Buckets of Abundance
A roster thick with nationally acclaimed talent fuels the Memphis Tigers in year four of the Coach Hardaway Era.
By Frank Murtaugh
The cross-generational parallel is impossible to ignore. In 1990, a slender, ultra-quick, do-everything high school basketball player with national accolades chose to play his college ball in Memphis. Thirty-one years later, a slender, ultra-quick, do-everything high school basketball player with national accolades has chosen to play his college ball in Memphis. When the 2021-22 Memphis Tigers tip-off their season at FedExForum on November 9th (against Tennessee Tech), the 2020 Gatorade National Player of the Year (Emoni Bates) will be coached by the 1990 Parade National Player of the Year (Penny Hardaway). And that’s merely the headline act in what has become a star-studded Tiger roster — and coaching staff — for year four of the Coach Penny Era.
“There’s a lot more pressure on [Bates], at 17, than there was on me,” notes Hardaway in reflecting on his own first season as a Tiger. “As far as the game, he’s more of a Kevin Durant-style player. He does some things like I did. He has a high IQ. He understands the game, is very coachable, and just wants to win. We both just want to do whatever it takes to win.”
As though Bates couldn’t fill a marquee on his own, the Tigers will feature another top-five recruit in Jalen Duren, a 6’11” interior force, that rarest of jewels in modern, positionless basketball: a center. The American Athletic Conference’s preseason Rookie of the Year (as named by the league’s coaches), Duren has a wingspan of nearly seven and a half feet and averaged 14.5 points and 9.3 rebounds last winter for Montverde Academy in Florida. Best of all for Tiger fans with memories going back a dozen years, Duren chose to play for Memphis over John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats.
Hardaway embraces the challenge of doling out playing time with a loaded roster, internal competition being the greatest stimulant toward maximizing potential. “It’s really going to be chemistry over talent,” says Hardaway, “when it comes to our starting five. It will be the top nine or 10 guys [in our rotation]. We don’t have time to be playing around. The guys who are able, for a larger majority of the game, to be effective in the things we’re trying to do. It may not be the most talented [player]. It could be the guy who understands his role and stars in his role by doing all the little things.”
The Tigers Get Ready
You can be forgiven for flashbacks to this time two years ago. Hardaway’s second Tiger team suited up the nation’s top recruiting class, headlined by a pair of five-star studs: James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa. The 2019-20 season went south fast, though, when the NCAA ruled Wiseman ineligible for having received funds from Hardaway in 2017 to cover his family’s move to Memphis (where he played for Hardaway at East High School). Among the seven members of that recruiting class, precisely two remain on the Tiger roster: guard Lester Quinones and center Malcolm Dandridge (another East alum). Wiseman is now a member of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and Achiuwa, the 2019-20 AAC Player of the Year, plays for the Toronto Raptors.
Presuming — hoping? — the Tigers’ heralded class remains whole for at least the 2021-22 campaign, Hardaway will be armed with a team so deep, his only problem may be minutes-management. In addition to Bates and Duren, two four-star recruits — 6’8” forward Josh Minott and 6’11” center Sam Onu — will compete for those precious minutes. On a team of high-flying players, Minott won the team’s dunk contest at Memphis Madness on October 13th. Then there’s Johnathan Lawson, a skilled wing from Houston High School who, along with his older brother Chandler (a junior transfer from Oregon), will make it four Lawson brothers to have suited up in blue and gray at FedExForum. If you’re counting, that’s six players so far — with 200 player-minutes per game — and we haven’t introduced the Tiger veterans.
Leading those veterans — 2020 National Invitation Tournament champions, remember — will be junior guard Landers Nolley II, along with Duren, a member of the AAC’s preseason all-conference first team. In his first season with Memphis after transferring from Virginia Tech, Nolley led the Tigers in points (13.1) and minutes (27.4) per game on his way to earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the NIT. Another 2020 transfer, forward DeAndre Williams from Evansville, infused the Tigers with new energy at both ends of the floor upon gaining eligibility last December. (The Tigers started the season 4-3 and then went 16-5 with Williams in the rotation.) He was a stat-stuffer as a junior — 11.7 points per game, 5.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.2 steals — but may actually see his allotment of minutes (26.1 per game) reduced this season.
This brings us to eight players expected to make an impact on the court for Hardaway, a typical rotation number for a college-hoops team. If each player received precisely the same playing time in such a rotation, he’d spend 25 minutes per game on the floor. But the abundance of talent at Hardaway’s disposal leaves what amounts to another starting five (four veterans and yet another freshman among the country’s top 150) plus two.
The aforementioned Quinones has started 51 of 54 games over his two seasons as a Tiger and averaged 9.5 points and 5.8 rebounds a year ago (the latter figure stellar for a guard). He’ll be challenged for playing time — and possibly a starting spot — by Earl Timberlake, a sophomore transfer from the University of Miami. Timberlake struggled with injuries as a Hurricane last season but averaged 9.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in seven games.
Senior guard Tyler Harris — a transfer from Iowa State — will look familiar to Tiger fans because he played his first two college seasons for Memphis. Tennessee’s 2018 Mr. Basketball at Cordova High School, Harris is 159 points shy of 1,000 for his college career. Freshman John Camden, like Harris, will provide a three-point threat off Hardaway’s bench, while Dandridge (6’9” and 250 pounds) will spell Duren and/or Onu inside. And don’t discount Hardaway’s son, Jayden. The coach hasn’t been timid about describing his junior swingman as the team’s most improved player.
Finally, there’s Alex Lomax, the lone four-year senior on the Tigers’ roster. A two-time Tennessee Mr. Basketball at East High School, Lomax will be playing his 12th season for Hardaway, having first suited up for the coach as a 5th-grader. (He will appropriately become the first college player to spend four years under Hardaway’s watch.) Lomax hasn’t just been shaped as a player — and young man — by Hardaway. “A-Lo” has been molded into a do-what’s-needed, defense-first guard as comfortable off the ball as he is starting the offensive attack at point guard. Lomax’s senior season may be both rewarding and challenging. He’s yet to play in the NCAA tournament, but he may find it hard to match the 22 minutes of playing time he’s averaged over his first three seasons as a Tiger. Lomax led Memphis with 4.2 assists per game coming off the bench last season.
“For A-Lo, it’s the leadership role,” stresses Hardaway. “Understanding everything we’re trying to do, on both sides of the ball. Every day. And holding other guys accountable for understanding the same things. The more guys we have on the same page, the better we’re going to be. He knows what we want, what we need.”
Fifteen players expecting to make an impact with only 200 minutes per game for Hardaway to distribute. Abundance is healthy, right? The Tigers will start the season ranked 12th in the Associated Press poll. AAC coaches picked them to finish second behind Houston (a 2021 Final Four team). And speaking of coaches, Hardaway has a Hall of Famer (Larry Brown) and an NBA champion as a player (Rasheed Wallace) on his staff to help steer this team to a finish as memorable as the preseason projections suggest. Neither Brown nor Wallace came to Memphis to finish second in the AAC. They came here to teach the game of basketball, and Penny Hardaway has packed the classroom with students.
“I don’t really have expectations, with [so many] freshmen playing,” emphasizes Hardaway. “I just want to see how they respond to the teaching.”
All Heart in Hoop City
We ask four questions about the next season for Hoop City’s hungriest team.
By Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer
After overcoming all odds and outperforming expectations while facing adversity, the Memphis Grizzlies have written a fascinating story about their ability to overachieve. Coming off their first playoff berth since 2017, the young guns are still hungrier than ever.
The loss to the Utah Jazz in the first round last season served as a motivation for this young team, which will face a tough uphill struggle in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies have four questions to be answered heading into the 2021-22 season, and the Flyer’s special Grizzlies correspondents Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer will examine them.
What do you feel are the most pressing questions for the Memphis Grizzlies heading into the upcoming season?
Sharon Brown: There was a general belief among the players following their playoff series against the Jazz that they’d return to the postseason. The organization does not have a win-now mentality, but the players are confident that they can compete with any team in the league and will not back down from a challenge.
The most pressing questions for me right now are: Can they live up to expectations, whether they will take a step back and finish at the bottom of the league, and will they be able to stay healthy?
Aimee Stiegemeyer: We are heading into year three of a complete roster rebuild, and over that time, the Grizzlies have become a team that has consistently exceeded the expectations placed upon them. Now that they have one playoff series under their belt, they are going to be hungry for more.
The ceiling for this team keeps getting higher every year and ultimately the limit for a squad led by Ja Morant is nothing less than an NBA championship — it’s not a matter of if at this point, it’s a matter of when.
All that being said — for me the most pressing questions for the Grizzlies to answer this season will be whether or not last season’s success was just a fluke, and if not, can they continue playing at the level they were on last year? Will this be the year the young core makes the leap from up-and-coming team to keep an eye on and moves on to being a Real Problem for other teams around the league?
What should fans be most excited about as the new season begins?
SB: The Memphis Grizzlies have never had a player as talented as Temetrius Jamel Morant, better known by his nickname, Ja. With his jaw-dropping, “WTF?!”-inducing, and “how did he do that?”-inspiring plays, he should be on everyone’s watch list every game. Morant definitely is must-see TV.
With his ability to slide through defenses with ease and linger in the air while contemplating his next play, Morant is a legit threat on the offensive end. What happens next will almost certainly cause you to stand up and leave your seat!
Fans should be enthusiastic about the season just because of Morant, but his teammates can also be entertaining to watch as well. Will he become an All-Star, or will he become a serious MVP candidate?
AS: The continued evolution and growth of Morant, the return of Jaren Jackson Jr., and a healthy Brandon Clarke.
Morant is everything that the team needed Mike Conley to be and more. Full stop. Memphis has never had a player of his caliber, and if we are ever going to raise a championship banner in the Grindhouse, it will come on the shoulders of Morant with Jackson Jr.
Both Jackson Jr. and Clarke struggled during the 2020-21 season to return to true form after injuries. If healthy, expect to see Jackson Jr. looking like he did during the Bubble in 2020, and Clarke to look more like he did in his rookie year.
Another exciting thing for fans is the safer return of live basketball. FedExForum announced that they would be requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to attend Grizzlies and Tigers games this season, which is fantastic news.
In Jaren Jackson Jr.’s fourth season, what should be expected of him?
SB: For the Grizzlies, having Jackson Jr. in good health is beneficial on both ends of the court.
Some people have negative opinions of Jackson Jr. since he has a history of injuries, but he was named the most likely to have a breakout season in the annual NBA general managers preseason survey.
In addition to having elite-level attributes, his ability to stay on the court is critical for the team to have a high chance of winning. With that considered, he must avoid getting himself into foul trouble.
However, Taylor Jenkins must better position Jackson for him to be successful on offense. There should be specific set plays designated for him on offense to get him going. My expectation is for him to have a breakout year to complement Morant to be the one-two punch the Grizzlies front office envisioned. He put in the effort during the off-season to improve his game.
AS: With the departure of Jonas Valanciunas this summer, there is no question he’s going to have some big shoes to fill offensively.
Jackson Jr. needs to be more aggressive on collecting rebounds, and he needs to do it while staying out of foul trouble, which is easier said than done.
But if he is going to eventually take on the role of starting center, he’s going to have to avoid getting benched with too many fouls during crunch time.
Rebounding and avoiding foul trouble are probably the two most important areas of growth for him this season, but becoming an above-average shooter from behind the three-point line would be a welcome bonus.
Which player on the squad, excluding Ja Morant and Jackson Jr., will have a breakout season for Memphis?
SB: My pick is Desmond Bane. During his first season, the only thing he was known for was his ability to catch and shoot from beyond the arc. According to my observations, his confidence can be traced back to Game 1 of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz, when he exchanged words with Georges Niang after scoring a three-pointer at the buzzer.
As the Grizzlies’ point guard in Summer League, Bane acquired greater confidence in his abilities. He was both producing his own shots at the rim and creating shots for his teammates. That same confidence has carried over into the new season.
Bane, along with De’Anthony Melton, will have more time on the court since Grayson Allen was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in the off-season.
AS: I’m going to have to pick two because they appear to be improving in tandem — Desmond Bane and De’Anthony Melton. The season is only a few games old, but Bane and Melton’s respective elevation into the starting lineup has thus far allowed them to thrive in a way they weren’t able to off the bench.
Melton has earned his Mr. Do Something nickname by consistently coming up big for the Grizzlies when they need it most; Bane has shown talent and drive that is above and beyond what is to be expected from a player with only one year in the league.
