Cade Cunningham's "Weird" Feeling Is the Best Thing Memphis Heard All Week

The most revealing Grizzlies story of the past week didn't come out of Memphis. It came out of Detroit, where Cade Cunningham admitted it felt "weird" to look around a Pistons locker room and not see Isaiah Stewart — the big man Detroit sent to the Grizzlies in the six-team deal that became official in July.

Cunningham is now the longest-tenured player on a Pistons roster entering his sixth season, a title that only arrived because Stewart is gone. For Memphis, that's the point.

Memphis bought a culture, not a stat line

The Grizzlies have spent 14 months dismantling the core that made them a 50-win fixture. Desmond Bane went to Orlando for a pick-heavy package headlined by four first-rounders. Jaren Jackson Jr. was shipped to Utah for three first-round picks and a mix of players. Then, in June, Ja Morant — the franchise's defining player of the last six years — was traded to Portland for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

What's left is a 25-57 team that allowed 120.7 points per game, posted a minus-6.0 point differential, and closed last season on a 1-9 stretch with a defensive rating of 129.4 over its final ten games. FanSided's Grizzlies coverage has already framed Stewart as a potential "dream culture fit" for a rebuilding roster, and Tony Allen's public comments about the trade suggested the front office was targeting exactly that quality.

The Basketball Hall of Fame doesn't have a wing for "the guy teammates miss," but rebuilding teams need one anyway. Cunningham's candor is the closest thing to a scouting report Memphis could ask for.

Boozer is the ceiling; Stewart is the floor

The reason the culture matters is Cameron Boozer. The No. 3 overall pick out of Duke averaged 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.4 steals on .556/.391/.789 shooting as a freshman, and he arrives as the unquestioned centerpiece of the next era.

The market has noticed. At BetMGM, Boozer's Rookie of the Year price sits at +300 — an implied probability of roughly 25 percent in what was billed as a loaded draft class. His MVP price sits at +50000 and his Defensive Player of the Year price at +70000, essentially lottery tickets, which is the market's way of saying the rookie ceiling is real but distant.

A 22-10 rookie learning on a team without established veterans is how development gets ruined. A 22-10 rookie learning next to a player his teammates describe with Cunningham's tone is how it gets accelerated.

The roster math gets real this week

Memphis still has to trim to 15 before the regular season, and multiple outlets have reported the Grizzlies must cut as many as four players — a crunch that has the Bulls, Pacers and Warriors circling. The September trade that brought Jordan Hawkins and Micah Peavy from New Orleans (with second-round picks attached, for AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson) only tightened the squeeze.

Head coach Tuomas Iisalo, who took over on an interim basis in March 2025 and had the tag removed that May, enters the year with the most to prove internally. He'll have a roster that Vegas projects at 29.5 wins, a net rating that ranked 24th league-wide at minus-5.9, and a home opener on Oct. 21 against a Utah team featuring the guy Memphis traded away.

The Grizzlies aren't going to be good this season. But the week's news — a former teammate voluntarily explaining why Stewart's absence stings — is a reminder that the rebuild's foundation is being poured with the right material.