Memphis Grizzlies: Biggest needs for the 2018 NBA Draft

By Tony East | Apr 27, 2018

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Trae Young Oklahoma

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Shot-creating guard

Mike Conley is a lot of things, but one of those things is 30 years old, and after his Achilles injury, who knows how much talent he has left to give? To cope with the unknown, and improve the team as a whole, the Memphis Grizzlies should look into drafting a guard who can create shots — both for himself and others, preferably off the dribble.

In the ideal world, this player can play alongside Conley and by himself. Three options come to mind: Trae Young, Luka Doncic and Donte DiVincenzo.

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Doncic and Young would need to be taken with the Grizz first round pick, but either would be perfect. Doncic is a 6’6″ combo guard who can handle the ball and get to the rim while also canning shots from deep. For Real Madrid this year, Doncic is averaging 14.8 points per game on 60.5 percent shooting from the field. The dude can flat out stroke it.

Meanwhile, we all saw how dynamic Trae Young can be during his season at Oklahoma. His 27.4 points and 8.7 assists per game are crazy good stats and doing it while shooting 36 percent from deep on 10 attempts per game is even crazier. What is more encouraging is that Young made 86.1 percent of his free throws, which usually bodes well for a player to be a great shooter in the pros.

DiVincenzo is easily the least appealing option of the bunch, but he is a high-upside guy the Grizzlies could pick in the second round. He took over everyone’s hearts and minds with his dominant performance in the NCAA title game, but his 13.4 points per game on 40.1 percent 3-point shooting suggest he is more than a player who got hot in just one game.

If the Grizz don’t go with a guard in the first round, picking DiVincenzo in the second round could be the perfect solution.

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