{"id":136775,"date":"2025-04-28T21:28:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T01:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136775"},"modified":"2025-04-28T21:28:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T01:28:29","slug":"grizzlies-gm-zach-kleiman-future-offseason-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/28\/grizzlies-gm-zach-kleiman-future-offseason-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman Wants More Dog and Grit Next Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies were the first team to be sent home in these playoffs after falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> in a four-game sweep. With a truly disappointing season behind them, the Grizzlies head into the offseason with plenty of flaws and questions to address.<\/a> Much of that will fall on the shoulders of Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman. What he’ll do at the head coaching position is one of his biggest decisions now that Taylor Jenkins is long gone and Tuomas Iisalo wasn’t able to get Memphis to play anywhere near good enough basketball to compete with the Thunder. However, coaching is not Kleiman’s only area of concern and attention this summer; there is also the roster.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman Wants More Dog and Grit Next Season<\/h2>\n

Memphis Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman has a good idea of the type of players he wants leading the franchise into the future<\/h3>\n

In a season-ending press conference on Monday, Kleiman faced reporters and media members to discuss the Grizzlies season and what happens next. Only a few years ago, Memphis, led by Ja Morant<\/a>, was considered a legitimate threat in the West, or at the very least, fast-moving up-and-comers. However, off-court issues with Morant helped sabotage Memphis’s rise, as did a significant injury that iced him for most of the 2023-24 season. The Grizzlies have taken a step back, and how this season ended proves it. That said, the Grizzlies still have a relatively formidable roster, including Ja, Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>., and Desmond Bane<\/a> at the core.<\/p>\n

Despite the potential within Memphis’s currently constructed roster, Kleiman isn’t convinced this present interaction of the Grizzlies is ready to compete for a title, much less with the other teams in the West.\u00a0<\/span>During his exit interview, Kleimen addressed this<\/span><\/a> and what he wants for next season and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a cultural standpoint, from the type of guys that we want here\u2026it\u2019s the gritty guys. It\u2019s guys who have that dog in their game. And for some time now, we have been emphasizing and are going to continue to look for guys like that.\u201d <\/em>Kleiman continued, “In many ways, I don\u2019t think we can look back at this series and this season and say, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re close. No, we\u2019re not. We\u2019re not close. There\u2019s a lot of work to be done. I need to be open-minded in multiple respects. It\u2019s been clear for some time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Grizzlies have grit in the molding process<\/h3>\n

You can’t watch Bane’s game and not see grit. Jackson Jr. also possesses grit. In fact, right down the roster, Memphis has a lot of grit already. According to Kleiman, he has much of what he’s looking for, but the experience is lacking. Kleiman wants dogs and, apparently, some grizzly bear, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Scotty Pippen<\/a>, dog,\u201d he said. \u201cZach Edey<\/a>, dog. Jaylen Wells<\/a>, dog. Cam Spencer<\/a>\u2019s a f-ing grizzly bear. I mean, Cam Spencer\u2019s got that in spades. And I think he\u2019s got a bright future, too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So, while there is abundant grit, it dwells within many young players. It’s uncertain if Kleiman will significantly change up the Grizzlies roster this summer. It could be a matter of further developing who Memphis already has. Or, if Kleiman sees fit, adding more “gritty guys” could mean pursuing via trade or free agency. Time will tell, but what is certain is that Memphis is not where it needs to be, and Kleiman intends to fix the problem. Where Ja fits into all of it<\/a>, well, let’s let the offseason play out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies were the first team to be sent home in these playoffs after falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a four-game sweep. With a truly disappointing season behind them, the Grizzlies head into the offseason with plenty of flaws and questions to address. Much of that will fall on the shoulders of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":136777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62],"tags":[49961,3127,1822,1948,49556,49058,4741],"class_list":["post-136775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-cam-spencer","tag-desmond-bane","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-jaylen-wells","tag-scotty-pippen-jr","tag-zach-edey"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136789,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136775\/revisions\/136789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}