Grizzlies reporter reveals post-Steven Adams trade 'idea'

With the surprise trade that saw Steven Adams shipped out to the Houston Rockets last Thursday, the Memphis Grizzlies find themselves with one rather substantial rotational quagmire on their hands: What is their plan for the center position moving forward?

As things currently stand, it would appear that the front office has no concrete plans to make any shakeups to the pivot spot ahead of February 8's trade deadline, thus suggesting they'll continue experimenting with the personnel they currently have at their disposal during this second half of play.

However, when it comes to the long-term fate of the position, Damichael Cole of the Commercial Appeal revealed on a recent episode of the Locked on Grizzlies podcast that one idea the ball club has is to focus their efforts on finding another player who provides similar contributions that Adams did at some point ahead of next season.

Memphis Grizzlies could look for a 'Steven Adams-lite'

"When Taylor Jenkins was talking [following the Steven Adams trade] he did mention Jaren Jackson Jr. at the five, but he also mentioned the idea of going out and basically replacing Steven Adams with a Steven Adams-lite. In his words, he said a 'Steven Adams archetype.' That type of player with the aggressiveness, the hard screening, the rebounding. That's what you need."

- Damichael Cole

The beat reporter would continue on to note that in order to compete in the Western Conference, this team is going to need a strong presence down at the five, as they'll eventually need to go through the likes of Nikola Jokic in Denver, Jusuf Nurkic in Phoenix, and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota on a journey toward a possible title run.

As the episode progressed, Cole and his Locked on Grizzlies co-host Joe Mullinax discussed the idea of Memphis pursuing the likes of Charlotte Hornets big Nick Richards as a possible replacement option for Adams, as he provides similar attributes at a rather affordable cost, but there are a number of other talents strewn across the league that could serve as viable options as well.