B/R Offers exciting outlook for Grizzlies 2024-25 championship aspirations

The Memphis Grizzlies are heading into the 2024-25 season with redemption on their mind.

After rattling off two consecutive second-seed, 50-plus win seasons and seeing three-straight playoff excursions, coach Taylor Jenkins' ball club ran into an injury-plagued, suspension-riddled wall of a 2023-24 campaign that saw them end up with the seventh-worst record in the league.

With this 82-game nightmare well in the rearview, the main mission for Memphis moving forward is all about reestablishing themselves as a legitimate threat in the highly competitive Western Conference.

Based on recent rumblings and chatter among fans and pundits alike, it appears hope of the Grizzlies being thrust back into the upper echelon of the league's elites is very much alive, and, in a recent piece penned by Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley, merely claiming a top-eight spot and re-entering the playoff picture is just the start for this ball club.

Grizzlies have third-best odds of winning Finals among zero-title teams

As things currently stand, only 10 teams in the league have yet to win an NBA Championship.

Of course, there's a clear hierarchy among these historically hapless organizations when it comes to their chances of winning the illustrious Larry O'Brien Trophy at some point in the near future, with Buckley highlighting that they "can be found at all levels of the Association."

The Grizzlies, as most are likely already aware, are unfortunately a part of this winless index, though the odds of them pushing over the proverbial hump toward glory is better than the vast majority of the nine others involved, and the seasoned B/R writer has them boasting the third-highest level of potential to do so over the coming years.

To Buckley, their standing on this list feels "either a pinch ambitious or perhaps an undersell." With the bitter taste of their 27-win season still fresh in everyone's mouth, pegging them as a legitimate championship threat with one year of separation may seem a bit too overzealous.

That said, what must be remembered is the fact that their stark decline was primarily a result of lacking health, or, in other words, things out of their control.

Assuming they can stave off the injury bug and, in turn, get their core trio of Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane back together, it's all but certain that blindingly bright days will be ahead.

Let's not forget that they were the driving forces in accumulating a whopping 107 regular season wins from 2021-22 to 2022-23, clinching just the fourth semifinals berth in franchise history, and, as noted by Buckley, "had a comically high plus-12.7 net rating over 444 minutes in 2022-23."

On top of this, these three are finally slated to get a full year's run alongside the likes of ascending sophomore stud GG Jackson, behemoth lottery-selected center Zach Edey, and the win-now attributes that Marcus Smart has only proven capable of providing to a contender.

Though having the Grizzlies ranked third on Buckley's list could be argued as being "ambitious," who, when fully intact and healthy, would realistically usurp them?

The Orlando Magic (No. 4), who have made the playoffs just once since the 2020 Lake Buena Vista bubble and haven't advanced beyond the first round since 2010? The LA Clippers (No.7), who, yes still have Kawhi Leonard and James Harden in tow, but boasts a core that is always injured, on the wrong side of 30 years old, and just lost their second-best player in Paul George this summer?

Outside of the top-ranked Minnesota Timberwolves, there's an argument to be made that a full-go Grizzlies team is without question has the best chance of adding their first championship banner to the rafters than any other title-less organizations -- and yes, this includes the talented, albeit oddly constructed Phoenix Suns who rank second.

Hopefully, the team will bounce back in a big way this coming year and remind the rest of the league that before the OKC Thunder took over the moniker of the most promising young team in the NBA, the Grizzlies were the ones seen in such a light.