Following another second round playoff series in which they were simply outmatched, the Memphis Grizzlies seemed to be in no man’s land among playoff teams: too good to blow it up and start over, but not nearly good enough to compete with the true heavy hitters of the Western Conference.
After all, the one year Memphis made their way to the Western Conference Finals, they benefitted from a matchup against the Russell Westbrook-less Oklahoma City Thunder before quickly being swept by a superior San Antonio Spurs team. That’s not to take anything away from the lovable grit-n-grinders; it’s just a simple fact that the Grizz have always been one star piece away from that upper tier.
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Barring an unlikely teardown and drastic rebuild, Memphis had two major needs heading into the offseason: re-signing Marc Gasol to keep the core intact and adding some sort of perimeter shooting to improve the team’s biggest weakness.
With this summer’s moves, it’s safe to say the Grizzlies will still be an excellent team that nobody enjoys playing next season. But even after a quietly successful offseason, it remains to be seen whether it’ll finally be enough for this gritty team to make an unlikely Cinderella run to the Finals.
Here’s a look at the Memphis Grizzlies’ summer with complete offseason grades.
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