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Will Grizzlies be contenders with the return of Ja Morant-

debutPublished inNBA 2025-01-23 13:59
Will Grizzlies be contenders with the return of Ja Morant?

Ja Morant (center) played only 9 games during the 2023-24 season.

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We’re counting down 24 key storylines heading into the 2024-25 NBA season. Our senior analysts will dissect a new topic each day as we help you get ready for opening night on Oct. 22.

Here is storyline No. 24:

Will the Grizzlies snap back into contention with the return of Ja Morant?

Surely you remember when the Grizzlies were the league’s up-and-comers, the young and the restless, the feel-good story, the Next Big Thing? Yes, it seems that was a decade ago, not just a few years back.

Of course, stuff happened, as they say. Ja Morant got out of line and the Grizzlies subsequently lost their place in line. The star and the team were that intertwined, as these combinations usually are, and Memphis fell just as hard as he did.

But let’s assume his 2023 suspensions are in the rearview, along with the rash of injuries that conspired to doom him and Memphis as well. Then, we ask:

Is this a 50-win team once again? A top-two team in the West once again? Or — stay with me here — a title contender once again? Can the Grizzlies regain all that so quickly, following a 27-win bridge year?

Well, kinda sorta.

Morant is an amazing player just touching his prime, a rare talent who can carry a team. Jaren Jackson Jr. is an elite defender. Desmond Bane averaged more than 20 points a game last season. Marcus Smart was the league’s Kia Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 just before he arrived in Memphis and got hurt, missed much of the season, but is now itchy. That’s just for starters.

This team has depth: Brandon Clarke, a terrific rebounder, also rebounding from injury. GG Jackson is still hurt but should return in three months following foot surgery; he and Vince Williams were revelations last season. Maybe rookie Zach Edey, if he’s a quick study, can roam the middle the way Steven Adams once did.

So, yes, the Grizzlies bring the ingredients to re-insert themselves into the West conversation. But the next step is slippery. Because during their suspension-and-injury-fueled absence from the big stage, others took their spot: Oklahoma City. Dallas. Minnesota. Where’d they come from?

The Grizzlies are in the mix somewhere, along with a few others (Nuggets, Suns). Mostly, the Grizzlies are eager to remind everyone about a 2022 Western Conference semifinal trip and 107 regular season wins over a two-year span, determined to prove that last year was a pause.

Morant and Memphis on a Mission. How’s that for a 2024-25 slogan? The Grizzlies are the wildest of wild cards. Pencil them in for 50 wins again. But don’t write a Western Conference title in ink.

* * *

Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

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