Memphis Grizzlies: Conveying the pick comes down to the wire

The Memphis Grizzlies would still love to convey their pick this year. With only a few games left, this crucial moment is coming down to the wire.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve arrived to the end of the NBA season so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that the 2018-19 campaign tipped off. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were about to begin their big season, Kawhi Leonard was finally returning to action and the Boston Celtics were seen as the biggest threat to the Golden State Warriors’ reign over the NBA.

The Memphis Grizzlies came into the year hopeful, but the rest of the league didn’t see it that way. Per Odds Shark, Las Vegas put their over/under on wins at 33.5, projecting an improvement over the previous season but not even close to sniffing the playoffs.

Memphis surprised everyone by jumping out to a 12-5 start. A top-4 seed was highly unlikely, but sneaking in with the seventh or eighth seed seemed like a possibility. Then, the wheels came off. Memphis stumbled through December and January, being saved from hitting the bottom of the Western Conference standings thanks to the lowly Phoenix Suns.

The trade deadline came and went, and with it went franchise icon Marc Gasol to the Toronto Raptors. That wasn’t the only trade the Grizz made, and the current roster looks vastly different to the opening day roster. Point guard Mike Conley is the “last survivor” in Memphis, but even his future is in doubt.

Even though the Grizzlies have reshaped their roster, the team looked surprisingly competitive. Their offensive rating improved by four points, and while their defense slipped by three points, their net rating improved as well. Rebounding and turnovers improved, while the team actually played at a near league-average pace.

The offense is nowhere near the top, but they stopped operating at a glacial pace. Even with the quicker pace, the team’s shooting slightly improved. While Gasol was a fine player, his lumbering and occasional ball-stopping seemed to limit the team offensively at times. It also helped that new big man Jonas Valanciunas was playing out of his mind.

The team was “moving up” the lottery standings, looking to where they were more and more likely to convey their top-eight protected first round draft pick to the Boston Celtics and have a clean slate going forward. As it has been said before, a long running chant of the team and fans is “win today, in June convey.”

But then…the wheels came off again. JV hurt his ankle and is out for the year. Jaren Jackson Jr. was shut down after his nagging quad injury kept popping up. He will have played only 58 games in his rookie season. Conley has been dealing with nagging injuries as well. Backup center Joakim Noah is banged up to.

Despite being so close to their goal, it looks as if the Grizz will enter the lottery with a giant question mark. Right now, they sit mashed together with the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards in the reverse standings. The Mavs and Grizzlies have four games left, while the Pelicans and Wizards have just three left.

The Grizzlies have four games left: a home-and-home against the Mavs, an away game against the Detroit Pistons and a final home game against the Golden State Warriors.

Those two Mavs games are huge, as winning both of them would put them closer to getting out of the top eight in the lottery to convey the pick. The Grizzlies have beaten Dallas by double digits both times this year, but that was when the team was much healthier. If Conley can’t go in either game, it looks bleak.

Their game against Detroit will be a tough matchup, as the Pistons are fighting to hold onto a playoff spot despite being at just .500. In their last contest of the year, the Warriors could choose to rest their stars or give them limited minutes (as they’ve done the past two seasons).

Fortunately for the Grizzlies, the Wizards have a bit of a tougher schedule. They play the Spurs and the Celtics in two of their last three games, with both teams jockeying for playoff positioning. The Pelicans have a bit of an easier schedule, playing the Suns, Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors.

These last few games will have huge implications on the Grizzlies’ future and could decide what direction they move this summer. Keeping the pick is not what the Grizzlies want to do and they would rather get it off their backs in a weaker draft and move forward cleanly.