Memphis Grizzlies Hold Training Camp at Belmont
For the second year in a row, Belmont is hosting the Memphis Grizzlies’ preseason training camp at the Crockett Center for Athletic Excellence.
The Grizzlies will be on campus for training camp Tuesday through Friday, return to Memphis for an open practice at the FedExForum on Sunday, and travel to Atlanta for their opening NBA preseason game against the Hawks on Monday.
The Grizzlies will look to improve upon a 25-57 season in Tuomas Iisalo’s first full season as head coach with a training camp roster featuring 12 players who weren’t at camp last year.
Iisalo compared joining a new team to “learning a new language,” as he talked about getting new players up to speed on how the Grizzlies run things.
“You might have been successful in another place playing basketball a certain way, and I might have been, but for them to work, we have to find common ground, certain shared behaviors on the court, which is our idea of speaking a common language on the floor,” Iisalo said.
After trading away former franchise cornerstones Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant, there are no holdovers from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, when the Grizzlies won a combined 107 games and earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference both years.
That leaves the Grizzlies’ recent third overall pick Cameron Boozer as the de facto face of the franchise.
At just 19 years old, Boozer is the youngest player in the NBA, but in addition to his coaches and teammates, he’ll have someone else to ease his transition to the pros: his father, 13-year NBA veteran and two-time NBA All-Star, Carlos Boozer.
“I got a staff here for a reason. I'm obedient to them,” said Cameron Boozer. “But you know, guys like my dad, other people I've known my whole life – I'm always gonna reach out if I need them.”
Boozer will be joined by 23-year-old shooting guard Cedric Coward and 24-year-old 7-foot-3-inch center Zach Edey, both of whom finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting over the last two seasons to form one of the youngest cores in the league.
After playing only 11 games last year due to an injury to his surgically repaired left ankle, Edey is in what Iisalo described as “ramp-up phase two,” and not yet cleared for two-a-day practices.
But Edey’s ankle was just a microcosm of the health issues that plagued the Grizzlies last season.
Their 48 different starting lineups represented the most in the NBA, their 33 different players who appeared in a game tied an NBA record, their 29 different starters set a league record and their 564 total games lost due to injury or illness set an NBA record.
“The biggest difference for us is the health situation at this moment,” Iisalo said. “Last year we had a lot of injuries going into the season, and our bigs and our point guards, really the players who give a lot of structure to the game, were missing.”
“This year we're in a much more fortunate situation, which I would hope helps us in the preparation,” Iisalo said.
Another Grizzly looking to bounce back from injury is Scotty Pippen Jr., who underwent season-ending toe surgery on both feet after just 10 games.
“I feel good. It's probably the best I've felt since I've been in the league. You know, coming into the league, I was hurt then. My foot's been bugging me since then, so it's the first time I've felt healthy and good,” Pippen Jr. said.
After playing collegiately at Vanderbilt for three seasons, Pippen Jr. is no stranger to Nashville. But training camp marked the first trip to Nashville for Boozer, who luckily recognized a familiar face at Belmont.
Belmont’s men’s basketball head coach Evan Bradds’ one year as an assistant coach at Duke coincided with Boozer’s lone year there as Boozer’s position coach and the team’s offensive coordinator.
“He's really seen it all. So he was a great guy to just pick his mind, and we could talk basketball for hours,” Boozer said.
While this was Boozer’s first trip to Nashville, it might not be his last.
In April, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, then with the Los Angeles Lakers, advocated for the Grizzlies to leave Memphis and play in Nashville instead.
“I’m not the first guy to even talk about it in the NBA. We’re all like, ‘You guys have to move. Just go over to Nashville.’ You got Vanderbilt over there. You got the f‑‑‑ing NASCAR. It’s got everything,” James said while playing golf on the YouTube channel “Bob Does Sports.”
Soon after, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said there were no plans to move the Grizzlies to Nashville, but he left the door open for the Grizzlies to play games there going forward.
“I think Nashville is a city on the rise,” Silver said on the “Pardon My Take” podcast. “There's incredible things happening there. You know, if it were up to me, I'd love for them to play a few games a year in Nashville and sort of be Tennessee's team to the extent they can.”
This article was written by Sam Dicus
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