Buying or selling the recent play from Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. and Zach Edey?

Buying or selling the recent play from Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. and Zach Edey?

It is a buying or selling addition of lockdown Grizzlies. Are you buying the success of Contavius Caldwell Pope, the Zack Edy factor defensively? Are you selling Cedric Coward as a starter? Do you really believe that John Mor holds the key to this Memphis Grizzly season? All that and more. The dynamic duo rides once more. It’s to Michael Cole. It’s Joe Mullenax. It’s 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. Thanks for being with us on this installment of Locked On Grizzlies. It is I, Joe Mullen, joined by my wonderful co-host, Memphis Grizzlies Beatr Writer for the Commercial Appeal. Memphis Grizzlies beat Writer for the Commercial Appeal. You got to say it twice because it’s so nice that we are back together to Michael Cole. I hope you are doing well, sir. Wonderful to have you back on the podcast. I’m Joe Molenax. I am senior contributor over at Bee Street Bears, also right over at the Substack Grizzly Bear Blues. But we’re here on Lockdown Grizzlies and Deco and I are thrilled to have you with us for the next 30 minutes or so here on the program. Today’s episode is brought to you by the good folks over at FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. We are free and available wherever you get podcasts as proud members of the number one sports podcast network out there, the locked on podcast network. Your team each and every single day. Make sure you’re liking, commenting, rating, reviewing, subscribing. Wherever you get a podcast, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, YouTube, become an everyday. We’re going to talk more about the Everydayers Club throughout this episode of the show. Hopefully, you’ll join Demich and myself over there. It’s going to be a wonderful time and it’s so glad whether you’re there or here, wherever you are being a part of our little corner of the internet we like to call Lockdown Grizzlies. Each and every time an episode drops, it is much appreciated. To Michael Cole, so good to see you, sir. This is one of those weeks I feel like I remember pretty vividly complaining adamantly about this week last year. uh the stupidity with the NBA Cup of course going on this week, the quarterfinals or whatever the hell they call it out there uh in terms of these games trying to make it’s the knockout stage. Joe, get excited. The knockout stage because they want to be the World Cup so badly. That that made a lot of sense, right? Because when you can emulate somebody emulating FIFA, that’s who you should emulate when you want to build quick tangent. When you want to establish the significance of an event so seismic, so cataclysmically catastrophefilled, wonderful, you have to emulate the way FIFA does business. That’s the way to do it. So, the knockout stage is going on, right? And the rest of the NBA inexplicably goes on a mini all-star break because of it, right? The Memphis Grizzlies have a few days off here. chance for us to kind of take some uh take some stock of where the team currently is buying or selling. I’m going to let you go first here, partner. We both wrote uh you for the Commercial Appeal, of course, me for Beiel Street Bears. So, if you follow our work, you probably know where we’re going with this, but I will uh allow not allow that sounded terrible. I will ask my wonderful co-host Michael Cole, Memphis Grizzlies beat writer for the Commercial Appeal, if you would please, sir, go first with what you are buying with the Grizzlies during this league mandated, created on their own, several days off from the actual teams actually playing basketball. Yeah. Uh I’m I’m going to start with Zack Edy, and I’m buying uh the impact that he’s made so far. Now, a lot of his best games have come against, you know, the bad opponents, so to speak, right? Like if you look at the games where he hasn’t necessarily dominated for the most part, it’s been, you know, uh when they played the Spurs, you know, in those losses in particular, uh that first game back against the Cavs, uh games like that. So, you know, the the the writing is still out there like, okay, we’ve seen him against, you know, a lesser competition, so to speak, but how dominant will he be able to be when you play against those teams that we were kind of talking about last season, the team, the type of teams that when you get late in the fourth quarter could pin could potentially play a Zack Edi off the floor and we saw, you know, Taylor Jenkins actually play into that a few times last season, taking him off of the floor for Brandon Clark and things like that. But I’m buying what we’re seeing from Zack Edit. He’s been very impactful. Uh the rebounding has completely shifted uh just where this team is right now. The Grizz have been one of the top rebounding teams in the NBA since Zach Edy’s gotten back. Uh if you go over just the past five games, there are so many stats where the Grizzlies have been great that directly correlate to the return of Zack Edi and him playing more minutes. uh in their last five games, the Grizzlies lead the NBA in uh rebounding percentage, even above the historically good Houston Rockets. Uh Houston Rockets are second out five game sample size, very small sample size, but defensive I mean not defense, total rebound percentage. Grizzlies number one, the Houston Rockets are number two. That’s a Zach Edit stat. What about points in the paint allowed? Same thing. last five games, the Grizzlies number one, even above the almighty OKC Thunder, who we’ve seen are just notoriously good at swarming teams and just taking away uh comfortable opportunities scoring in the paint. So, those two stats in particular automatically point to areas that have have drastically improved. This was not a top 15 rebounding team before Zack Edy played. Uh if you go to the six games in October in terms of points in the paint allowed, the Grizzlies were allowing over 52 paint points uh per game. Now, in the last five games, they’ve only allowed around 41. So, Zack Edy, I’m buying what we’re seeing here, and I think it’ll translate uh to the better competition issue. I like that. But I am nervous about the better competition and we’ll talk a little bit more later on in the show. How much of it is correlation, how much of it causation, the fact that the Grizzlies are on a pretty light sp light part of their schedule here and that obviously will continue on Friday against the Utah Jazz. One of the few teams in the NBA widely considered to actively be trying to lose or at least the organization is maybe not the team and coaching staff. Uh for me I am buying Contavius Cwell Pope the reserve because I didn’t realize this until I did some research for my piece over at Bee Street Bears. Michael Contavius Cowwell Pope had started going into this season had started every single game he played in the last five seasons and I don’t know why that surprised me so much. it probably shouldn’t have. But when you look at what KCP looked like for Orlando last year, what he looked like to start the season in Memphis this year, realizing that that drop off of productivity, he has been a starter for roughly 84% of the games that he’s played in the National Basketball Association. So for Tumaselo to make the choice to keep not because of injury, not because of anything along those lines, to keep Contavius Cowwell Pope in that reserve role. He has gone from in 13 games as a starter having a negative 17 or 16 net rating. This is per basketball reference. He’s gone from going to a negative like that to a plus one as a reserve. Now that’s not earthshattering, right? That doesn’t mean he’s going to be sixth man of the year. But what it does mean is he is a productive reserve player whereas he was a pretty strong uh example of what was wrong with the Grizzlies starting lineup to begin the season. So I think that I am buying Contavius Cwell Pope as a key reserve. Now obviously you have Ty Derome at some point returning. Scotty Pippen Jr. at some point returning. You have Cam Spencer who maybe we’ll talk about later on in the show. You you have him playing at a really high level. Somebody’s going to have to ride the pine. I have a hard time buying the idea of Contavius Cwell Pope getting do not play coach’s decisions. Yeah. Okay. I I can get jiggy with that one. I can get jiggy with that one. Contavius Cwell Pope uh has definitely been an impactful player. Uh I I think you know it it’s simple with him. You know, it’s it’s his impact is pretty much in the idea of how productive of a shot maker can he be? And lately, it’s just so happened to happen while he’s been coming off the bench, but he’s been making way more three-pointers. The mid-range jumpers are falling a little bit more. 41.2% from beyond the arc since he became a reserve. Over 40% three-point shooter. That and that’s that’s what we were looking for, right? You know, when we were talking about how he shot the ball well from three-point to close last season as opposed to, you know, his overall three-point shooter numbers from last season that people kept uh pointing to. So, so yeah, I I I do like that one. And then the playmaking too, Joe. Uh, Kavius Cowwell Pope has been another player who’s kind of helped out in this kind of committee approach that the Grizzlies have taken, you know, to the point guard situation. I believe in the last game, this just off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure he had five assists. Cam Spencer had six. Uh, and it’s been a consistent thing with him coming off the bench. Uh, he’s been put in situations where he’s had to playmate. Uh, as he said, this is the most he’s had to do this since Detroit. you know, this we’re talking about the beginning of his 12-year career. So, uh he’s he’s kind of, you know, um flourishing might not be the right word because, you know, none of these guys are point guards, but he’s taken advantage of it, right? He’s definitely put himself in a position where the Grizzlies can say, “Hey, in in more situations, we can kind of put uh Contavius Cwell Pope in a position to be a secondary playmaker when we get some of those guys back.” Or the Grizzlies can say a month or so from now as Jerome and Pippen Jr. do return to the fold. Hey, look at how Contavius Cwell invigorated his career. Look at this GM can’t stay away. Don’t you think he could be so helpful to your playoff push? Uh, just kidding. I I legitimately like KCP. I I think that’s going to be really interesting. The reserves, I I think you wrote about this to Michael, one of the best, if not the best reserve units in the NBA. in part because they play more than most reserve units, but also because they are legitimately productive. Uh led by Santi Alama and Jock Landale has played better as a reserve. KCP deserves credit in that space as well. One of the better benches in the National Basketball Association in theory is only going to get stronger as time goes on, assuming everybody gets healthy around the same time, but can’t play them all. How’s that going to work? We’ll talk more about that, I’m sure, on future episodes of Locked on Grizzlies. Let us know on X at Michael C at Joe Mullenex. What are you buying? Democ Cole is buying Zack Edy, Shaquille O’Neal. I am buying Contavius Cwell Pope as a reserve. I think he’s found a niche for this Grizzlies team. Make sure you’re hitting us up, letting us know in the comments as well. When we come back here on Lockdown Grizzlies, it’s time to sell, sell, sell. What Memphis trends are we not as uh convinced by? Stick around here on Lockdown Grizzlies. This episode of Lockdown Grizzlies is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. one big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. I know you’re talking about your Green Bay Packers looking the part of a Super Bowl contender to Michael Cole. I can’t relate to that. Right. Unfortunately, as fun as last season was for Washington Commanders fans, hashtagmandersby 100 has to die this year being replaced by didn’t lose by 50. The the Commanders are struggling. Jaden Daniels returned on Sunday. Hype music, right? The Commanders are going to cover minus 2.5. Wrong answer. You can correct that in the course of live events thanks to live betting. It’s best when game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, you realize the commanders are bad. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment with live spreads and money lines that adjust instantly and player props that update as guys heat up. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast. So can you. I’m a big fan of the emotional hedge, right? Big Commanders fan for life. Vikings plus 2.5. We continue on on this edition of Lockdown Grizzlies. And to Michael, now we’re going to sell. All right. And I’ll go first here because I like being negative first. I I want to I want to be the one that people can get mad at first, but this time I’m I’m fudging my own rules a little bit and I’m selling something that I think is currently bad that is not going to be bad long term. And I mentioned in my research for the Contavius Cwell Pope article I wrote at Beiel Street Bears, I I it kind of came up in passing as I was looking at numbers. And this is again basketball reference in this case. You know, as well as Contavius Cwell Pope has played as a reserve, Cedric Coward’s numbers have kind of sunk since he’s become a starter. He currently has a negative rating as a starter in particular. Not overall, but in the role of starter, he’s really struggling offensively. His defense has been inconsistent. Now, you and I talked a little bit before the podcast, and I think you made a really good point. I want to give you credit for it. an NBA rookie. It stands to reason, logic would suggest that an NBA rookie would probably struggle the most with the fact that there isn’t a true point guard on the floor. And Cedric Coward will, as we’ll talk about here in a moment, benefit a little bit more than most perhaps by Jaw Morant’s return. We haven’t seen Cedric Coward as a starter next to Jaw Morant, I think, at all really. Uh, that’ll be really fascinating to watch unfold. So, for me, I’m selling Cedric Coward’s struggles as a starting wing because I think that first off, he’s a rookie. He has the most ground to make up in terms of experience, but I also think that he’s going to improve. Not just because John Morance’s on the floor with him, but because he is a guy that just has the skill set, he has the tools, he just needs to adjust a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a simple one for me. I mean, the talent is there. We’ve seen this guy shoot the ball at a high level uh for several games. But uh the reason that I agree with you from the standpoint of he’ll be fine is because this is the same thing that we saw in the preseason, which is was my point about the whole point guard thing. You know, John Morant didn’t play in the preseason. Ty Jerome, you only played a piece of the preseason. Same thing with Scotty Pippen Jr. played a couple games then missed the rest of preseason. Javon Small was in and out in the preseason as well. So in in the preseason you had a lot of this inconsistency at the point guard position and I think you know to the point that you just made a rookie you know a guy Sedic Cowards Elk right now like you you you’re putting him in a position where he’s starting to play pick and roll get to that mid-range jumper like that’s stuff that we’ve seen in the past you know like the Desmond Bane you know arc like that was year two for him so Cedric Cowards you know he’s he’s super talented like I’m I’m not knocking giving him those opportunities But when I when we talked to Isel about this, he’s pretty much essentially said, “Look, those opportunities are here because what other do we I mean, what other choice do we have? We have to put him in ball, you know, in a situation as a primary ball handler because he just don’t got a lot of them. You know, all the guys that you kind of expected to be those players aren’t there. But I’m going to go in a different different direction, but you know, similar similar answer to uh Joe and and I’m curious to hear what you say on this because we didn’t talk about this one. Uh I’m not buying I’m selling the Jiren Jackson Jr. struggles right now. Go ahead. I’m not I’m not I’m not buying it. Uh you you know you know my theme in terms of when we talk about when players are struggling. I always got to go back to the bigger picture and what we’ve seen with the big sample size. Uh right now it it is an ugly sample size. Uh small sample size. Jiren Jackson Jr. two of his last three games less than 10 points. Uh you want to know how many times Jiren didn’t reach double figures last season? It was just one. And and matter of fact that one time that one time was when he only played a minute. He got hurt in the first quarter of a game, came out of the game. Any game that he played, you know, and started and finished the game, double figures last season. Uh so he’s already had two games uh this season’s two of his last three, I think, three total, excuse me, three games total where he’s been in single digits. So there is reason to be concerned, but I I’m still at a point right now where we talk about the Jiren Jackson Jr. struggles. Some of it is Jiren and some of it is also the part about getting him acclimated and getting him getting the best version of him because right now Jiren isn’t even super aggressive. That’s another thing that that kind of leads me to believe there’s a comfortability issue here because if it was as simple as oh he’s missing shots, he’s making shots. Uh we’d see we’ve seen confident Jiren. I think anybody who watches Memphis Grizz has seen confident Jiren Jackson Jr. confident Jiren Jackson Jr. is getting up 15 to 20 shots pretty much every single night. We’re going into halftime of games right now and it’s like Jiren’s got less shots. He’s got the least amount of shots of all the starters. Like what? Like we going into games and Vince Williams Jr. who you know doesn’t really like to shoot much but Vince Williams Jr. is having more shot attempts at halftime than Jiren Jackson Jr. and it doesn’t make sense because as you said a lot of times he’s getting that pay that paycheck is big for Jiren. So, uh, with that paycheck comes heightened expectations. And you know what? I’m going to take the approach of he’s the player who we see with this new system uh, has to adjust the most. We’re seeing this emphasis on they need to get more spacing for Jiren Jackson Jr. Vince Williams Jr. talked about it. Some of the other players as well have talked about we have to get, you know, the spacing to put him in optimal situations. So that’s a continuing conversation that I’m curious to see how it go. But I asked for Iselo about it as well. You know, just figuring out this Jiren thing because at first, you know, his answer was, oh, you know, when we asked about it earlier in the season, it was the efficiency. Like, ah, he’s still pretty efficient. Well, guess what? The efficiency is starting to go down now. So, all right, you can’t just say he’s being efficient. So, now he’s not shooting. And when he’s shooting, he’s going three of 10 from the field, you know, like in this game. But, uh, he he he mentioned there are a bunch of things. One thing that stood out to me, Joe, is he said cuz cuz this is approach. He always says, “Hey, look, after right after a game, it’s hard for me to dissect what really happened.” That’s kind of how he likes to talk about things. So, he mentioned the Clippers game when I talked about Jiren Jackson Jr. and he said in the Clippers game, one thing that he noticed was the Grizzlies didn’t get him a ball enough. And I was like, hm, that’s interesting because I’m seeing Jiren be a little bit more passive, but he said, “We’re not getting him the ball enough.” He talked about how the Clippers constantly sent double teams at him and we saw as a result Jiren was making those big to big passes to Zack Edy because they were sending you know an extra big at him which meant you know a wing would have to crash down and guard Edy and that’s that’s food. So uh that’s something that he pointed out but he also said there are several components there. He said he’s a very good player on the perimeter and a very good player on the inside. It’s just a matter of time that it opens up. That’s what he said. And uh I’m gonna buy that part of it. So I’m going to sell the Jiren Struggle. The reason that I am concerned, I agree, I’m I’m selling with you, but I I I’m still nervous because reason number one, yeah, don’t get me wrong now. Jared, three games in the single digits. We ain’t used to seeing that. Well, and I’m glad you brought up the Clippers game because towards the end of that contest, I believe I posted on X, why in the hell are the Clippers not doubling him every time? Because he has to create as a passer in that space. And I’ve said time and time again that that’s where Jiren needs to grow the most is as a creator as a passer. And he’s still not particularly good at that, at least not consistently. So that makes me nervous within the ESL system. The second thing that makes me nervous is the guy that we’re going to talk about to close out the show, John Morant. He and Jiren have never really been offensively symbiotic, right? There hasn’t been this twoman game relationship like Jamal Murray or Nicola Joic or something like that. So, it’s not like Jaw’s return is going to be this magical fix like it might be for Cedric Coward. Jiren’s issues are still going to be Jiren’s issues regardless of whether or not Jaw Morance is on the floor. Now, obviously, there’s a little more gravity with what Jaw does compared to Vince Williams Jr., I think that’s fair to say. But beyond that, Jiren is still going to have to work through these things for himself. If he doesn’t, if Jiren truly is that far gone, if John Moranch, who we’re going to talk about next here on the podcast, is that washed. You might believe in Zack Edy. I believe in him to an extent. I don’t believe in him as the best player on a team trying to be good at basketball professionally in the National Basketball Association in the year 2025, 2026. So that would mean to me exploring options that I am not comfortable talking about right now in terms of trading a Jiren Jackson Jr. in terms of trading a Jaw Morant. You can be angry after a poor performance as I was a few episodes ago. But the the reality of the situation once cooler heads prevail is if you move on from Jiren and Jaw at some point down the road, you are resetting the clock. And I don’t know how prepared people truly are for that. Uh, I know you’ve noticed a partner being there in FedEx Forum. I’ve read several different accounts. Attendance ain’t the same when Jaw Morant ain’t on the court, right? Folks don’t fill the forum when Jaw’s not suiting up. And I think we’ll see a good example of that coming up on Friday when he likely returns against the Utah Jazz. And that’s where we’re going to be leading off our final part of the show with Jaw Morant’s return looming large. We’ll talk about that next here on Lockdown Grizzlies. But first, we want to thank you for making Lockdown Grizzlies your first listen of the day. And thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now take it up a level and go ad free. Join the Everyday Dairer Club today and get Locked On Grizzlies with the Michael and myself with no interruptions. Members only Discord access and more. All for just $5 a month or $50 a year. 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And Demich, the guy that I think everybody wishes they could buy but at the time has to sell just for their own uh sanity is John Morant. not necessarily as an overall can he return and be a contributor to this Grizzlies team because I believe everybody thinks that to be the case. It’s the level of contribution that maybe is up in the air as Jaws return rooms looms large. The Grizzlies had off on Monday I do believe because of the ridiculous essentially week off that the team has. A positive though, as I talked about on the last episode of the show, they had a home game on Sunday. that victory over Portland. It’s a home game against the Jazz, so there’s no travel. Guys can hang out in town, relax. I’m sure there’ll be a few practices. With Jaws Moran or Jawar’s return on the horizon, I’m sure you’ll be at some of these practices, partner. What are some of the things you’ll be asking to Iselo? If Jaw is available, you’ll be asking him. This is probably, and I don’t want to tell me if I’m being hyperbolic, this is the most important game or the most important return for Jaw since he came back from the suspension in terms of all of the narrative about being traded. He’s a negative asset. He’s fighting with Elo. All of these things coupled with one of the worst starts, if not the worst start to his NBA career, any season in his NBA career, this feels like a really important return coming up for John Mor. Yeah, I think it’s a pretty important return for sure. Uh for for the factors that you just mentioned as well, but uh yeah, this this was a good like the way this has played out these last three two and a half three weeks uh was kind of ideal for him and probably the team too. uh he got away from the media circus for a little bit, right? And we’ve seen, like you said, all these reports of this and that, trade stuff, this assets, this, all that stuff. He’s gotten away from it. And then on the Grizzly side, they’ve won basketball games. So, it’s like it’s not like if they continue to lose, the drama builds up, you know, even more and more from that standpoint. But they’ve won some basketball games which is kind of giving people more hope that man when Jaw gets back you know this thing uh could be going in a different direction and more of a positive or it’s providing opportunity for people that don’t like Jaw or people that are looking for evidence to back up that he’s not that impactful. See see the Grizzlies are winning without him. Never mind the context of all of the bad teams that Memphis has beaten. I think they’ve beaten one team with a winning record all season long. And Job made the gamewinning shot for that one. That context is important. It often gets left out when that point is made. Yeah. Yeah. That that’s definitely important context here. And I mean, of course, it’ll get left out, you know. It’s like the whole when Taius Jones was really good with the Grizzlies, it’s like, yeah, but the half court offense in the fourth quarter was atrocious, you know, for those games. But anyways, uh, look, J’s going to be super important. Um, one of the main things that I just want to see is the linkage of Zack Edy. I think that’s just becoming more and more important. Uh, as Ed’s role is starting to elevate and we’re seeing his impact, uh, a lot of people throughout Josh struggles would continue to point to the fact that, wow, he hasn’t had, you know, uh, the type of center that he had when he had Steven Adams during those heightened 2022 2023 runs. And for all intents and purposes, uh, Zack Edy is that type of center. Uh, Stephen Adams has been the best offensive rebounder NBA. Zack Edy, uh, in his short time on the floor has been top five, you know, uh, in that same category. So, uh, we know about Zack Ed’s defensive rebounding and his rebounding as a whole. The screen setting has been really, really good. All the Grizzlies players have been talking about it like there’s so much space, you know, it’s hard to get around that screen when when Zack Edy sets one. And then the other part of it too is when a lot of those guys are coming off those screens right now. It’s Cam Spencer, it’s Vince Williams Jr. Cedric Coward. We just talked about Cedric Coward. He’s mostly probing until he gets to that mid-range shot. Uh Cam Spencer’s getting to that mid-range shot as well and maybe shooting a floater or something like that. But he ain’t going to the rim challenging defenders uh in the paint. And same thing, you know, with Vince Williams Jr. He’s more so coming off the screen looking to pass. He’s looking to see if he’s gonna uh command enough attention to dump the ball off to Zachi in the paint or kick it out to Sonni Aldama uh in the corner. That’s been a lot of those Vince Williams Jr.’s assist uh just pretty much making the read off of those options. But when John Mor uh is coming off that Zack E screen, you’re going to be presented more with the third option, more with I’m just going to get downhill and I’m going to go to the basket and finish. And look, his finishing hasn’t been great, but uh there’s there’s the thought that with the spacing that Zack Edy can help provide, uh it’ll bring out a better version of him. So, I want to see how that mix is going to come into play because this is going to be really the first time, I mean, they played five minutes, roughly five minutes together in that Cavs game. Uh so, this is going to be the first time that we see kind of Zack Ed’s heightened role in Jarant, you know, being Jaw. Uh, I have no concerns about, you know, Jaw getting him the ball. J always wants to feed his teammates. That’s always been the case. So, him seeing Zack Edy convert those opportunities more and more is going to make him want to feed Zack Edy the ball more. So, I’m not worried about that at all. It’s more about what is it going to create for John Morant in terms of the playmaking opportunities he’ll have off of that, the scoring opportunities. But, that’s kind of the main thing that I’m looking forward to seeing. It’s exciting to be sure. Zack Edy catching balls that he dropped a lot more last year. Zack Edy finishing more effectively than he did last year. How that looks alongside a healthy and motivated, you would imagine John Morant. Certainly something to watch moving forward. Thanks for tuning in to Lockdown Grizzlies again tomorrow. We will continue this conversation. I mentioned Cam Spencer a moment ago. Didn’t have a chance to cover him in this episode. Sounds like a good topic for tomorrow’s show, partner. lots of different ways we can take angles from practice and all that sort of stuff. Even though the Grizzlies inexplicably are not playing any games over the next couple of days, they still have plenty to discuss and I’m sure we’ll cover those things here on our next episode. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Uh they’ll have some practices and and whatnot. But yeah, there there’s so many talking points going on with this team right now. And it it’s it’s a curious thing because there’s the whole part of how much of this is real and how much of this is because uh they’re playing quote unquote the weaker part of their schedule. Like we saw this last season, so I understand why everyone is cautioned. Remember at this point last season the Grizzlies were the number three seed in the Western Conference. I believe they were 16 and six, something like that. They they were top three in the West. And uh a lot of those wins were against bad teams in the East. So, uh, you know, I understand, you know, everyone’s saying, “Wait a minute, let’s see if they could do it against the big bad boys.” Because at this point last season, uh, that was a real thing. And it’s also fair to point out that maybe the Grizzlies are just a playin team. And if you’re a playin team, then you beat the teams that are worse than you, and you probably lose more often than not to the teams that are better. Uh, and that might be part of the reality as well. But make sure you’re following us on X at the Michael CJ Bowlanx. We’ll let you know how to get all the latest episodes and all of those fun things. Did locked on Grizzlies make your Spotify wrapped? I know Demich asked on Instagram and got some folks shouting out Locked on Grizzlies. Got a couple of tags on X as well. Definitely made some YouTube reviews, too. Yeah, there you go. Prove it on social media. Secure a free month of our brand new Everyday Club. 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Several trends have developed during the Memphis Grizzlies’ recent stretch of games. In this episode, co-hosts Damichael Cole and Joe Mullinax break buy or sell recent individual performances, plus Ja Morant’s pending return.

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