uh he only played 12 minutes uh a game. And those 12 minutes, five rebounds, five rebounds a game in just 12 minutes. Uh if he does that with the Grizzlies, I think it’s a win. Uh he can he can still get after it on the offensive glass, he can get after it on the defensive glass. Uh he sets real hard screens. It’s simple to me, Joe. If you bring in DeAndre Jordan, you’re going to get the same things that you Well, to a lesser degree, of course, but you’re going to get some of the things that you’ll miss with Zack Edi. The physical screen setting, the rebounding, and the Grizzlies will be able to kind of uh just stay afloat uh in that stretch without Zack Edi. So, I’m looking at those two names, Zach Edy, Thomas Bryant, depending on what you favor.
Yeah, DeAndre Jordan’s going to be a tough cell for me as an old Grizzlies fan, but I do understand the logic. Everything you just said makes a ton of sense. I’m going to prefer Thomas Bryant because I’m jaded and I hold grudges. Uh but before I do either of those things, I’m going to try a trade and I’m going to call our our new friends, the Orlando Magic, and I’m going to say, “Hey,
we have a lot of centers there in Orlando.” Goa Bataz, I believe that’s how you say it. Something close to that. Hey, check me out with my pronunciations. I’m getting better. I I have a John Kar here. He’s really good friends with Desmond Bane.
Let’s make a deal. Would you like a second round pick? How about a heavily protected first? I wouldn’t actually do that. I I’m That’s me being very anti-con. I will say that I would not give a first round pick to get that moving. But I would maybe offer another wing like a Vince Williams Jr. or Gigi Jackson if there’s somebody that the team is not as high on. If there’s somebody Tumasel is not as high on, I would need draft capital back in that example.
Kchar for Goa works straight up. And
in my opinion,
let’s do it right. Let’s rock and I would be fine if that was the exchange and it checks that box and and Gole would come in and do a lot of the things that DeAndre Jordan could do as well. And there would be no need to wave anybody that sort of stuff. I think we’d be okay. And again, I don’t want people are going to yell at me. I’m not saying I would trade Vince Williams Jr. or GD Jackson. I’m saying if I had to sweeten the pot
and they wanted another young prospect, I would ask for draft capital back in that sort of situation. That is where I was going with that because maybe something we talk about on a future episode to Michael, you look at the roster,
they’ve got a lot of wings now and there’s not going to be minutes for all of these dudes.
It’s definitely not going to be minutes for all these dudes. I like the idea of going to trade for a guy like Goa. Uh Goa is he’s one he was one of the better defensive centers in the league uh this past season. So you talk about someone who’s going to come in and make a defensive impact and play his role to a te, he will do just that. And Gog will always have a special place uh in my heart. Joe, uh, I don’t know if you remember that viral clip when when he was in the draft, 2019 NBA draft. How do I know that off the top of my head, Joe? Well, one, I was there. I was there in Brooklyn because I was interning with Sports Illustrated at the time. And when I was there at the draft that night, uh, well, it was the night before the draft, but they were doing the player interviews. And there’s this viral video, I mean viral photo that many of you have seen by this point where Zion Williamson is sitting right beside uh Goa in podiums and there’s like 30 to 40 media members and in the surrounding the pod around Zion Williamson and then there’s just Goa just sitting there and he’s just looking over there at the uh podium that that Z and no one no one is over there. But I remember I remember going up to that podium to talk to Goa and nobody was over there and I was like, “Hi, how you doing?” So, always will have there’s two guys that that happened with that happened with him that happened with Tyrese Maxi. Tyrese Maxi turned out to be pretty good and Goa is a pretty good defender, too. Yeah, shout out to Goa. I would enjoy having him. And because he’s such a good defender, it’s probable that Memphis would probably have to be the team sending out a second rounder or something like that to sweeten that pot. Let the Michael and I know in the comments. Hit us up on X at the Michael C at Joe Moldenax. How are you feeling about that urgency? I’m not as urgent as maybe Deichel is, but obviously with both Ed and Jiren out for the foreseeable future, even leading into opening night, something to explore to be sure. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is much appreciated to Michael. We mentioned it earlier, our our Fourth of July episode of the show. Probably need to start looking at the summer league schedule, summer league roster possibilities. I would imagine Memphis will be announcing that soon. Yeah, it’s definitely time to get into the summer league talk. Uh first game July 5th, so we there’s going to be a quick turnaround and then once it starts, it’s going. I mean, they got three games uh in four nights in Utah. Then he got a couple days off and then, you know, I jump on the plane, head to Vegas, and the boys head to Vegas, too. So, a lot a lot to talk about uh regarding summer league. U we got to get into it.
So, it’s fitting on the pre pre on the ultimate summer holiday, the 4th of July, we will have an episode and we’ll be focusing on the summer league. Make sure you’re with us. Thanks so much for being with us on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies and for making us your first listen today. For your second listen, find the Locked on NBA podcast where 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. Part of the L lockdown podcast network, your team every day, just like us here at Lockdown Grizzlies. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Google, wherever you get podcasts, make sure you’re making the Michael and I a part of your Grizzlies and NBA content consumption. Each and every time that an episode drops, we appreciate you guys being with us each and every time. Hopefully, you’re an everydayer at this point. And if you’re not, hopefully you enjoyed the show. At least at the very least, you enjoyed our singing voices and you’ll be back tomorrow for another installment of Lockdown Grizzlies. And if you are an everydayer, you know that we’ve got to get down on a Friday. So, it’s going to be a fun show on the 4th of July. Make sure you’re with us. Until then, stay locked in. Have a great one. Be safe out there. Stay cool. And we’ll catch you next time here on Lockdown Grizzlies. See you.

The Memphis Grizzlies no longer have Desmond Bane, so who is the the third best player? In this episode, co-hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax give their takes, discuss Jaren Jackson Jr.’s injury timeline and the need for another big man.

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