2018-19 Finish: 48-34

Season Highlight:

The Grizzlies made the playoffs for the second season running with a solid 48 win season.  They proceeded to win their first-round match up too and take their opponent to 6 games in a losing semi-final series.  But all in all a pretty good season.  And that was all under GM jessedunne who seemed to have a nice thing going building a team around a young core of Jayson Tatum and Caris LeVert.  Things are/were looking on the up at season end.

Season Lowlight:

The lowlight(s) of the season would have to be the injury to LeVert.  He made it back in time for the playoffs but who knows where this team may have ended the season standings with a healthy Caris.  Another lowlight may well prove to be the resignation of GM jessedunne at season end who seemed to have a nice plan for this team.  Since his departure two new GM’s have been at the helm including a somewhat interim GM MJ23fan who promptly traded away both Tatum and LeVert for picks before resigning himself.

 Best Trade: The Memphis Grizzlies send Frank Ntilikina to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Oklahoma City Thunder send a 1st-Rounder (Atl) and 2nd-Rounder (Ind) to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Oklahoma City Thunder use their trade exception over $ 4,155,720.
The Memphis Grizzlies receive 10 GM points. The Oklahoma City Thunder trade -10 GM points.

This looks like it could turn into quite a nice deal for the Grizzlies. Quoting from one of the gm’s who commented on trade, “frank stinks atm and couldn’t hit the side of the titanic with the basketball”. I tend to agree, and it seems that “Frankie smokes” is destined to be one of those euro guys who lights it up in FIBA but stinks in the NLL.  In return those two picks ended up becoming 3 new rookies for the upcoming season as the mid round 1^st was on traded for 2 late 1^st’s in a subsequent deal.  Those 3 rookies are Marcos Louzada Silva, Keldon Johnson and Bruno Fernando.  So, moving off an underwhelming Ntilikina for 3 new rookies seems like a good deal to me.

Worst Trade: The Memphis Grizzlies send Jayson Tatum to the Utah Jazz. The Utah Jazz send Dante Exum to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Utah Jazz send a 1st-Rounder (NY) and 1st-Rounder (Den) to the Memphis Grizzlies.

I really didn’t like this deal at the time by GM MJ23fan.  This guy was only at the reigns for 2months from May to July but rung in the changes including this one.  To me Tatum still has All-Star as a possible upside so why deal him away?  I guess the new dog syndrome where you have to come in and “piss on the tree” to signify you’ve arrived may have been involved here.  Problem being this GM is gone now along with Tatum and MEM’s future is arguably irrecoverably altered forever.  I’m not a fan of Exum at all and those picks ended up being Jarret Culver and Nickeil Alexander-Walker who both look like they could have some serious upside too.  So it may not end up that bad but only time will tell in the end. 

 Other Notable Trades:

The Memphis Grizzlies send Kenneth Faried to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Oklahoma City Thunder send Dennis Schroder to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Not a lot of great deals for Memphis this season but this one stands out as decent since Schroder is still a relatively young guy with upside whereas Faried may well be out of the league anytime soon.

The Charlotte Hornets send Thon Maker to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Memphis Grizzlies send a 1st-Rounder (Mem) to the Charlotte Hornets.

I didn’t like this one either at the time and neither did most of the NLL paparazzi judging by the 36 comments received on the deal.  The 1^st will come to fruition in 2021 so who knows where the Grizz will be positioned by then, but history does suggest that it could be in the lottery.  So hopefully big Thon does a little better than his career averages of 4.6ppg & 2.8rpg.  He has faired a little better in the NLL with his tantalizing athletic traits coming to the fore, but I just don’t think he is worth a first round pick.

The Memphis Grizzlies send Caris LeVert to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Portland Trail Blazers send a 1st-Rounder (SA), 1st-Rounder (Det) and 2nd-Rounder (Por) to the Memphis Grizzlies.

We alluded to this deal already and the view is that it doesn’t seem to make sense to deal away a young guy like LeVert who could end up an AllStar for unproven talent especially after a 48 win season, (in which he hardly played).  The returns are in and they include rookies Kevin Porter Jr and Dylan Windler.  The full outcome is yet to be seen and relies on how good these guys become so we will have to check back at a later date.

The Memphis Grizzlies send Juan Hernangomez to the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks send Collin Sexton to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Memphis Grizzlies send a 1st-Rounder (SA), 1st-Rounder (Mem) and 1st-Rounder (Det) to the New York Knicks.

This was another of GM MJ23fan’s doings as he tore down the team that Jessedunne built.  Here the Grizz get back Collin Sexton in exchange for Juan Hernangomez and the aforementioned picks gained for Caris LeVert, (Porter Jr and Windler as well as another 1^st in Bol Bol).  This seems borderline insanity to me as there is no way Sexton is worth 3 first round picks in my mind.  This could actually be the Grizz’s worst deal if they hadn’t parted ways with Tatum.

Combining the above two deals, in summary they deal away Caris LeVert + Hernangomez + 1^st pick for Sexton – OUCH!

Free Agency:

The Grizz come into free agency with five free agents to deal with.

DeMarre Carroll – Carroll has noted the youth movement going on around him and requested a sign and trade.  New GM Ando will do well to get much of value for DeMarre, hopefully at least a 2^nd round pick.

Tyus Jones – will be leaving town in the hope he can find a more permanent home elsewhere.

Nerlens Noel – Nerlens is out of contract and is about a 50/50 to return.  We will see if GM Ando will try and convince him to stay.

Bismack Biyombo – I would let this guy walk.

Marquese Chriss – another big who is likely gone.  He will catch on somewhere but probably not in Memphis

Isaiah Hartenstein – Following the trend is seems that all these fringe bigs will be gone, don’t expect to see MEM pick up the Team Option on this guy.

Star:

Jayson Tatum – Tatum had a solid year with 17.9 points, (0.52/0.40/0.91) 4.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists.  He struggled a bit in the playoffs with his numbers dropping to 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and a +/- of -7.2.  But he was the best player in Memphis last season and then was ironically traded away for his efforts.

Goat:

Bismack Biyombo was a pretty big failure only outputting 2.9 points and 4.8 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game on 18 games – pretty terrible for a guy making $18M+.  However, despite this it seems that the biggest goat in Memphis this past season could end up being the ghost of past GM MJ23Fan.  This guy came in for 2 months and in this short time period tore down the team that Jessedunne had started to build.  We will see how it all ends given time but it really feels like this guy came in shat on the team and then left just as quickly at this point.

Draft Grades (from Insider):

The Grizzlies ended up with four first round picks after all their trades.  These included Jarret Culver, (pick 4), Nickeil Alexander-Walker, (pick 15), Keldon Johnson, (pick 29) and Bruno Fernando, (pick 30).  NAW tore up summer league and Culver has been compared to the likes of Nick Anderson by some.  Both these shooting guards will likely see plenty of run with Tatum and LeVert out of town.  Johnson, also a SG may well end up in the G-League this season while big man Fernando has a chance to crack the rotation.  Overall Grade B

The Future-

It seems that after two years in the post season the Grizz are poised to take a step back this season.  New GM Ando comes into the season with essentially a brand new team, (compared to last years) to work with.  The team will be led by Sexton, Gallinari and Schroder with the hope that either Culver or NAW comes on quickly to make them somewhat competitive.  But history shows that its hard to win in this league with youth so Ando has his work cut out for him.  Look to see the Grizz on the outside looking in again this year as they struggle to cobble together a 0.500 season.  With the 2021 1^st round pick already gone, looking further down the road much depends on how the new young core of Sexton-Culver-NAW pan out, but please don’t trade away any more future draft picks.