Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:
The team went through revolutionary changes, quickly transforming from a wannabe contender to full rebuild mode. In a half year span, they have traded all of their big three – Mark Gasol to Championship, Alcohol and Toronto Raptors, Mike Conley to Jazz and their contention dreams and Chandler Parsons to Hawks for a chance of getting rid him and his enormous contract. Also, during the season, Jaren Jackson Jr emerged as their potential new franchise player, few young players shown flashes of potential (Anderson and Caboclo) and Jonas Valanciunas, aquired in Marc Gasol trade turned out to be an oldschool beast, when given a true chance.
Changes in the offseason
Lost = Mike Conley, Jevon Carter, Delon Wright, Chandler Parsons, Solomon Hill
Added = Ja Morant, Tyus Jones, DeAnthony Melton, Brandon Clarke, Grayson Allen, Jae Crowder, Josh Jackson, Andre Igoudala
Projected Depth Chart:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Ja Morant | Dillon Brooks | Kyle Anderson | Jaren Jackson Jr | Jonas Valanciunas |
| Tyus Jones | Grayson Allen | Jae Crowder | Bruno Caboclo | Brandon Clarke |
| DeAnthony Melton | Josh Jackson | Yuta Watanabe | Solomon Hill | Ivan Rabb |
Positional Battles: Everywhere
Right now only two players could be confident of their starting roles – Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr, but I don’t think even their playing time is locked:
- Morant plays as a PG in front of two legit NBA players – Tyus Jones and DeAnthony Melton – both of them definately deserving, and Melton desperately needing some playing time.
- None of the three SGs in their roster looks like a real NBA starter.
- There could be a split of minutes between Anderson, Crowder and Caboclo at the Small Forward position.
- JJJ should play as much as he can, but he is very foul prone type of a player so he might be capped by that.
- Brandon Clarke is nice and promising and while Valanciunas is for now a far superior player, Grizzlies might try to develope Clark at his cost, at some point of the season
Fantasy Relevant in leagues with 12- to 15-teams:
A per minute beast, who, for his whole career only needs opportunities. When given one in Memphis at the end of the season, he was top20 guy, posting one huge line after another, with great points, rebounds, blocks and efficiency numbers. His projected rank is therefore strictly connected with playing time. He would be relevant even in 20 minutes role, but above 25 minutes per game mark he is going to be top50 fantasy contributor.
He is going to start badly, as almost every rookie point guard in history, but as many of them before, he has a chance of making a huge run after the All Star break. For now consider him as a great source of assists and steals with some out of position blocks, huge amounts of turnovers and questionable shooting.
It looks like an opportunity that he was meant to get last season, and that made him a popular fantasy sleeper, is going to be there for him now.
There’s obviously a question how will they use him, but I assume either way he will have a career-high in assists and rebounds just based on increased minutes per game. However, remember that he plays in a bit of a logjam, so he might be frustrating on a nightly basis. Worth taking a flier in late rounds of fantasy drafts.
He had an extremely promising first season of his career, unfortunately plagued with injuries and foul trouble. His tremendous potential is based on combination of defensive stats, threes, and typical big man features, such as rebounds and FG%. He might be one of a kind, and his ability to learn new moves on a fly is truly astonishing. On the downside, I have to mention, that his block rate last season was going down on an alarming rate – it was a typical for stuggle for a young bigman trying to balance his defensive contributions and avoiding fouls, to extend his playing time.
However, he might finish this season anywhere between top20 and top100, so he is definately worh picking up around that 40-50 mark.
Could be useful with trades/injuries [or in deeper leagues than 15 teams]:
Dillon Brooks, Grayson Allen, Bruno Caboclo, Brandon Clarke, Tyus Jones, DeAnthony Melton, Jae Crowder
Just don’t bother with:
Ivan Rabb, Josh Jackson
Don’t forget to check the rest of the Memphis Grizzlies fantasy basketball projections.
Posted in Teams preview