Ty Jerome's Memphis Grizzlies regular season debut is officially on hold after the team announced that he will be re-evaluated in four weeks for a high-grade calf strain. He appeared to suffer the injury early in the first quarter of the Grizzlies' preseason finale against the Miami Heat, but didn't get fully evaluated until the team returned to Memphis.
His injury news followed Saturday's announcement of Scotty Pippen Jr. being ruled out for at least three months after undergoing foot surgery. These injury setbacks follow other injuries from rotational players that will linger into the regular season with Zach Edey and Brandon Clarke both expected to be out going into November.
Ty Jerome's latest injury setback and timeline will allow the team to apply for an NBA hardship exception, which will allow the Grizzlies to sign a player to a 10-day contract. They will have to wait three regular season games to apply, but doing so will help the team to try to patch holes on their roster that is entering the season depleted.
The Grizzlies have two positions of need
Following offseason surgeries to Zach Edey and Jaren Jackson Jr., the Grizzlies already expected to be lacking in frontcourt depth. However, they felt their backcourt would be a strength with Ty Jerome and Scotty Pippen Jr. coming in behind Ja Morant as the primary ball handlers.
What the preseason showed was the Grizzlies have additional ball handlers and wings who can play minutes at the guard positions in rookies Javon Small and Cedric Coward, and second-year guard Cam Spencer. Small was arguably their most impressive player in their final two preseason games, Spencer is arguably the team's best shooter, and Coward is a promising wing who can play minutes at both shooting guard and small forward.
Their big man depth lacks true physical bigs as rebounding was the team's biggest weakness without Edey and Clarke in the lineup. With that reality, a free agent name that multiple Grizzlies writers have mentioned is former San Antonio Spurs center Charles Bassey. In limited minutes, he has averaged 4.3 rebounds per game in his career, but that number jumps to 13.8 in per 36 minutes.
Another name that has been mentioned in the fanbase is former University Memphis forward Precious Achiuwa. He has averaged 10.3 rebounds in per 36 minutes in his five-year career with the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, and Miami Heat. Their biggest need is clear to those that follow the team, now they need to follow the procedures to address their early season concern.