Chris Herrington counts down the eight most valuable members of the Memphis Grizzlies’ roster.

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Rather than having stars in their early 20s on rookie-scale contracts, the Grizzlies will be built on stars entering their mid-20s now on sizable deals.

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Grizzlies Insider: Memphis shows appreciation for Xavier Tillman Sr.

This Grizzlies season ended early on Friday night in Los Angeles and then it felt like it just kept on ending, over and over again, until the score was finally 125-85 when the buzzer sounded and this Memphis playoff ride was abruptly over.

After missing Game 2 for a hand injury, Morant’s strong performance in Game 3 gives hope for what’s possible in the games ahead.

Xavier Tillman started five games in the G League this season. Barring the unexpected, he will start at least five playoff games this spring. One imagines no one else in the NBA, and certainly no one multiple seasons into his pro career, will be able to make such a claim. 

Whether it’s denying Memphis funding as punishment for removing Confederate statues or attempting to punish Nashville for not hosting the 2024 Republican National Convention, these are proxies for a political divide between urban and rural communities. 

On Tuesday night, the Memphis Grizzlies will play their regular season homecourt finale against the Portland Trail Blazers before heading out on a season-concluding three-game road trip.

I’m not sure anyone is bothered by the “parade inside my city” line aside from a television carnival barker and people on the Internet, but does a lyrical investigation after recent incidents make one wince? Sure.

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For a team many expected to slide, the month of March has belonged to Jaren Jackson Jr., who’s led the team at 23 points per game on 53% shooting, as the Grizzlies have reclaimed their spot at second in the conference. 

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This is perhaps the biggest young star in the NBA, subject to a league gun investigation twice in five weeks. It’s a red alarm issue far beyond Memphis. 

The Memphis Grizzlies have 21 games left in this NBA regular season, and the Western Conference playoff race is so tight that intrigue could linger to the final day.

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It never looks great on paper, but you can always be guaranteed that great stuff will happen. Like a magisterial Jill Scott cracking jokes and dispensing love advice, Sturgill Simpson surprising with a lacerating, hard country-soul set or that time that a nervy Randy Newman surveyed the afternoon crowd and began playing an unedited version of “Rednecks.”

With the trade deadline over and the All-Star break one game away, Chris Herrington shares his wisdom on all things Memphis Grizzlies.

Before this holiday-season stretch commences, let’s stop to unwrap the most prominent present each main-roster member of the top-seeded Grizzlies has given us in this opening third of the season.

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This month’s Grizzlies Mailbag includes thoughts on Jaren Jackson Jr.’s chances to be named Defensive Player of the Year and his declining fouls, along with Chris’ favorite Christmas movies.

A deeper look at what the return of Jaren Jackson Jr. will mean to the Grizzlies.

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Grizzlies Insider: Memphis stayed on track despite Jaren Jackson Jr. absence

This rematch of last spring’s first-round playoff series between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves was, for Grizzlies fans, an opportunity for gratitude.

Memphis is awash in dramatic examples of adaptive reuse, from a Downtown shopping mall turned corporate headquarters to a Sears warehouse building turned “vertical urban village” to even a Pyramid-shaped arena turned world’s biggest bait shop. But Mud Island and the Mid-South Coliseum have proved trickier for rebirth. 

Right now, in Memphis, we’re suffering — directly for some, psychologically for all — from a spate of unusual crimes. The fear for some is that the unusual is now morphing into usual. But it’s felt that way before. 

As tensions continue between Memphis in May and the Memphis River Parks Partnership, the festival’s stance has communicated to potential ticket-buyers that anything different than the old festival on the old footprint is destined to be a lesser experience. But it doesn’t have to be. 

The controversy over Tommy Kha’s photography was about art at the airport. But it was also about the living legacy of old, dead Elvis in the city that made him. 

All of the NBA wants two-way wings, midsized players who can affect both ends of the floor. The Grizzlies are among the teams hunting for these players. But in Brooks and Anderson, they might already have one of the league’s best such combos.

Rolling Stone just published its latest list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” and Chris Herrington was among the voters. A look at the Memphis music that did and didn’t make the list, plus Chris’ own ballot. 

Our schools: A two-front political battlefield our kids didn’t ask for and really don’t need right now. Education shouldn’t be conscription, especially in the service of others’ political ambitions.

Road recklessness has been notable for more than a year, the rise perhaps coinciding with pandemic shutdowns. But it doesn’t seem to be diminishing, even as COVID restrictions ease.