Once again, the Celtics own the draft rights to a team that was supposed to be bad but has performed surprisingly well. The Kings did it to us last year and now the Grizzlies are doing it. I mean, good on them for progressing ahead of schedule (though the Kings may have been fools gold based on their record this season), but this is a bad development for the Celtics draft pick compensation.
While most of that is beyond Boston’s control, they can at least give the Grizzlies more losses if they do their job in the games when they play (they face off Wednesday).
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Putting aside the draft rights implications, the Grizzlies are just a lot of fun to watch and track from afar. They have an electric Rookie of the Year candidate in Ja Morant who projects to be one of the game’s stars for years to come. They also have a fantastic unicorn big man in Jaren Jackson Jr. (check out Mike Prada’s breakdown here) and a dynamic wing in Brandon Clarke. Jonas Valanciunas and old friend Jae Crowder provide veteran savvy and they are getting contributions from Dillon Brooks, De’Anthony Melton and others.
The Celtics have been a little hit and miss lately so they’ll have to bring more of that A game that showed up against the Lakers than the inconsistent efforts that have plagued the team in the last few weeks.
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