On this episode of the Heat Check, we talk about another division in the Western Conference, Baby, which might be the most loaded in NBA history. I know that's a hyper believe, but we're doing it on a Sunday night. You can make the case that almost any team in the Western Conference, just pick one out of that, any one of them, except for my Portland Trailblazers, could make the playoffs. We now break down the second Western Conference division, which is the Southwest. I don't know what the car
reference would be of that. I know it's definitely not a Cadillac. I know it's definitely not a Maserati. It's more like mid tier, like ooh, i'd be fine. Is it the hunt Day Division? I don't know. Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans, Houston, and Santa an fucking Tonio. Santa fucking Tonio is probably gonna be the Maserati of the bunch. Let's get a move on, William. We don't have much
time to waste. I already did this segment, so we got to do it again, and I wasn't recording, so drop that generic ads beat that should be Rihanna.
Was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines. We're tuned in to the Heat Check. The Heat Check. It's just a crazy the best podcast covering all the drama around the association.
We've started our NBA with the cattle, the the cream of the crop, which was the Pacific Division. We now turn our attention to the Southwest Division, which is fascinating in its own way. It's actually we can make more of a of a reference not to cars, but maybe to an airline, and we'll just keep it right there.
It's like the Southwest airlines of the NBA, Like, you don't get your own seats, you better get there fucking early or you're gonna be ended up in thirty two B. So we'll start up top with the Memphis Grizzlies fifty one and thirty one. They were second place last year. They add Marcus Smart and smot they add Derek Rose, they add GG Jackson, they subtract Tias Jones, they subtract
Dylan Brooks. So how should we start this preview right? Like, should we talk about the fact that they won the Southwest Division last year and John Brand only played like fifty seven games sixty two games? Should we talk about the fact that they were a two seed last year? Should we talk about the fact that they added Oh my god, Marcus Smart, this culture guy, oh Dereck Rose like og former MVP. Should we talk about the fact that I don't know Brandon Clark is out for the season.
Should we talk about the fact that Steven Adams might be finally fully healthy? No? No, we should Was that the most poignant thing to start with? Come on, guys, it's Jaw. Jaw Jaw the man himself who decided after Adam Silver said, hey, Jaw, no more guns, he was like, you know what I think would be fun? You know what I think would be just hilarious is buying a lighter that looks like I could glock and then just putting it on Instagram live for the world to see
so that I can get my ass suspended. So if we don't know what's up with Jaw and he's not gonna be back till Christmas, we probably don't know what this Grizzlies team is because Jaws now suspended twenty five games. A what a present from Adam Silver. Just open it up, find out what the Memphis Grizzlies are by January first, who knows, who knows? Maybe not even by then. Maybe all Star break, we'll know what they are, right. Uh, there was a lot of sheen on Jaw this time
last year. It's easy to forget he was like the guy. He was the one we all wanted to build the league around. And uh he had power aid commercials and the new Nike shoe and he was just the dude on a Tuesday night that every kid wanted to watch what the top Jersey sales, Like, everybody wants to go to some random NBA town to see Jaw. And Uh, I tell you what that sheen came off fast is we haven't heard a peep really about in this entire summer. Probably a good thing, considering that there was a lot
of chatter. There was about a million allegations on the athletic about what he was doing and what he wasn't doing with his friends and his dad and weather T looked like Usher, it's all done now, it's all about the grizz. Well, the time that he's taken off turned him into a different player, because Jaw the old Jaw for so many reasons. The reason that we liked him was he had complete freedom on the court and he
gave zero fox like none, absolutely zero Fox. He got into the paint with reckless abandon, and then he went to shotgun Willies and hooked up with strippers. Probably with reckless abandon. We made shots he had no business taking. So we wonder. We have to wonder, is he the same jaw has the meditation retreats and all the therapy and all the time alone changed to jaw is as a player? Are we gonna see the same aggressive, fearless mentality that made him fucking electric? Or is he gonna
be more cautious, more guarded, more not himself. Time will tell. But he didn't just tweet this out. It's a different story for me. It seems I got everything that I've dreamed of, but I can't find no peace. Oh jaw Baby, that's not good. I really want you to find your piece. I hope that it was just a song lyric, but that's a lyric from rod Wave, and the lyrics that precede that quote was I was on my way to the show and it finally hit me. I don't want to be here no more. Lord, come and get me now.
I ain't ready to die like Biggie. I just want to dump in my car, fill it with gas. And go far and not look back. Oh boy, that is a runaway song for jaw. I do not like that. That does not give me any hope for what is happening currently with John Morant mindset. If that is what he is feeling, Jaron Jackson and Jesus take the wheel. Oh Steven Adams. Is Steven Adams healthy again?
Is he?
I don't, I don't know. I just don't. He had a shave. But we're gonna need a lot more aggressiveness from Steven Adams and a lot more offense. And also Brandon Clark, like I said, out for the year dealing with his achille surgery. Kenny Lofton Junior. Kenny Lofton Junior showed up to camp three hundred pounds. That is twenty five more pounds than he was last year, and last year he was probably seventy five pounds overweight. Let's be honest.
Like Kelly Lofton, Kenny Lofton is shaped like a bowling ball. I don't know how this roster, I'm sorry, this roster is just giving me real vibes. I don't know. They did swap Tyus Jones out for Marcus Smart that makes them better defensively, but I don't know necessarily if they needed that as much as they needed a floor general who had the best assistant turnover ratio in the NBA, which is why they were five hundred when John Morant was out. They do add Derrick Rose to the bench,
which I like. That helps in a lot of intangible ways too, both Smart, which I thought was interesting. Both Marcus Smart and Derrick Rose independently said they are not here to neither babysit nor snitch on Jamrant, which I feel like no one asked them if they were, so them just offering that up is a little strange to me.
But I do know that Derrick Rose was an MVP, played a lot like Jaw, wasn't exactly squeaky clean himself, so maybe he's not like a mentor, but somebody who Jaw can feel the leadership from great moves I think by the GRIZ. But is this team better than they were last year when they won fifty two games. I just don't know about that. I really don't. I just don't.
Desmond Bane. I love Desmond Bain, probably an All Star this year, but all the little Reddit threads and the behive of the Grizzlies fans, they're all hoping for santiaal Dama and Jake la Ravia to take a step for this team to be better than they were last year. Ooh, I don't know about that. That is something that I am not sure if you are just hitching your wag into that. I don't think so. Luke Canard is gonna
unlock them as an important cog in the offense. But listen, man, Lukenard didn't start last year, so we're gonna need more than twenty five minutes a night from Luke Canard. Before Lukenard came to the Memphis Grizzlies, his team was twenty third and three point shooting. When it comes down to it, it's a roster that has more questions than answers. Charon Jackson, of course, has to figure out how to play defense without getting into foul trouble, and the last time we
saw him that was not working out well. He was still kind of figuring out how to do that. It all is moot without a healthy and engage and back to the job that we know and love. But we're not gonna know what they are and we're not going to know what he is until probably ten fifteen games after Christmas, and until then that means that the Memphis Grizzlies have more questions than the Bermuda Triangle