How did the Grizzlies’ newcomers perform in preseason opener?

Memphis Grizzlies’ potential future backup point guard Kris Dunn looked as advertised in his first game

Kris Dunn played the third-fewest minutes of anybody on the squad. The only players who saw less court time were Xavier Tillman Sr. and John Konchar. Anybody outside of that either didn’t play at all or played more basketball than Dunn.

In a small sample size, we got out of Dunn exactly what everybody expected.

Dunn finished his 17 minutes on the court with zero points, zero assists, zero rebounds, and zero turnovers. How do we even know he was on the court, you ask?

It’s simple — defense.

The former top ten NBA Draft pick didn’t look like a defensive player of the year out there, but he played a really strong defensive game, accumulating two steals while he was out on the court. Yes, he had zero offensive production (literally speaking), but the Grizzlies didn’t really need it when he was on the court.

Dunn finished the game at +4, showing that he didn’t have to be a productive offensive player to impact this team positively.

Heck, he may never have to be a strong offensive player at all for the Grizzlies. We don’t know what their plans are for the future, but at the very least, Dunn can be a strong defensive mentor for a player like Ja Morant, who is an underwhelming defender.

So far, Dunn is also off to a decent start.