Ja Morant’s exciting play has been a major reason why the Memphis Grizzlies have solidified their position among the NBA’s upper echelon (@memgrizz/Instagram).

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Last season’s Memphis Grizzlies announced their arrival by earning the second seed in the Western Conference. And with the league’s fifth-youngest roster and proven success building through the draft and player development, there’s no reason to believe their upward trajectory shouldn’t continue into this season. To discuss how this up-and-coming team can continue to bolster its franchise’s history, we’ve brought on special guest Molly Morrison, formerly of MadeInMemphis1, the most followed Grizzlies’ fan account in Memphis. She takes us through the growth that led to Ja Morant winning the Most Improved Player Award and Zach Kleiman winning Executive of the Year and where the team can go from here.

4:06-4:55: “Ja Morant obviously is just the pivotal reason as to why you’re sitting here saying, ‘They’re not even an up-and-coming team. They’re kind of already there.’ So much of that does have to do with Ja’s ability to attack the basket, along of course with his other skill-sets: the block I posted, his incredible court vision, the way he is able to create for his teammates, and just all the areas he’s willing and working to improve in. … Just some of the things he does, I truly believe that I am excited to watch every single Grizzlies game in the regular season, which is not something I could always say because there will be some sort of highlight that just doesn’t look like something a natural person would do.”

8:48-9:08: “Desmond Bane is only going to keep getting scarier, be as scary as he’s been. His impact on the offense is as good as anyone. He and Ja are becoming one of my favorite backcourts in the league, just seeing them play together and their impact on the offense.”

11:24-11:57: “They’ve been shooting better on a higher volume, which is extremely hard to do, to shoot more 3s and shoot a higher percentage on 3s, and the whole team has done that. That really goes back to what I mentioned earlier with coach Taylor Jenkins realizing, ‘OK, guys. Our defense is going to struggle. We don’t have Jaren Jackson Jr. now. We traded away two great defensive players in [De’Anthony] Melton and [Kyle] Anderson. We need to stop shooting as many midrange shots. We need to either attack the basket or shoot from deep.’ And I think you’ve really seen that pay off with the Grizzlies.”

18:11-18:31: “The times [Jaren Jackson Jr.] is healthy, he has shown an ability to just do such unicorn-like, wonderful things. He has so many different skill-sets that are so important in this league. Last season, his scoring took a plunge, but that’s something that could easily return. And when it did that, his defense became better than ever.”

22:44-23:03: “That’s how any fan base is gonna be, right? You become so invested, and it’s hard to see maybe a decline. But I can’t even sit here and say that they’re gonna decline for sure, at least by a massive amount, because every single season this team has defied expectations.”

28:05-31:06: “Honestly, I think the best thing [GM Zach] Kleiman has done is not overthink it. This is like the biggest running joke, you know: he takes Draft Twitter’s favorite players every season, but it’s true. … I feel like just his consistency to keep on drafting these guys that end up being able to produce at the NBA level so quickly is just really, really impressive, and we’re about to see this season. … So which of these guys pan out? I think it’s an interesting thing to have your eyes on, like will … one of them become another piece of the team that they are hoping will eventually win a championship? … The draft wasn’t an exciting time for a very long time. Picks, it didn’t seem like were really, really mattering for them. And just so quickly to shift the narrative into, we don’t have to have a top 10 pick to get a really exciting guy. It’s normal to be able to find a steal late first round or second round. It’s a new world for Grizzlies fans, and I give him a ton of credit in building this team.”

34:01-34:45: “They wanted someone who…no one had to create plays for them. Really, Steven Adams understands his role. The way he and Ja Morant play together is great. … Obviously, you’re not gonna rely on a guy like that to stretch the floor or whatever, but he’s in the paint, he’s fighting for that rebound and he’s really just doing his role and allowing other guys to take on bigger offensive roles, which is how the Grizzlies’ offense is going to thrive more. So, you know, it was sort of a chess, not checkers move.”

36:11-36:53: “Taylor Jenkins has been a huge part of this team’s success. I really, really think you mentioning him and Ja coming in at the same time, it’s such an interesting way to look at it because these two guys have immense, immense respect for each other. …They’ll just be talking back and forth and really coaching each other and helping each other. Above all else… I think a really underrated thing with coaches is having that relationship between the star piece of the core and the coach because you’ve seen that go wrong time and time when that respect isn’t there.”

39:34-40:11: “With Santi [Aldama], it’s hard to sit here and tell you, ‘Oh well this is what the Grizzlies have with him’ because we’re working with such a small sample size of games we have really seen him in. But I will say this, he’s so young and from the very beginning there was no expectation that he would look like an NBA player off the bat. He didn’t actually; his first opportunities were really lackluster… but it’s not like it was hopeless. You had to give it time. And then really the first real flashes of a good solid NBA player were seen this summer in summer league where he’s just able to do multiple things offensively.”

Molly’s column about how she grew her MadeinMemphis1 anonymous account into the most-followed fan account in Memphis, and why she stepped away.

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.