Insane defense. They held the Mavs to 5 points in a quarter yesterday. I think they're a tough playoff team that could pull off one upset in the playoffs. They will probably play the Nuggets in the first round and I'm not sure how I feel about that series yet. It's gonna be a 6-7 game series probably.
The Grizzlies are what we thought they could be a few years ago when they locked up their core. They are a very solid 50+ win team that play great defense and at their peak can make it to the WCF and give a team a 6-7 game run for their money. They are not title contenders because they lack an elite player like LeBron, Durant, CP3, Harden or Kobe.
Top 2 D in the league, and their bigs will have an advantage offensively vs. any team. I could definitely see them getting to the conference finals (and then anything could happen)... or getting knocked out in round 1... A typical tier B contender like the Mavs or Dwight's Magic were for many years.
They remind me of the Dikembe Mutombo-led Nuggets that ousted #1 Sonics in the 90s. I hope I see that again.
They will get beat by Denver in the first round. Denver also lacks a true superstar go-to player but they have more/better options and they're super deep at every position including PF/C which is supposed to be the Grizzlies biggest advantage. Nuggets are a terrible matchup for the Grizzlies.
I dunno. I disagree. The Nuggets fast break offense won't work against the Grizzlies because their backcourt will get back and they will get a ton of steals. The slow pace that hte Grizz play at and constant worrying about offensive rebounds will also prvent Denver from being able to run like usual.
Teams can still run in the playoffs and even if the Memphis' backourt can get back defensively their frontcourt (Z-bo/Gasol) as good as they are will have a hard time keeping up with Faried and McGee because they're very mobile and great at getting up and down the court. Denver is basically 2 deep at every position and in the playoffs you need players from every position to step up. Denver has 7 guys on their roster who can pop off any given night. I see 3 maybe 4 for Memphis. In a 7 game series talent and depth always wins out. It's debatable which team is better in terms of talent but when it comes to depth there's no question it's Denver. Lawson/Miller Iggy/Brewer Chandler/Gallo Faried/Gallo McGee/Koufos As good as Prince and Allen are defensively they will have a hard time shutting down Iggy, Chandler and Gallo enough times IMO to win a 7 game series.
Denver can't shoot it, they get their points by fast break and their entire offense is predicated on dribble penetration and offensive rebounds. Grizzlies will shut Denver's entire offense down.
That's the beauty of the Denver-Memphis series. Unlike the other snooze fests in the first round, there's a level of competition.
