What’s good*, Grizz Nation?
Our boys in Beale Street Blue are off to a particularly rough start this season, and it seems like things will get worse before they get better.
The injury list is half a mile long, and we are still at least a month or two away from the possible returns of Scotty Pippen Jr. and Brandon Clarke, and of the team’s biggest offseason acquisition, Ty Jerome. Not to mention the star point guard, Ja Morant, is at least two weeks away from playing again.
Outside of basketball, things have also been rough this year in the 901. The price of everything has gone up, but wages haven’t followed.
Many of our fellow Memphians are still reeling from the longest government shutdown in history, and ICE is terrorizing communities under the guise of making the city of Memphis safer.
As our editor-in-chief noted, the Memphis Safe Task Force is touting high arrest numbers without much transparency.
And apparently, we needed the National Guard (unlawfully) deployed in the city to … direct traffic and stand outside businesses looking scary.
Amidst all the chaos and lawfare, it’s hard to feel hopeful for the future when there is no end in sight to the occupation of our city. Despite all of this, I am trying to cultivate a sense of gratitude and joy for the holiday season ahead.
Fake it until you make it, right?
So, in that spirit, here are a few Grizz things we can be thankful for this year:
The foul limit is 6. Otherwise, Jaren Jackson Jr. would be getting 8 fouls a game.
The Washington State Cougars. We found Jaylen Wells and Cedric Coward there, two young players with tremendous upside.
Marc Ivaroni isn’t the head coach anymore. Just a little reminder that while adjusting to a new coaching style is sometimes ugly, things could still be worse.
The Grizzlies aren’t paying Chandler Parsons ridiculous sums of money to ride the bench anymore — no explanation required.
There are five teams in the Western Conference with worse records than Memphis: The Utah Jazz, the Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Dallas Mavericks, and the New Orleans Pelicans. We might be bad, but they are worse.
Our general manager didn’t trade away our franchise star to a conference rival for an aging, injury-prone big man. Say whatever you like about Ja Morant, but he is the biggest star this franchise has ever seen, and (hopefully) Zach Kleiman has enough sense to keep him around. Don’t be like Dallas.
There are still 64 games remaining in the regular season – plenty of time to turn things around. Hope springs eternal, friends.
To all our readers, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving holiday filled with food, family, and friends.
If you or someone you know is struggling this Thanksgiving season, here are some resources in the Memphis area for a hot meal.
*Unfortunately, not our Grizzlies team this season.