Grizzlies start, bench, cut: David Roddy, Luke Kennard, Ziaire Williams
By Mark Nilon
The Memphis Grizzlies made several moves this offseason with an emphasis on bolstering their talent pool for what is hoped to be a highly successful and prosperous 2023-24 campaign.
However, despite GM Zach Kleiman’s activity, Taylor Jenkins’ squad still finds itself with one major weakness: the starting wing position.
The franchise’s long-tenured resident at the spot, Dillon Brooks, shipped out of Grind City this summer and landed a lofty new four-year, $80 million deal with the Houston Rockets, thus leaving the team with a vacancy in need of filling.
With a little over a month remaining between now and October 25’s regular season tip-off, there still seems to be no indication of how the Grizzlies coaching staff will look to address this area of need.
While the splashy move would be for the front office to scour the trade market for an upgrade at the position, in all likelihood they’ll look to play it safe and promote from within — at least, until Ja Morant makes his return, where Jenkins could realistically slide Marcus Smart down to the two and, in turn, Desmond Bane to the three.
Start, bench, cut: Memphis Grizzlies wings
As of this writing, it appears the three most likely candidates to be gunning for Memphis’ starting small forward position to start the year are David Roddy, Luke Kennard, and Ziaire Williams. With this list of players in mind, today we at BSB play a game determining which of the bunch should start, come off the bench, and be removed from the conversation, or, in other words, cut.