Ja Morant’s SUPERSTAR world tour/Memphis Grizzlies preseason schedule reactions

It’s a Tuesday episode of Locked On Grizzlies. John Morant, the superstar, touring the world as we speak. We’re going to talk about that here. Plus, the preseason schedule has been released. Our Demich Cole and I excited about that, not excited about that. And our top 100 voting for the locked on top 100 NBA players is live. Deco and I are going to preview our thought processes as that ballot gets underway. All that and more on this episode of Locked On Grizzlies. Let’s lock in. You are Locked On Grizzlies, your daily Memphis Grizzlies podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. So happy to be back with you on this Tuesday edition of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, one of your hosts, joined by my amazing co-host to Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beatriter for the commercial appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. to Michael. Kudos to you on the Scotty Pippen Jr. interview, getting that going for us. I know it was a big deal. Uh lots and lots of good feedback. Again, we apologize a little bit of the audio quality, video quality uh was a little bit rough there, but we we we learned some lessons in terms of how to handle that for next time. It’ll be better. We appreciate the feedback there, too. Uh but a great job getting that. And, you know, maybe the next time Scotty’s on it’ll be a little bit clearer on our end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Definitely. Yeah. We’re gonna clean it up. So, thanks to everybody that checked out the episode and uh we’ll continue to do that. And again, shout out to Deichel. Great stuff uh with his uh with his work work with Scotty. Make sure you’re doing all the stuff with the camp, all those sorts of things. As that gets underway in Tennessee here in the next few days, make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing, wherever you get podcast, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube, all of those fun things. Make sure that you are with us each and every time that an episode drops. Like, comment, rate, review, subscribe. again all those wonderful places be an everydayer if you’re not already to lockdown grizzlies to Michael and I appreciate you hanging out with us each and every time we have a show and today’s show to Michael we’re going to lead off with a superstar right and a couple of superstars passed away recently right you had Azie Osborne big rock and roll star Hulk Hogan big wrestling star again not going to go into the off the stage or off the the out of the ring uh personalities we’re going to focus on the uh the impact there. Uh John Morant looks like one of those types of superstars walking around in China and going on this world tour that he’s doing with Nike. He was there in New York obviously and did some press. But seeing some of the videos coming out of China, whether it’s him looking pretty impressive on some dunks, maybe somebody at Nike can uh convince him to do the slam dunk contest after all these years. Uh but whether it’s the dunking, whether it’s the dancing, you know, the mobs of people that are attacking Jaw, a lot has been made of Morant kind of falling off in the wake of the suspension and the injuries he sustained. That’s not the case over in Asia. At least that’s not the way it’s looking on this world tour. Yeah. Uh I mean, this is this has been a I mean a hit definitely a hit uh international tour for John Moran and Nike. Uh so far, just tuning into, you know, everything that’s going on. I mean, this started at the Peace Jam, right? He started at the Peach Jam down in Georgia. Uh, then went to New York. Uh, and and now, you know, as you just said, China, which is the longest stop, you know, of the tour. So, spending a lot of time in China, I think, u going forward, you know, you’re going to see him in Tokyo for a day. He’s going to go down to Manila, you know, as well. But, uh, this is this is huge, you know, for the brand. And it’s also, you know, it kind of serves as an eye openener over there, too. you know, it’s just, you know, when you um you see the way that John Morant and and some of the people around him are kind of like taking in this opportunity, you know, it it it still at the end of the day, you know, you can feel like, oh, you know, you’re you’re this international superstar, you’re big here, you’re big there, you’re big everywhere. But when you go to somewhere like China, and in the case of John Morant, I mean, we’re seeing it. I mean the people are flooded outside, you know, waiting on him uh inside the venues, you know, um all the Grizzlies 12 jerseys that we’ve seen. Uh it’s a wonderful opportunity and and you know, it’s a it’s a massive thing, you know, for the shoe as well. I’m very anti-artific intelligence and things like that. And there’s other aspects of life in 2025 that I’m not as big of a fan of. One of the things that I am a fan of is the fact that you could be a superstar regardless of what franchise you play for, right? Obviously fans of the New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers. Oh, well, this guy’s got to go here to become this big bright star. That’s just not true anymore, right? You see it with Giannis. You see it with SGA now and the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s really taken off this summer. Cover athlete for NBA 2K26, I do believe. Here’s John Morant. Nike doesn’t do these tours for everybody, right? like this is somebody that Nike is clearly invested in for a variety of reasons and he is out there looking every bit the star that any other player in the NBA is outside of maybe a LeBron or somebody like that a Steph Curry maybe still a tier below that but Anthony Edwards SGA that I just mentioned you know all these other guys that were supposedly going to take the next face of the NBA mantle from Jaw Morant still very much looks like he’s in that conversation at least in the of Nike. And in case you’ve been sleeping or living under a rock, Nike is still very relevant in basketball circles. Oh yeah, 100%. And you know, it’s again, it goes back to, you know, you know, his brand and one of the things despite everything that’s happened over the last couple years with Jaw, around Ja, however you want to phrase it. Um, his jersey, his jersey sales have remained uh near the top of the league. And then uh when you add in the factor that you know you know he’ll be we mentioned he’ll be at Tokyo in a couple days uh with with Yugi you know coming onto the team last season and I wrote about that how John Mar ended up being one of the biggest probably the biggest beneficiary of that from his uh Japanese fan base you know growing to another level. He was at the top of the league in Japan in jersey sales right up there with Yugi Lebron and Steph Curry. It was it was John Mor. uh this is something that we talked about in the past. So, uh it’s huge, you know, for his brand and, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a good kind of mental reset thing, too. You know, like like if you look at the videos, J looks really happy out there. And these trips, you know, um if you’ve followed them in the past, whether it’s been LeBron, Steph Curry, and all these different players, when they go on these trips, uh one of my favorite parts about it is it’s always more than the basketball. You’re not going over there just, you know, to go destroy some guys in basketball and, you know, show off your cool athleticism and things like that and your skill set and then you just come back, you know, to America. Like, no, they’re going to the arts stores like you’ll see, you know, with J, he’s going to, you know, whether it’s the food uh that they’re going to be eating. It’s connecting with the music. I mean, he was uh doing, you know, one of the uh popular dances, you know, over there in China uh uh the other day. Uh so it’s connecting with the culture as well and you know it kind of puts things in perspective for you you know and for a lot of those guys you know and particularly I think I could say this you know covering J for a few years here you know uh in the states you know it’s a good opportunity to kind of like really see you like wow look how these people who quite frankly many of them don’t even speak the same language as you but they connect with you through a different language which and that language is basketball. And uh yeah, it’s a fun thing to see uh you know, Nike put J on that pedestal. And I mean it’s it’s also again it’s it it just goes to show when when Job was given his first signature shoe. Nike branded him as the signature Gen Z, their first basketball Gen Z athlete. And at that point, you knew that that he was going to be a huge investment for them. And that’s continued to be the case uh as they kind of you know uh roll out the red carpet for the Jaw 3 as well. The Jaw 3 looking pretty scary. I saw like a Halloween version of that shoe or something like that. That looked pretty cool. I will say that again my my pro wrestling fan shows every once in a while here on Lockdown Grizzlies. the the WWE in particular when they go overseas, right, and they go to these shows in France or they go do a show in other European Asian countries, right? The the fans are just so much more energetic and they’re so much more engaged because they never get to see these guys and gals, right? They never get to see these people compete. Same kind of concept here, right? Like John Morant goes to this area of the world maybe once a year maybe if that like it and again it’s not with Nike I believe this is the first time he’s done a major trip first international tour. Yep. There you go. So maybe it happens more often given this the success that this looks like this is going to be. But I do believe that it’s important to remind our remind us of how lucky we are to be in a country where so many of these elite athletes so much of this entertainment it gets lost on us sometimes right especially in this era of consumption of content and media you know what’s the next thing what’s going to divert my attention next. We have the absolute best athletes on the planet in the United States of America. I believe the National Basketball Association, the best athletes in the world are in the NBA. And John Morant is potentially arguably the most athletic of all of those guys. Said he said pound himself. That’s exactly right. Poundforound. So I do think that we need to appreciate not just in Memphis, obviously in our locked down Grizzlies corner of the internet, but the the league at large, right? we get to experience something on an almost nightly basis during the season that some of those folks just spent, you know, days, weeks, months planning around being able to see this guy just do random warm-up dunks, right? So, it’s a moment of uh humility for me at least as somebody that gets to enjoy this stuff on a daily basis. And obviously, again, in 2025, another positive to bring it back full circle. the world gets smaller with streaming, the NBA, something we can talk about in August, you know, the Peacock contract, Amazon, all those sorts of things. More and more people are going to have access to this stuff than ever before. Let the Michael and I know in the comments. Hit us up on X at the Michael C at Joe Molenx. How are you feeling about Jaw the Superstar heading over sees getting this wonderful tour in? It’s been really cool to see and again a nice reminder of the star power that resides in Memphis, Tennessee and Jaw Morant. when we come back here on this episode of Lockdown Grizzlies. The preseason schedule is out. I don’t know how excited the Michael is, but I’m excited for one very specific reason and we’ll talk about that next. Stick around. Today’s episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Time to fuel up and turn it up with 5Hour Energy Transfusion in particular. It brings the bold grape, ginger, and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink minus the alcohol into a quick energizing shot. Whether you’re sinking birdies or just making memories with friends, this one’s a hole in one for your energy game. Sometimes on the course, you just don’t have it and you need that extra boost as a sharp and energized. When I’m playing golf, I’m teeing up and going the distance. I’m just trying to see how far I can hit that darn ball in a straight line. 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I’m excited to see Cedric Coward play basketball. I’m excited to get off all of my start coward you coward post on X. There are so many things that I am looking forward to regarding this schedule. I think I pointed out on a recent episode in the past the Grizzlies have played international teams. Sometimes they come over do a tour and play a few uh NBA teams, Euro League teams do uh in the preseason. The Grizzlies are not participating in that this time around, but they are doing some interesting stuff in terms of playing the Pistons, the Celtics, the Hawks, the Hornets, and the Heat. Is there anything that really jumps out at you, partner, in terms of the opponents, players that you’re looking forward to seeing? Again, for me, it is, okay, Cedric Howard didn’t play in summer league. The Grizzlies traded up for this guy. We have talked about on recent episodes of Lockdown Grizzlies that between him, Vince Williams Jr., your GG Jackson. There’s direct competition for that 10th man of the rotation. I want to start seeing what Cedric Coward can do and that presumably will be the earliest that we get a chance to see it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh October 6 through uh October 11th, I think. Um we got three games scheduled in that time frame, but the the dates are always important to me, you know. Um and and the teams more or less, you know, a little less important. You know, you see Detroit Pistons, um you know, Boston, Celtics, Atlanta Hogs, you said Miami Heat, like all all those teams are are quality opponents, uh so to speak. But yeah, I’m with you. Cedric Coward is is at the top of the list for me in terms of preseason guys that you want to see. He’s one of those guys, you know, they’re going to be a couple guys who in and based on, you know, what we saw, you know, on that preseason schedule, the games will be, you know, a little bit spreaded out, so to speak. And in the past, you know, usually they rest the guys for a game or two, like the main guys or whatever. And sometimes, like with Zack Edy last season, if you remember, uh, Zack Edy was, I mean, they they were throwing him out there. They were they were throwing Zack Edy out there for the preseason games. And I feel like it could be a similar situation for Cedric Coward when when the Jobs and the you know uh Jaylen Wells may get a game or two off or whatever the case may be. uh Cedric Coward is going to be thrown out there and they’re going to really want to see, you know, how he performs because uh we’ve talked about it, you know, uh but the ceiling of this team probably is going to be very dependent on that fifth starter, that wing player, and and not even just at the beginning of the season, but at the end of the season, you know, I think me and Joe talked about the possibility of a guy like Cedric Coward or maybe even a GG Jackson, one of those high potential guys potentially jumping into the starting lineup if you start the season with a guy like Contavius Cwell Pope. I think Contavius Cwell Pope there’s a certain ceiling. There’s a safety kind of uh net there knowing that hey, he’s going to do what he he has to do, but over the course of his career, a guy who’s what 32 at this time, you know, exactly what you’re going to get. So, uh with Jaylen Wells, John Morant, you know, we’ll see it again, you know, as those how those dates uh kind of line up with the progression of a Jiren Jackson Jr., will we see him in the preseason at some point? Uh again, if you talk about when he’s expected to be re-evaluated, we’re talking late September. Those games October 6th, October 8th, October 11th, somewhere in that range. So there is, you know, you’re talking about him being re-evaluated late September and then having a couple weeks to potentially get a preseason game or two in. Uh I think that kind of lines up well for the Grizzlies. Uh too, if the plan is to have Jiren Jackson Jr. back at the beginning of the season. So uh it’s more about those type of things. I guess you could say the parameters around the team then exactly uh who they’re playing against. Um I mean if you you you want to really dive into who they’re playing against like um you know I think the Hawks matchup is is going to be an interesting one. That’s a really talented team over there. Uh that’s going to be a good kind of preseason barometer test. I think uh with the way that they have the good perimeter uh defenders uh that they’re going to be able because that’s going to be the big question for me now when teams are able to throw these guys at job. uh who’s going to be that secondary playmaker? Uh that guy who’s going to you know in the past it was Desmond Bane and J could move off the ball for a few possessions here and there and if you start Contabius Cwell Pope and Jaylen Wells who’s going to be that guy, Joe, right? No, that’s a great point. You start to get the answers to those questions there uh in the preseason. I do want to make sure that I’m clear on the schedule and then again this is directly from Grizzlies PR. Uh threeame home stand to start the preseason which is kind of nice, right? The Grizzlies do training camp and then they’re at home to pretty much start the entire preseason, the sixth, the eth, and the 11th. The two games that I mentioned, the one against the Hornets, and the one against the Heat. Those are going to be the two last preseason games and they’re going to be on the road. Yep. So, that’ll be at Charlotte and then at Miami. Obviously, no backto-backs in the preseason because why in the world would there be? U there’s lots of opportunity for them to get good practice in. And that’s kind of my biggest takeaway too to Michael. After our conversation with Scotty yesterday, he really reiterated the importance of understanding that new head coach Tomas Iselo didn’t get didn’t get a chance to really have practices, right? He was thrown to the wolves. Just again, I keep using the analogy of landing the plane. The plane’s taking off now, right? And he is the pilot and he’s newly hired. They’re not going to fire him. At least, you know, logic would assume uh that they’re not going to fire him anytime soon. So, I think that this is his chance to put his stamp on things. And again, that early three-game home stand, even beyond just training camp, right now you have an extended time period at home where you play a game, you practice. You play a game, you practice, or at the very least, you’re watching film in your facility. You can get into a rhythm and really kind of implement vision to be that has tremendous value, I’d imagine. Oh. Oh, yeah. Definitely. And again, I think the schedule kind of sets up uh really well for, you know, you talked about Cedric Coward. I’m going to talk about Jiren Jackson Jr. like if he gets re-evaluated late September, they say, “Hey, you know, two weeks, let’s ramp him up.” Uh, as you just mentioned, you know, you’re talking about the last preseason game being October 17th. Uh, that’s a little more than two weeks uh after the expected. Now, this is all tentative timelines, right? But from what we know right now, that’s a little bit more than two weeks from when Jiren Jackson Jr. should be re-evaluated. So, um, that’s a solid amount of time. You know, I would think I think if if the idea is to to have him back at the beginning of the regular season or a couple games until the regular season, it’s very plausible based on what we know, you know, at this point. So, um, you know, that was all expected. This is something that we kind of talked about, you know, in the past, the idea of Jiren being back at the beginning of the regular season or just missing a couple games, but this schedule kind of, you know, confirms, you know, a little bit of that. So, uh, yeah, really, really want to see Cedric Coward. Javon Small was impressive at a small sample size. I see what you did there, uh, in summer league. So, you want to see a little bit more of him as well. But, uh, but yeah, I I really, uh, I think, uh, they’re they’re definitely on to something, um, with, you know, uh, these these young rookies that that they drafted and let’s let’s see, you know, what they do over the course of a fivegame preseason slate. Javon Small definitely looks primed to be the next Cam Spencer, the next Scotty Pippen Jr., the next. Yeah. Jay Huff, you know, all these guys that were brought in on two-way contracts that eventually get built up to be main roster guys. Uh you have expiring deals on this current Grizzlies roster. Obviously, there’s lots of different things that they can do in terms of trades given their flexibility. It’s hard to not see if Small stays on this ascent instead of a descent. It’s hard to see him not be on the Grizzlies roster full-time this time next year if he stays on this track. Um, let the Michael and I know what you’re excited about with the preseason schedule, if you’re excited at all. Again, I’m excited about using start coward you coward memes. Even if I don’t really mean it, I just want to use the meme. Um, you know, lots of different stuff with Jiren injury reevaluations. Hit us up on X at the Michael Camax or let us know in the comments. When we come back here on Locked on Grizzlies, we will close out this Tuesday edition of the show talking about the top 100 voting for the locked on NBA host being open to Michael and I will both kind of talk about our thought processes going into that. Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Welcome back to Lockdown Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullenax, one of your hosts, joined by my wonderful co-host, the incomparable, the award-winning to Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beatr writer for the commercial appeal there in Memphis, Tennessee. To Michael, it’s always good when we’re together. I missed you terribly while you were away. Not in a creepy way at all. Glad that we are back at it today once more. And we have a chance now that the nomination process is over. I talked about that a week or so ago here on Lockdown Grizzlies. We are doing our own content creation this time around. It makes sense as part of a large successful tap patting ourselves on the back podcast network. It’s nice to have a chance to do this on our own. And we’re starting our top 100 voting. So, we’ve done the nominating. Now, it’s voting time. And there’s been some interesting conversations with hosts. Maybe we should save this particular part of the conversation for tomorrow’s show. Uh, in terms of injuries, how you evaluate that stuff, all those sorts of things. Um, somebody that’s kind of impacted by that is Jiren Jackson Jr., but I would say, you know, it’s more so how do you rank Jason Tatum, Tyresese Hallebertton. Again, maybe that’s something we talk about on tomorrow’s episode. But for me, partner, overall, how I perceive this process is I’m going to rank it based off of who I think is the best player on the planet as of the moment I complete the list. I’m not shooting for the stars. I’m not putting a Thompson brother higher than I think they should be. I’m not saying that, you know, Jason Tatum is, you know, in my opinion, those injured guys shouldn’t even be a part of it. But again, we can talk more about that. Um, I think that you’re looking at as of this moment, who is going to be playing when opening night arrives and who are the best players on the planet going into that process. That’s where I’m going to be with it. I think the Grizzlies have a couple of guys that are in that conversation. I don’t know if it’s going to be more than two in the top 100. Uh, but I do think John Morant, Jiren Jackson Jr. will be in that mix. Where they land will be fascinating and of course fodder for future content for us here at Lockdown Grizzlies. But I do wonder what your perspective is going to be. Are you basing it off of what you think they’re going to do? Are you going to do it like me and say, “Okay, I know SGA just had an MVP season, but to me, Nicola Joic is the best player on the planet.” You might disagree with that, right? Or maybe I disagree with that. I’m not giving away my ranking. Uh, but how are you kind of are you seeing the ascent? Are you going off of where they’re going to be in late July, early August going into the season? How do you view this as we as hosts kind of take on this long voting list? Because it is a big list. Yeah, it’s it’s simple for me. It’s just what have you done for me lately? You know, I’m just going to go off of what we’ve seen recently, um, what players have done and and that’s kind of I think, you know, the idea of doing this list is similar to the NFL top 100 list. And if you look at the NFL top 100 list uh every single year, it’s pretty much what what what did you do the previous season? That’s why guys sometimes they go up 20 spots, they go down 40 spots if they have injuries or whatever the case may be. Um because I think in the simplest form, if you were just saying who’s the top players in the NFL every year, Patrick Mahomes would be number one probably the last, you know, five, six, seven years, right? But, you know, as we’ve seen in the past, there’s been years, I think Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, you know, um certain defensive players, like they all challenged for that top spot based on Justin Jefferson at wide receiver. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Justin Jefferson, he had he had his his huge season. Like it it it kind of fluctuates a little bit. And and I think that’s kind of how uh in the NBA, you know, like there was a 10 year, maybe 15 year, however you want to describe it, there was a long period of time where LeBron James was pretty much widely regarded as the best player in the NBA without a doubt. But you had the Derrick Rose MVP season mixed in there, right? You had those Steph Curry seasons, a unanimous MVP season where I think some people would have put Steph Curry number one after that. But knowing the back of their minds, LeBron James is still, you know, the best player in the basketball world. Some people may disagree with that. People love Steph. But either that’s neither here nor there. The point is, uh, the fact that for me it’s it’s about what have you done lately? What what can we go back to, you know, last season and what did you do in terms of, you know, that season? Because that’s what we got to go off of. I don’t I don’t really want to project too much because, um, I mean, who knows what’s going to happen this season. like we have breakout stars every year and then you got guys I mean last season you know I was one of the people I’ll say it I mean the Sixers with Tyrese Maxi Paul George and Joel Embiid it sounded really promising and then Paul George had a very mediocre season when he was on the floor and an emphasis on when he was on the floor because he wasn’t on there a lot but even when he was playing it just wasn’t much to offer. So, uh, you know, that’s why for me it’s like, okay, you know, it’s tough to project these things, so I’ll play it safe. What have you done lately? And that’s how, you know, I’ll factor into the list. That makes a lot of sense because again, you have to look Joel Embiid, you know, there’s been reports that he might be considering retirement, right? Like that might be something that’s possible for the Sixers. Paul George, what a terrible signing that has been for Philadelphia. And they couldn’t have known that at the time, right? Like you said, everybody thought it was going to be a tremendous success. very few people if any that I can recall thought, “Oh god, that’s going to be an albatross for them.” Yeah, it’s funny what happens over the span of a year. I look forward to and I like that it’s the locked on NBA hosts because we in theory pay attention to more basketball than than a majority of the population, right? Because we’re the nerds that are talking about NBA basketball on on July 29th, right? I think that the biggest thing that I look forward to seeing is when I sit down and I try to break down like a Brandon Miller of the Charlotte Hornets, right? Like you said, what what have you done for me lately? He had an injury riddled season. He had a lot of, you know, things that were concerning for him, but early preseason previews and reviews of the work that’s coming out of these camps and summer leagues and things, people were fired up for a little Brandon Miller, right? And I think that that’s going to be fascinating how people view a team like the Cavaliers who failed in the second round of the Eastern Conference Finals. How important are those postseasons, right? Because if you had done this ranking before the second round of the playoffs, I would make an argument that Ty Jerome might have made like number 98, 99, 100 on this list. That’s how good of a He was a third or fourth runner up for six man of the year. Like I’m not making this up. He was right there. He was right there. He was third. He had a terrible series against the Pacers and now I’m fairly confident that he’s not going to be in the top 100. So how people weigh the postseason, how people weigh the last thing they saw again. What have you done for me lately? John Morant for me, I would say, “Holy crap, look at what he did to the Thunder in that first round series before he got hurt.” How many people other than locked down Grizzlies host are going to say, “Yeah, but he got hurt.” And that lowers their vision of Jaw. Like there’s a world where John Morant is outside of the top 20 or 25 and I’m going to be screaming on this podcast when the list comes out if that’s the case. Yeah. And look, this time you’ll be you’ll be screaming at your co-workers instead of uh ESPN. So that’s that’s right. That’s nice. It’s going to be a little bit different because we got group messages with those guys. So that’s true. Wonder how Joe’s gonna uh going to play that one. But but but yeah, I I think you know that is something that’s always intriguing to me how people view John Morant, you know, just around the league and and of course, you know, the entries and the statistics and how all of that, you know, plays into the equation. But for me, um you know, when you talk about top 100 with the Grizzlies, you know, John Jiren are going to be there. Absolutely. To me, it’s about how does everyone else view the rest of this roster because uh in the past when we’ve talked about top 100 list or whatever, whether it was 2K ratings or NBA rankings and all these things, um I remember names like Marcus Smart, Stephen Adams, of course, Desmond Bane. Uh those were guys who were on those lists in previous years. And you look at a Marcus Smart and a Steven Adams. Okay, you got Ty Jerome, you got Santi Alama who we’ve talked about. How’s Jaylen Wells going to be a viewed Zack Edy? Um, can any of those guys kind of finagle their way into the top 100? And if I mean, if not, it’s it’s an indicator to me in the league that hey, you know, the Grizzlies, they’re going to be very top two heavy and, you know, the rest of the guys, they got to prove it. And that very well could be the case. I think we talked about that being the case. You know, I I think you’ve been one of the people saying it as much as anyone. If J’s not playing, none of this really matters. Uh so, uh but I do want to see, you know, if any of those guys, because we’ve talked about it a lot. I mean, who’s the third best player on the Grizzlies and things like that. Um let’s see what what others uh think as well about just that that hierarchy. When you get past the top two of the Grizzlies, what does the rest of the roster look like? Let us know in the comments. Hit us up on X at Michael C at Joe Mullen. are you thinking as we head into this voting process? Who should the Michael and I put as our top five or so? There’s lots of different ways that we can interact with this process and shout out to uh David Lockach, Nick Gangstad, all the folks that are in involved in this really cool idea and uh excited to continue to work through the process. Thank you for being with us on this edition of Lockdown Grizzlies. It is much appreciated. Now 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, partner, as we again our drive to complete a week before the dog days of August fully kick in. I do want to kind of pick your brain about the rotation because you and I haven’t been together a ton the last week or so. I think we can maybe go a little bit deeper in the next episode or two about rotation pieces, guys that you’re really interested to see play together. You know, backend rotation guys that maybe could be dark horses for that 10th spot. I think that the the exciting thing about this Grizzlies roster is because of the overturn, there’s lots of opportunity for lots of different guys. Yeah. Uh the rotation, there’s a lot of moving parts and I mean, we talked about how stacked this team is on the wing. So, uh, yeah, definitely, uh, going to be a lot of things that we could talk about, you know, regarding the rotation, uh, coming up over the next couple days, but, um, Joe, there’s going to be some pretty relevant news that’s going to come out in the next day or two. Um, I’m just going to leave it at that. I don’t I don’t want to say too much, but um, there’s going to be some relevant news that comes out really soon here. Sneaky snake. I like that. Okay. So, to Michael Cole, that’s called a cliffhanger. our audience members, our our dear everydayers, make sure you’re checking out the next couple of shows here on Lockdown Grizzly. Some some reporting coming from Demich Cole perhaps. Very excited to talk about that whenever we get a chance to. Looking forward to seeing that to Michael and looking forward to seeing you guys back here next time on Lockdown Grizzlies. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing. Wherever you get podcast, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube, literally anywhere you get a podcast, you can hang out with us on Lockdown Grizzlies. Each and every time that an episode drops, becoming every day. And you heard to Michael Cole himself, some interesting news coming out in the next day or so. We’re going to keep grinding forth this week here on Lockdown Grizzlies. Hopefully, you’ll be with us tomorrow and the rest of the week. Until then, stay locked in. We will catch you back here next time on Lockdown Grizzlies. See you.

Nike clearly still sees Ja Morant as a future face of the NBA. But does the rest of the basketball world? Hosts Joe Mullinax and Damichael Cole break down Ja’s trip around the globe, plus Memphis’ preseason schedule and Locked On NBA Top-100 voting getting under way, on this episode of Locked on Grizzlies!

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