Come...Board the Plane!

Welcome to the land of the Delta Blues, to a city known for it's rich music history and great food (They have catfish on the table).  If you're here then you have the hottest ticket in town....nope, not to see Muriel play piano at the Hollywood, to see the Memphis Grizzlies play host to the Portland Trail Blazers in this epic showdown some locals have referred to as "the most intense match-up of the year"
While this is clearly not a heavyweight showdown, it does pit two teams who would be considered on a level playing field against each other. 

Background Check:

GM Jessedunne took the reigns in Memphis last season after a very short tenure by GM Houndy.  With their best young player in Dante Exum out for the season with a torn ACL and then later in the season Chris Bosh going down with Blood Clots, it probably made the decision pretty easy for the team to undergo a rebuild.  Still possessing quality talent like Jeff Teague and Wesley Matthews, the Grizzlies were very aggressive in their tank management strategy, giving these remaining stars limited bench minutes while loading up players like Darren Hilliard in their place for heavy starting roles.  Unfortunately, the lottery karma gods don't take kindly to these sorts of maneuvers and subsequently knocked down Memphis's hard earned #1 projected draft pick to the #4 spot in what was widely advertised as a 2-player draft at the top.
Not letting this slight hiccup phase him, Jesse jumped back on the horse and continued shaping this team for the long-term.  Two quality bigs were added in the draft in Chriss and Papagiannis.  Both Teague and Matthews were traded away for more future assets and the Grizzlies focused on using this year to give their young guys reps.

GM Toby joined the Blazers earlier this season and finds himself with an almighty large hill to climb.  We've seen GM's in recent years take over very average teams and turn them around masterfully (Nenjabin in OKC and Wizkid in Brooklyn for example).  What makes GM Toby's challenge enough to bring a tear to the eye of even the most dedicated rebuilder GM....the team doesn't even own it's own first rounder until 2019.  So there's no light at the end of the rainbow as you have to suffer through mounting losses each season.  Through no fault of his own, Toby has inherited a team which has completely butchered it's draft management and subsequently dug a hole so deep that the GM needs one of those miner hats with the light on top of his helmet to see where he is going.  To quickly recap:
They traded their 2015 1st for Kyle Singler, the pick ended up netting Kristaps Porzingis.  They actually kept their 2016 1st for a draft that was considered very weak and then traded their 2017 1st in what is being described as the strongest draft in a decade.  Their 1st is owned by the Clippers and currently projected to be the #1 pick.....they traded this pick for Jose Barea.  To cap it off, next years 1st round pick (likely lottery again) was sent away for Minny's 1st in 2017 (currently projected #25)

Let's take a quick look at how these teams stack up for this GOTW:



Based on comparing the Stats-based rankings, there just isn't a huge discrepancy at all between the two teams.  In fact, the Blazers and Grizzlies are ranked 30th and 29th overall respectively.

While it's the Blazers that have nothing to lose in winning games, it has actually been Memphis that has managed to put together a reasonably solid past 3 weeks, going 5-7 in that span.

Who's Missing?  
Portland - Brice Johnson (Back), Ian Mahinmi (Knee), Larry Nance Jnr (Knee), Semaj Christon (CD), Lance Thomas (Face)
Memphis - Chris Bosh (Blood Clots), Michael Gbinije (CD), Darrell Arthur (leg)

The big returner here is Georgios Papagiannis back from the D-League.  He's putting up a solid 12 Points, 12 Boards and 1.4 Blocks to help bolster a Grizzlies front line that was left with no substitutes on the bench last week (will the lottery karma gods take that move personally or excuse it as just a simple mistake?  Time will tell ;))

Positional Breakdowns

Center - Kosta Koufos Vs Donatos Montiejunas

A tight matchup in the middle for this game.  Monty made his debut for the Grizzlies last week and while his numbers look big with 15.5 Points and 14.3 Boards, he was forced to play a staggering 40.3 Minutes Per Game.  Koufos has been a solid and steady starter all season for the Blazers (have you heard that he is on the block?).  Monty likes to drift outside and pop a few 3-pointers so if he can drag Koufos out of the paint it will certainly open things up for Chriss or Papa on the offensive glass.

Power Forward - Luis Scola Vs Marquese Chriss

The savy veteran vs the springy teenager.  Scola will hit you with crafty moves all day and could well teach the kid a thing or too in this one.  Scola is 24th in the NLL in Free Throw attempts despite averaging less than 30 minutes a game.  Chriss is 7th in the NLL in Fouls Per Game.  If Chriss can stay in the game he has shown that he is very useful in the paint, finishing at an excellent 63% shooting percentage, good enough for 12th in the NLL.

Small Forward - Jaylen Brown Vs Nik Stauskas

Given the way that Brown has been lighting up the scoreboard, you'd think this would be one match-up strongly in the Blazers favour.  However, Stauskas does have stronger shooting numbers right across the board.  He does take half the amount of attempts Brown does but has a True Shooting percentage around 10% better.  While Brown will obviously put up more points, look for Stauskas to play within the offense and make an efficient contribution.  That said, Brown could just as easily blow up in this game and go for 30 Points like he has already done against both Denver and Houston this season.

Shooting Guard - Tyler Johnson Vs Troy Daniels

Another tight match-up which likely comes down to fire and ice.  Tyler has great %'s including 45% from triples.  Troy Daniels has no conscience though and averages nearly 6 attempts from deep in just 27 minutes per game.  If Daniels is having a hot night, he can put the team on his back.  If it's cold, he can shoot the Grizzlies out of the game.

Point Guard - Ramon Sessions Vs Dante Exum

The Blazers actually run their Point Guard spot by committee, splitting minutes between Sessions, Rivers and Rozier, so individually, their numbers don't look spectacular.  The Grizzlies have anointed Exum as their guy and he should control this match-up.  Exum still holds the record this season for most assists in a game with that amazing 27-assist effort in the Memphis/Minnesota barn-burner. 

In summary, we're giving a slight edge to the Grizzlies in this one, some of it's their home court, some of it is their better recent form and some of it is faith in the return of Big Papa!

Either way, the Grizzlies will have to travel to Portland this week as well and we wouldn't be surprised at all to see a split series.

It'll be a slobber knocker, don't forget your blue suede shoes!!