Grizzlies: the season so far

Tuomas Iisalo is the head coach heading into 2026-27, running a team built almost entirely by trade. The last piece of the Ja Morant era ended this past offseason when Memphis sent Morant to Portland for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, and the Grizzlies used the third overall pick in the 2026 draft on Cameron Boozer, adding Karim López with the 21st pick after Detroit sent it over. Last season was rough: a 25-57 record, a net rating of minus-6 that ranked 24th of 30 teams, an offense that ranked 23rd and a defense that ranked 27th, playing at a pace of 101.69. The roster now carries 22 contracts for $161.1M, under the $165.0M salary cap, led by Grant's $34.2M, Isaiah Stewart's $15.0M and Boozer's $11.8M. Memphis owns its 2027 and 2028 first-round picks outright but owes second-rounders to Charlotte and Brooklyn and has swap rights tied up in 2029 and 2030, with a protected second owed to Minnesota. The roster skews young, averaging 24.0 years across 20 players, and this past week brought fresh trade chatter: reporter Jake Fischer named the Grizzlies among teams exploring deals, a group that also included the Bucks, Lakers and Hornets.

Memphis built its identity on "Grit and Grind," the Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Mike Conley and Tony Allen era that turned disruptive, high-pressure defense and inside-out scoring into a brand the whole league recognized, and that defensive bite is still the standard any current Grizzlies team gets measured against, last season's 27th-ranked defense included. The rivalry with the Los Angeles Clippers traces to their 2012 and 2013 playoff wars, all-time Clippers lead 52-49. The Oklahoma City Thunder rivalry runs back to their Vancouver and Seattle days, four playoff meetings since 2011, Thunder leading 66-35. The San Antonio Spurs matchup goes back to a 2004 sweep and three more playoff series since, Spurs leading 74-35. All three remain the measuring sticks as Memphis tries to climb back into that company.

The Grizzlies play at FedExForum in Memphis, their home since 2004 after stints at the Pyramid and, before the Vancouver relocation, General Motors Place. Robert Pera has owned the team since his purchase was approved in October 2012, backed by local partners including J.R. "Pitt" Hyde. On the wall: Tony Allen's No. 9, retired March 15, 2025; Mike Conley Jr.'s No. 11, retired after his trade to Utah; and Bill Russell's No. 6, retired league-wide by the NBA in August 2022. Grizz, the mascot since the Vancouver days in 1995, was named 2011 NBA Mascot of the Year.

Memphis is chasing a return to the playoffs after a 25-57 season, with Cameron Boozer and Karim López as the new building blocks around holdovers like Jerami Grant, Jaylen Wells, Zach Edey, Cedric Coward, Cam Spencer and Ty Jerome. The Grizzlies are under the salary cap with room to work, but a thicket of owed picks and swaps to Charlotte, Brooklyn and Minnesota complicates how aggressively they can deal from here. Fans are arguing about two things: how long Isaiah Stewart is out with his ankle and leg issue, and what Jake Fischer's trade report actually means for a roster this unsettled.

The Grizzlies started in 1995 as an NBA expansion team in Vancouver, British Columbia, alongside the Toronto Raptors. The nickname came after the league blocked "Vancouver Mounties," settling on Grizzlies for the bear native to British Columbia. They played six seasons at GM Place before applying to relocate on March 26, 2001; the NBA approved July 3, and the team became the Memphis Grizzlies, the easternmost team in the Western Conference. They played their first three Memphis seasons at the Pyramid Arena before moving to FedExForum, where they play now. A prior Memphis team carried the same name in the World Football League, 1974 to 1975.

The early Memphis years were built around Pau Gasol, drafted third in 2001 and named Rookie of the Year, plus Shane Battier, taken sixth. Jerry West became general manager in 2002 and won Executive of the Year for 2003-04, when Hubie Brown's team made the franchise's first playoff trip as the sixth seed with a then-record 50 wins, swept by the Spurs. Mike Fratello then led playoff trips in 2005 and 2006, both ending in sweeps, by the Suns and the Mavericks. Gasol's broken foot wrecked the 2006-07 season, which ended 22-60, the league's worst record; West resigned afterward. Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers on February 1, 2008, for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, and the rights to his younger brother, Marc Gasol. Lionel Hollins took over as head coach in January 2009, and the next season Zach Randolph and an improving Marc Gasol pushed the team to a 40-42 finish.

That group became the core of the "Grit and Grind" era. In 2010-11 the Grizzlies went 46-36 and, as the eighth seed, beat the top-seeded Spurs 4-2 in the first round, only the fourth time in NBA history an eighth seed beat a first seed. They lost to the Thunder in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. In 2012-13, with Marc Gasol, Randolph, Mike Conley, and Tony Allen, Memphis posted a franchise-best 56-26 record; Gasol won NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The Grizzlies beat the Clippers in six games, then the Thunder 4-1, to reach the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history, where the Spurs swept them. The Grizzlies have never reached the NBA Finals or won a championship.

Ownership changed hands when Michael Heisley sold the team to Robert J. Pera, approved by the NBA on October 25, 2012, with local partners J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, Staley Cates, Ed Dobbs, Duncan Williams, and Billy Orgel. Pera installed Jason Levien as CEO and later John Hollinger as vice president of basketball operations.

The Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, and Mavericks were the Grizzlies' toughest playoff foes, with San Antonio eliminating them four separate times, including two sweeps and the 2013 conference finals. The team's identity, built under Hollins with Gasol, Randolph, Conley, and Allen, rests on defense and paint scoring rather than star turns or titles - the "Grit and Grind" label fans in Memphis still use.