Memphis Just Showed Us Both Halves of a Rebuild in One Week

The Memphis Grizzlies entered the 2026-27 preseason as the most thoroughly remade team in the Western Conference. Ja Morant is gone to Portland. Jaren Jackson Jr. is gone to Utah. Cameron Boozer, the No. 3 pick out of Duke, is now the face of the franchise. Within seven days, that new identity produced both a reason for optimism and a reminder of how unforgiving a rebuild can be.

Start with the good. In Monday's preseason opener at Atlanta, Memphis beat the Hawks 132-123, and the Grizzlies dropped 49 points in the second quarter alone — the kind of scoring burst that makes you look twice at a box score in October. Boozer gave the game its signature moment, hitting a fadeaway jumper from the left side for his first career preseason bucket, and the broader reviews of his debut were as positive as a rookie could hope for.

That tracks with everything that leaked out of Memphis over the past few weeks. Teammates have praised Boozer's maturity since training camp opened, and he's spent the run-up to the season openly crediting advice from his father, Carlos. For a team that traded away two cornerstones in a single offseason, having the new centerpiece look immediately comfortable matters. It validates the direction, even if it doesn't yet say anything about wins.

The second half of the week's news was less romantic. On October 3, Memphis waived Jordan Hawkins — a former 2023 lottery pick the Grizzlies had acquired from New Orleans less than a month earlier, on September 8, in a deal that sent AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson to the Pelicans. ESPN framed it as a mutual parting of the ways, driven by a roster crunch. Whatever the spin, the sequence is stark: trade for a shooter, then release him before he plays a regular-season game for you. That's what a front office does when it's prioritizing flexibility over the back end of the rotation.

Then there's the piece that quietly ties the whole thing together: Zach Edey. The big man's ankle has been the central subplot of his young career — a re-sprain, surgery, a stress reaction, another procedure in March, and just 11 games played in 2025-26 before he was shut down. In those 11 games he averaged 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in only 25.8 minutes, which is exactly why the "dream update" headlines about his health carried weight. Edey has also been direct about the doubters. A healthy Edey next to Boozer gives Memphis a frontcourt pairing with real theoretical value, and it's the single biggest swing factor in whether this team outperforms its modest expectations.

Context is required, though. Last season the Grizzlies went 25-57, were outscored by nearly 500 points across the full schedule, and finished the year with a defensive rating that belonged nowhere near contention. Power-rating models placed them 28th, and the season futures market pegs their win total at 29.5 — a number that tells you the industry broadly expects another difficult year. That's the honest baseline. This is not a team one good preseason quarter turns into a playoff threat.

What this week actually established is narrower and more useful: Memphis has a coherent plan. Draft the best player available, develop him alongside a healthy Edey, and churn the back of the roster without sentiment when a crunch arrives. The Hawkins waiver wasn't a failure so much as an admission that the front office would rather keep optionality than a redundant guard.

The Grizzlies host Orlando on Wednesday before preseason dates with Chicago and Charlotte, then open the real season October 21 against Utah — the very team that took Jackson off their hands. By then, the question won't be whether Boozer and Edey look promising. It'll be whether a 25-win roster has actually closed any of the gap.