Should Memphis’ GG Jackson and Jaylen Wells play all of Vegas Summer League?

Should Memphis’ GG Jackson and Jaylen Wells play all of Vegas Summer League?

It’s a Thursday installment of Locked on Grizzlies. Memphis is one day away from beginning their Las Vegas summer league journey. We’re going to talk about just what that means for the Grizzlies, how long both of the best players for Memphis should participate in the event, and also just some overall record predictions, who’s going to make the all summer league team. 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. Happy to be with you once again on this Thursday edition of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, flying solo on this show. I know we said the Michael Cole would be with us, but there’s technical difficulties. He’s in Vegas, man. They’re not worried about the internet working. They’re worried about $5 blackjack tables and trying to get your money as you walk by the room or by walk by the table just to try to get to your room. To Michael Cole’s going to get all that figured out. We’re going to have him back to preview the games the day of. He’ll be back on the Friday show. I’ve got you solo for the next 30 or so minutes here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by the good folks over at Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. We are 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, YouTube, Google, literally anywhere you get podcasts. Make the Michael and I a part of your NBA and Memphis Grizzlies content consumption each and every time that episode drops. Hopefully, you are an everydayer at this point. every single day, every single moment that you can spend with me and Demich, hopefully you’re taking advantage of it here in our little corner of the internet that we like to call lockdown grizzlies. Now, little bit different structure today, right? You guys are probably accustomed to our usual three segments, that sort of thing. We’re still going to get to those three segments, but I want to draw out the conversation a little bit more than we have in the past because, you see, I feel like today’s episode is a wonderful opportunity to kind of go with the macro 40,000 foot view of what’s going on with the Memphis Grizzlies and how they should approach the next four guaranteed games of summer league. And then remember how it works out in summer league. The Grizzlies made the final last year for those of you that do not recall. uh they could go on a run, they could end after one extra additional game. It all kind of depends on how they perform in these four contests. And we’ll talk more about these games of course, but on Friday, so tomorrow, they take on the Boston Celtics. And that’s an afternoon game, which I’m personally excited about as an old wash guy. Very excited for the 400 pm Eastern start. Um later starts unfortunately on Saturday and Tuesday. And then the Thursday game, another earlier start on July 17th. Exciting times. Uh, three of those games will be on NBA TV, including Friday’s game, ESPN 2 will air the Saturday evening contest between the Grizzlies and the Trailblazers. Now, before we get into all of that with those other teams and players that maybe were intrigued by, we might want to see, I don’t care about any of that, right? I don’t care. I’ve talked about that numerous times. God bless the Boston Celtics. We’ll break down some of the guys that are on their team. I am much more concerned about the Memphis Grizzlies. Not just because this is locked down Grizzlies and I’m paid to be concerned about the Memphis Grizzlies, but because when it comes to summer league, the coaching analysis, the way that rotations are implemented, the players and how they are active, that’s what matters most. Okay? And we’re going to start with the two best players on the Memphis Grizzly summer league team, and those would be GI Jackson and Jaylen Wells. The Grizzlies play one back-to-back in summer league. It’s the very first weekend. They play Friday, July 11th. That’s tomorrow, and of course, Saturday. And then they don’t play again until Tuesday, so a couple of days off. Then they have a day off before they play their regular setup finale against the Atlanta Hawks, the four game the four games before whatever comes next in terms of the tournament. exciting, right? Sure. That back-to-back guaranteed is going to be treated the exact same way that the Grizzlies treated the Utah and Philadelphia back to back earlier this week. You’ll see them compete probably against the Celtics would be my guess pretty heartily and heavily. And then that Saturday game will be the Skeleton Crew. That will be the one where it’s the back end of the summer league roster going out there and competing. That would be my guess. Now, I don’t have any inside sources on that. I do think that you’ll see Jaylen Wells and Gigi Jackson against the Boston Celtics. I don’t think you’ll see them against the Trailblazers. And to be honest with you, if we did not see them again after that Celtics game, I would be totally understanding of Tuas Eel’s perspective, the head coach, not just of the Grizzlies four months from now, three months from now, but the head coach of the Summer League Grizzlies right now, because you know that Jaylen Wells and Gi Jackson can cook. You saw in Utah exactly what you need to see from those guys in a limited size. You saw them dominate various stretches of these games. And that’s exactly what NBA roster players should do. They should dominate prolong stretches of summer league play. Jaylen Wells did that. Gi Jackson did that. So, do you need more? You could always want more. That’s human nature, right? You might say to yourself, I would really like to see GG Jackson be more of a facilitator of offense and make passes off of his dribble drives, off of his post touches as he does more stuff as a big. I would love to see that. I said, you might want to say that. I most certainly would want to say that and I would want to see that. But is that worth risking GG in a meaningless basketball game in July? The answer is no. Jaylen Wells as he becomes a more larger as he becomes a larger focal point, more of a focal point in the schemes offensively and defensively at Tumaselo. That’s the only way to explain or one of the ways to explain the comfort level that the Grizzlies had with the Desmond Bane trait. They believe in Jaylen Wells. I believe in Jaylen Wells, too. But he’s going to have to take a pretty step for Memphis to not fall back all those games that FanDuel thinks they will. Like we talked about on yesterday’s show, Wells is going to have to take a pretty big sophomore leap. Would live game reps after his injury that he suffered to end his rookie season be beneficial? Sure. I’d love to watch him dominate on the wing. I don’t need him to do what Desmond Bane was asked to do by Taylor Jenkins. I don’t need for him to run the point. I want to see him dominate in the positions that he’s going to be asked to be in as a starter for the Memphis Grizzlies. we all assume. Can he be the guy that gets the ball on the wing, makes a play off the dribble for himself or for another? Can he be the guy that converts catch and shoot opportunities at a high clip off of dribble penetration? Small is going to be able to do that. Javon Small, not as well as John Moran, though, I would argue. Not as well as Scotty Pippen Jr., who was a real important focal point of this Grizzly summer league run that took them to the summer league title game last year. So Jaylen’s going to have opportunity. Is he going to be able to maximize those opportunities? That is what I want to see. But is that more important than ensuring that Jaylen is healthy and able to use the rest of this upcoming offseason? Can I remember the offseason for the NBA is very front loaded, right? You have free agency and trades and all that stuff. The draft, the draft was literally three days after game seven of the NBA finals. And then once summer league ends here in a week or so, we don’t see a ton of NBA basketball again until late September, barring a major trade or free agent signing. But because of the new CBA, it seems like a lot of those things that made the NBA transaction season almost as appealing to some as the actual basketball games. Not me, dear listener, dear viewer. You know me. I want to watch people compete. I could care less about the free agency and trade stuff comparatively speaking with the games themselves. But some people are a little bit bummed that it hasn’t been as wild. I would argue that it’s been very wild. Kevin Durant got traded. Lots of other transactions have have occurred, right? The Desmond Bane trade was maybe not a blockbuster, but it was a Hollywood V video deal. It was a major trade, maybe a level below Blockbuster. So, it’s been active just in a different way, especially with free agency. Not many teams had cap space. This is a chance for Gigi to go into the summer and focus on his game. The aspects of it that Tuas is Yeah, sure. go dominate a summer league game, but we need you to provide meaningful defensive rotations and minutes in a NBA game in November. Jaylen Wells, we need you to be an effective three and D score on a night in nightout basis with the capacity to create for yourself off the dribble. Work on that aspect of your game. Yeah, live reps help, but being healthy to have the extent of the full off season matters, too. So, I am curious and I think I am going to make a prediction after kind of talking myself through that how many games both Jaylen and GG play in the summer league. Plus, we’ll continue to talk about projected records, overall summer league predictions, and more coming up next here on Lockdown Grizzly. Stick around. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever wished managing your money felt easier? I know I do. I’m not the best with my finances, but thankfully Monarch Money, it can be easier. Whether you’re trying to grow your savings or you’re planning a big purchase, 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. I have to stress that Monarch Money is much more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You’re tracking all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you are also building wealth. I gotta tell you, I spend way too much money on takeout chicken wings in particular. I love me a good smoked chicken wing. I blame Central Barbecue in Memphis, Tennessee. They got me addicted to smoked chicken wings. So, I’m still looking for those everywhere I go. Spend too much money on the good ones when I find them. I’m able to acknowledge that, try to clear that and try to be better with the accountability that my wife having access to our Monarch Money account provides. And it makes me a better partner financially. And it also allows for me to again be in a place to build a little bit of wealth. 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 locked on NBA for half off your first year. Quick sidebar. If you’re wondering how much money a man can spend on chicken wings to make him talk about building wealth, too much money on chicken wings. sign. No such thing as exists as spending too much money on chicken wings. But I digress. Let’s get back into the summer league idea. And we we’ve been talking about GG and Jaylen, how much they should play. I’m of two minds here. I think it’s different for both of them. I think GG should play the entire summer league because you got to remember GI even going into his third NBA season, is still one of the youngest players in the National Basketball Association. So, I think Gigi should play the Boston game and I think he should play the two games after that. If they want to shut GG down after that, I’m cool. Jaylen Wells should play one of the two games of the backtoback. Jaylen should play either with GG against Boston or maybe you sit Jaylen in that first Friday game and he plays the second half of the double header. He plays against Portland. And then after that, Jaylen Wells is shut down for the remainder of summer league if I was in charge. Now, good luck telling Jaylen Wells that, right? Jaylen Wells is going to want to play. Jaylen Wells is a competitor. That’s one of the things that makes Jaylen Wells the player that he is. He’s obviously physically talented and gifted, but there’s a mentality to him that is really special in terms of being committed to the game, wanting to improve, and wanting to do what is best for the team. He’s going to want to compete. But sometimes the Grizzlies and any organization, any team has to think about the greater good and save a player from themselves. Jaylen Wells is projected to be a starter for the Memphis Grizzlies. Obviously, you’ll have some other teams that will have similar players of Wells’s ilk in the mix. But if it were me, I’m telling Jaylen Wells, you get one shot, the 11th or the 12th, and then you are kaput. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t practice. doesn’t mean he doesn’t scrimmage in controlled environments. But we’ve seen what happens in uncontrolled environments. If that happens in an NBA game and the end of the regular season, so be it. That sucks. But it’s the reality of competition in those kinds of games. Summer league is not NBA true competition. And I do not want to see Jaylen Wells or any of these players for that matter get injured in such a way. So, I think you treat Wells differently than you treat GG. I think GG continues to get these reps. I think he continues to showcase what he can do as a combo forward that plays the four just as much, if not more than the three. I have jokingly have talked about GG playing center, but if Brandon Clark can play center, why the heck can’t Gigi, depending on the matchup, experiment with it, see what it looks like, and continue to let GI Cook, let him find that confidence that he clearly lost last year, whether it was Taylor Jenkins fault, Jenkins fault, the immaturity of GI, Jenkins and GG clearly had a disconnect at some point, but GG Jackson in an interview with Drew Hill of the uh Daily Memphian was a Great article written by Drew talking about how GG took responsibility for his immaturity while also acknowledging that Tulumas Iselo is a better explainer for him. Tumas iso has done a better job helping him see and understand what the expectation is of Gigi at this stage of his career. And I do think that when you have a talent as unique as GI Jackson, you want to make sure that you are putting him in positions to be successful. So continuing to build that conf confidence. The confidence should be there for Jaylen Wells. He was a first team all rookie NBA guy this past season. He was the steel of the 2024 NBA draft at least to this point in terms of value added by the pick that they were selected. Wells, one more game, you’re out. Do I think he’s going to play more than that? Yes. I’m telling you what I would do. I think Wells will play the same amount as GI Jackson. GG should play and play throughout the rest of summer league except for the backtoback. Let me know if you guys agree with me on X at Jamalanx or hit me up in the comments. The Grizzlies overall summer league record. Again, we talked about how last year this Grizzlies team went on a run thanks in large part to Scottie Pippen Jr. having a tremendous summer league. Really impressive work done by Scottie Pippen Jr. And look at how that translated. Look at how that translated for Scotty at least into building up from a two-way contract to a full roster spot to being one of the better Memphis Grizzlies players in that playoff series against the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder. So, this does matter to an extent. You can get a glimpse into who is having success. Reed Shepard didn’t really have as much of a successful season for the Rockets. He should have a larger role this coming year. Khalil Wear, the Michael Kohl’s boy, my wonderful partner and co-host. He talked about Wear a good bit. He wanted Wear more than he wanted Zack Edy or even Donovan Klingan last season. He contributed a lot to Miami’s run to the championship in summer league. There is a lot of interesting dynamics that make up what this could be for the Memphis Grizzlies. And again, not going to get too ind depth today with the guys that the Grizzlies are going to see playing the Celtics, playing the Trailblazers, playing the Golden State Warriors, playing the Atlanta Hawks. We’ll talk more about that down the road. But what matters most here is the players themselves for the Grizzlies. And I do think that if GG continues to play the amount that I think he will, if Jaylen Wells continues to play the amount that I don’t think he he should, but he probably will, the same amount as GI, the Grizzlies should have a decent chance at going on another run here in summer league. Now, do I think they will do what the team last year did? No. Jake Loravia cooked in that championship game. He had 32 points in that championship game. You had Scottie Pippen Jr. cooking. GG Jackson was the third best player on that team. You could pretty easily argue here. GG’s second. So, the Grizzlies have maybe a little bit more depth. Obviously, J um Jamai Mhach helps a lot with that. Javon Small helps a lot with that. Zion Poland, it’s a really big tournament for him. We talked about that yesterday. Is Zion going to be go able to go out there and compete at the level that he needs to? Somebody in the comments on YouTube pointed out it wasn’t just the six turnovers. The offense was stuck in mud when he was trying to initiate it. I would argue the turnovers are hand in and hand in hand with that problem, but yeah, even on the possessions where they held on to the ball, there was struggle. But in theory, Pullen is currently on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies. So, there should be a decent amount of depth with Memphis here. But does that mean they’ll go three and one? Does that mean they’ll go two and two? I definitely think they’re going to split the back to back just for the reason that we talked about earlier. I think they’ll split that back to back because one game they’ll load up and compete and probably win and the other game it’ll be the second half of the roster and they probably won’t win that game. But assuming everybody plays the Tuesday against the Warriors, everybody plays the Thursday against the Hawks, I think 3-1 is a very realistic expectation for these Grizzlies going into summer league play. And then where do you go in terms of the tournament? You make the tournament. You’re in that mix and you play it out as best you can from there. If Jaylen Wells is shut down early, like I want him to be, I think Memphis probably loses a game there that they shouldn’t, and maybe they don’t make that summer league tournament. But that won’t be the end of the world, folks. This is summer league here. The Grizzlies and the Heat both were in the final of the summer league championship last year, and look where that took them. The playin of the NBA, right? So, it’s not like this is conducive or predictive of what is to come in October through April, but it does matter in terms of reps and it does matter in terms of competition. And we’re going to close out this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies talking about players who may very well make all summer league for Memphis if given the opportunity. Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Welcome back to Lockdown Grizzlies. Closing out this episode of the show. So thankful that you’re with me on this Thursday. No to Michael Cole, my co-host today. Had some technical difficulties. He will be back with us hopefully on Friday. He should be that Friday episode. We’ll take a closer look at the backtoback coming up this weekend. The Celtics on Friday afternoon, the Trailblazers on Saturday night. Lots of different angles and ways to look at how the Grizzlies will play those two teams. We’ll break down the rosters a little bit more intensely, maybe go a little bit deeper in the Grizzlies roster, too, right? All stuff that we can talk about on Friday. And you know, we’ve got to get down on Friday here on Lockdown Grizzlies. I truly believe that if GG Jackson and Jaylen Wells play, those two guys will be named all NBA rookie team because they’re just that talented. They have that level of ability. And in the case of GI in particular, ironically, they both have experience playing a lot of NBA basketball, that matters a ton. Even with the talented rookies that are going to be on display in Las Vegas, the fact that GG and Jaylen have those reps and have gotten that run in competitive games at the NBA level, that’s one of the reasons that Utah, Bryce Sensible, was huge for Utah in that last game in the Salt Lake City Summer League. one of the reasons why he has that level of rotational expectation. Same thing with Gigi. Same thing with Jaylen. So, if they play, I think those will be the two guys that make it. But I did say that I thought that Jaylen Wells would only play one game and then he’d be shut down. So, if that comes to pass, I still think two Grizzlies can make it. GG being one of them, but the other one’s Cam Spencer. And I am most confident in Cam Spencer potentially being an all uh summer league team member because I know first and foremost he’s going to play all these games. There’s not really a good reason to shut him down unless he of course gets injured. Tweak something not worth pushing it in summer league. Cedric Coward not playing is a great example of that. He’s not fully cleared by the Grizzlies. They didn’t feel as if they needed to push him to get him out on the summer league court. probably participate in some practices, some drill workout in Vegas, but he’s not going to be almost certainly he’s doubtful for summer league. An injury, even a minor one, occurs, they’ll shut them down, make sure that they’re healthy for the offseason to come. But Cam Spencer is going to get reps. Cam Spencer is a competitor. Cam Spencer could care less if he’s playing in an empty gym or on the bright stage, or as bright as it can be in summer league. He is committed to finding ways to compete and improve each and every time he steps on the court. And I think that that level of want to, that desire to fight and scratch and claw, that matters a ton. I think Cam Spencer and Gi Jackson are the two most likely candidates. And again, if Jaylen Wells plays the entire time, Wells will be in that mix, too. Don’t sleep on Javon Small, either. Meshak, he can’t foul out, right? And I think that his offensive game is too limited to put up the numbers that would be necessary. But I think Small, Small could do some Scotty Pippen Jr.esque things. Now, Scotty obviously had more experience, had been in professional ranks a little bit longer. Small is a true rookie. Was playing in college four months ago. But I do believe that Small has a game where he can generate turnovers, get out on the fast break, find some open looks, create lots of different offensive looks. He has Scotty Pippen Jr. potential to go in there and literally and figuratively steal some aspects of this summer league from Grizzlies like Spencer and GG and Jaylen Wells that you might expect to be a little bit more pronounced on the big stage. I think that Small is going to have a major role in the success of this team. If the Grizzlies go three and one, go on a little run in the tournament again, Small takes a leap. Small takes a leap. If they don’t, probably has something to do with both Small and Zion Pullan struggling in their role as facilitators offensively. I believe that Cam Spencer has the best shot to be a summer league representative all league all summer guy for the Grizzlies. What do you say? Do you think it’s GI Jackson? I think Gigi could get shut down. That’s the only reason why I would see Gigi not making it. If GG plays the full amount of games aside from the back-to-back, GG being all summer league would not be too surprising in the least. Jaylen Wells would be surprising just because that would mean he played the full a lotment of games too. And obviously if Wells and Gigi play, those guys will go in front of Cam Spencer for summer league honors, you would imagine. Thank you so much for being with me on this edition of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is appreciated. Hopefully you enjoyed this conversation looking into the Vegas components of this Three in one record prediction. GG and Jaylen assuming they play all the games for all league selections or all summer league selections. Cam Spencer will fill the void of whoever doesn’t play the whole time if they don’t play the whole time. Again, let me know on social media Joe Molenax onx. Hit me up in the comments. Lots of things we can discuss here. Do you think GG Jackson and Jaylen Well should play the full aotment aside from the backtoback? Do you think Jaylen should get shut down? GG should get shut down. Do you agree with Cam Spencer filling the void if one of those guys does end their summer league early? And then some sleepers, right? A small, a mack, somebody else that you’re really excited to look at. When we return tomorrow on our Friday edition of Lockdown Grizzlies, we will be talking about the Celtics. We’ll be talking about the Trailblazers. Deich will hopefully be talking about all the wonderful success he’s having at $5 blackjack tables. All those types of conversations going into a busy weekend of basketball for this hot Grizz summer that is Memphis Grizzlies in Las Vegas for the NBA summer league. The whole eyes of the basketball world will be set firmly on Sin City and you’ll be coming to the right place to get a breakdown of all that is the busy weekend for Memphis here with us here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Like, comment, rate, review, subscribe wherever you get podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube. Make sure you’re with us each and every time that an episode drops. Be in every day or if you’re not already one. And thanks for making Lockdown Grizzlies your first listen today. For your second listen, find the Lockdown 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 every listen to podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I’m Joe Mullenax. I will catch you guys next time here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Make sure you’re enjoying your Thursday. Make sure you get over here and get down with us on a Friday edition of the show tomorrow. See you.

The Memphis Grizzlies have arrived for the NBA’s Summer League main event in Las Vegas. But how much should their best players actually play? Host Joe Mullinax breaks it down, plus predicts Memphis’ Summer League record and who will make the All-Summer League team, on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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