Last-Minute News, Rumours, Reports before Toronto Raptors vs Memphis Grizzlies Game

This summer, the Memphis Grizzlies traded away John Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers and didn't get back a single pick. And by this time, Jaren Jackson Jr. was already gone as he was traded away to the Utah Jazz in February. And let me remind you, this is a team that won 25 games last season that were coming into this year without their two biggest names. And basically everyone wrote them off coming into this year. But even with all that, They opened the season 6-0, had six straight wins, scoring more points than any other team in the NBA at 121 points a night. They started off the season shocking everyone. However, they have not won since. They're currently on a three-game losing streak and coming into Toronto very, very motivated. So they're coming in and facing the Toronto Raptors who beat the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night without Scottie Barnes, Kawhi Leonard, or Emmanuel Quickly. So there's really two things the Toronto Raptors are looking at right now coming into this game. Are the Memphis Grizzlies a real team that caused a real threat to teams across the NBA? Also, how's the injury situation looking? As it was a mess last week, and the Toronto Raptors are going to be hard-pressed to continue to scrape out victories with all the guys they have out of the lineup. And looking at the Milwaukee game, there's reasons not to panic coming into Monday. Toronto was down 3 starters and still won that game by 14 points, finishing it off with a 121-107 victory. Elijah Martin was the star for this team as he scored 27 points, and before that night, his career high was just 9. In his first 7 games this season, he had 23 total points and never played more than 16 minutes in a game. With all the injuries in Milwaukee, he ended up getting 31 minutes, made 6 threes after making 2 just all season. Darko gave the guy at the end of the bench real minutes and he ended up carrying the offense. Those are the types of nights that will adjust a coach's rotation, especially while injuries continue to pile up for this team. And it wasn't just him out there on Friday. Jamal Murray, the whole offense by himself, it felt like having 16 assists and beating his career best by two. Before that night, he hadn't had more than eight assists in the game so far this season. So he leveled up his playmaking when it was called upon him. He played 34 minutes the first time all year. He's gone past 25. With Emmanuel quickly out, nobody else on this roster is really in a position to run the offense the way Jamal Murray does. Match Martin out there on Friday, putting in 27 points himself, but that isn't new. We've seen R.J. Barrett level up this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball. He scored 20 or more points in eight of the nine Toronto Raptors games this season, and he's currently averaging 21.6 points a night. So when everyone's been in and out, Performing well, performing bad, RJ's been the one constant out there on this team. But even though there were some positives, especially in the second half against the Bucks, that was a really ugly road trip the Toronto Raptors just went on. Two nights before Milwaukee, the Denver Nuggets won the third quarter in Denver 41-15 and blew that game wide open. They got smoked by the Lakers, they barely clawed it back against the LA Clippers, and they had a really bad first half against the Bucks. But nonetheless, they finished that road trip 2-2, and now they come home with help. On the way, we got some good news out there on the injury front as Scotty Barnes and Emmanuel quickly both practice on Sunday and is listed as questionable for Monday. So no guarantees that they play, but we did get a solid vision of what this team can look like being effective on the offensive end without them on the court. So everything should be in pretty good shape going to the Grizzlies, no matter if they're on the court or not. Kawhi Leonard is also still out, and the team said his left knee would be evaluated about a week after his treatment ended on November 3rd. Grange affirmed that we should be getting an update on either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. But obviously, the Raptors are familiar without playing with Kawhi Leonard, as he's only played in two games so far this season. The last one was on October 23rd in Washington. The Raptors are 2-0 when he plays, and 3-4 when he doesn't. So we're all eagerly waiting for Kawhi Leonard to make his return. I mean, Darko was saying it out there on the road trip, even on the win that we had against the Los Angeles Clippers. Darko said they miss him everywhere. Defense, offense, shot creation, and the calm that he brings. He also said Kawhi is only starting his season with this group, and there's going to be a period of time of him adjusting to this team. But regardless of all that, Immanuel Quickley coming back will be important for this squad. As you can say what you want about Immanuel Quickley's shot selection, He's elevating his team. Scottie Barnes' true shooting is 57 with Immanuel Quickley on the court and 42% when he sits. And he did have a good game last week. In the Clippers' win, Immanuel Quickley scored 27 and RJ Barrett added 26 as well. And obviously, the Toronto Raptors end up getting the win in that game. See, Jamal Shead does a good job facilitating and getting the ball in the hands of these different players. But even though I think Shead is a better playmaker than Immanuel Quickley, Quickley's three-point shooting It does have an impact in terms of opening up the floors for players like Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and these different guys. So as frustrating as he may be at times, he's still an extremely valuable piece to have out there on the court. I talked about how Scottie Barnes' game ends up leveling up with IQ out there on the court, and he was playing really well before that groin flared up. He had 54% from the field over his last five games, which is up from 35% in the games before that. So both those guys play out there on Monday. Darko Rajaković has a good problem to have as Shedd and Elijah Martin, of course, end up earning a ton of minutes with their performances out there in Milwaukee. But you're not going to sit the starters. You're not going to sit those top guys. Be really interesting to see how those rotations end up playing out. And Memphis is a real test for this Raptors team coming into Monday because they are a squad that's not a pushover like they were last season. As I mentioned at the jump, their star players, their top guys end up getting dealt away over the past year as Ja Morant was sent to the Portland Trail Blazers in return for Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray. And that was a pure salary dump, at least the Ja Morant trade was, as Jeremy Grant has not been ultra effective for this team. He's making $34.2 million this year, has a $37.2 million player option for next season. And while Ja Morant, for all of his flaws, you know, his struggles, All this stuff out there on the court. He was the face of this team, and Jeremy Grant certainly has not been that guy for the Grizzlies. Then they also made the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade, as Utah brought back three first-round picks, GG Jackson, Kyle Anderson, Walter Clayton Jr., as well as Taylor Hendricks. So again, you see in these two packages, no major big names coming back to the Grizzlies, which made people feel like the Memphis Grizzlies are in a complete teardown entering this year. But then after all those moves, Ty Jerome ended up turning the Grizzlies into his team. Cleveland let him walk in the summer of 2025 after he was the Sixth Man of the Year finalist, and Memphis signed him to a three-year $28 million deal. And that contract looks like a steal right now. And I just want to say. At the time, I was baffled that the Cleveland Cavaliers not just let Ty Jerome walk, but made the decision to bring in Lonzo Ball over Ty Jerome and just made that choice out there overtly. They traded a pick for Lonzo Ball and then let Ty Jerome go out, and frankly, that was a baffling decision then, and now he's making it look even more bad. He dealt with a ton of injuries last year, so no one really got a good taste for what he was as a basketball player out there, Memphis at least, but he opened the season with 45 points against the Utah Jazz and won Western Conference Player of the Week. Obviously, he's cooled off from his lucrative nights he had very early on in the season, but is still putting up remarkable stats for the Grizzlies and a very effective point guard out there for this group. Next to him, you have the number three pick in this year's NBA draft, as Cameron Boozer has already shown he's an NBA level. talent, and it's going to be really, really good out there in the future. He's already had a triple-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds and 12 assists, and he did it in Portland against Ja Morant's new team. As is the case, it feels like with the Memphis Grizzlies every season, their bench is loaded. I mean, they let Walter Clayton Jr. walk for, he ended up landing with the Mavericks, and that was a huge pickup, but there's a lot of guys out there on this squad that have just been really, really good for Memphis. One game of the season where Ty Jerome was out, the bench ended up scoring 81 points. Also, this is a team that knocks down the three-point shot. Going into November, they were 41.6% of their threes are obviously being hit, which is, of course, the best in the NBA. And when a young team is shooting as well as they have been out there in Memphis, the Toronto Raptors have to be very, very wary of leaving those shooters open because one quarter can really kill you, as we saw last week. Now, their coach came out and directly said, That celebrating too early during their six game win streak to start off the year is recipe for disaster, and some might say that is what's been happening out there in Memphis. They've now had three straight losses, and it looks like you may have saw something coming out there on that road, but you can look closer and see who they beat and get the real story on the Grizzlies. The six wins to start off the year came against Utah twice, Sacramento twice, Golden State, and Portland. Of course, Golden State's been very solid this season. The Portland Trail Blazers, I think, have been shocking a lot of people with how they've been performing, but nonetheless, the schedule ended up getting tougher, and the Grizzlies' momentum did halt a little bit. The New Orleans Pelicans beat them in overtime by just one point, and even after a 40-piece from Ty Jerome. Then, Indiana beat them 107-103, and Cedric Coward scored 23 points in that game, and it still wasn't enough. Oklahoma City came into their building won by 31 points, 128 to 97, and we all know the injuries that the Oklahoma City Thunder have sustained. So their scoring definitely cooled off. As we mentioned at the start of the season, they were averaging 121 points a game. Then in their last two, they scored 103 and then 97. So right now they have a six and three record and are currently seventh place in the Western Conference. It should be noted that they have lost three straight All at home, and they're still undefeated out there on the road. So this is a team that's coming into Toronto, playing on the road once again, and they're currently undefeated. But nonetheless, nine games is an extremely small sample size for the Grizzlies as well as the Toronto Raptors. And Toronto is 5-4 on the season, 6th in the Eastern Conference, and played seven of those games without their best player, Kawhi Leonard. Or arguably their best player, Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, whatever you want to say. At home, the Toronto Raptors are 2-1, and on Monday, it's their first game back in Toronto in over a week. Also, one thing to note, if you are enjoying all the videos we're creating out here on Raptors Digest, these game previews, the trade updates, all of the news, the watch logs, make sure you guys hit that subscribe button if you haven't just yet. The button's free, it's down below, and you won't miss a single thing that's going on with this Toronto Raptors squad. Now, Toronto's owned this matchup against the Grizzlies, and it was especially bad last season. The Raptors swept Memphis last year, going 2-0, and in Toronto, RJ Barrett scored 27 points in a 117-104 victory. And obviously, RJ Barrett's been just as hot this season, so regardless if Scottie Barnes' IQ are out there on the court, they are going to be dialed in out there on RJ. Then they played in Memphis in April, and the Raptors won 128-96, which was the biggest win the Raptors have ever had over the Memphis Grizzlies. Obviously, this is a completely different team heading into this year, so it's tough to look at the matchups and the records and all of that for last season coming into this one. But what does carry over is, of course, RJ Barrett and his scoring ability, and also how the Toronto Raptors push the pace against a young Memphis team. But realistically, there's going to be three things that decide this one. The first one is the guy that's been deciding a lot of those Memphis Grizzlies games this season, and that is Ty Jerome. He said he was having a hot start to the year and the numbers almost feel fake. He's averaging 26.6 points per game and he scored at least 21 points in every one of those three losses. So win or lose, Ty Jerome's actually been very effective for the Grizzlies, but they have to make sure that he's not getting free reign and getting extremely hot to the point where you can't slow him down and then obviously shutting down other people. So with Emmanuel quickly questionable, there's a lot of onus on Jamal Shead, on Jacoby Walter, on Elijah Martin. to come out and guard Ty Jerome when they're matched up against him on the court. And if Quigley's healthy, he'd better be able to defend. Second part of this game that's going to be extremely important is protecting the paint. Canadian Zach Edey is blocking 1.4 shots a game. So the drives have worked against the Milwaukee Bucks. It will get a lot harder against the Memphis Grizzlies. Obviously, the Bucks did have Miles Turner, who's a good rim protector himself. But I think he's one of the more overrated centers out there in the league. But I digress. However, we are definitely going to need another big game out of Jakob Purtyell, who did put in 19 and 11 against the Milwaukee Bucks, playing the one of the best, at least halves of the season was ugly and bad out there in the first half. And the second half did play with the next level of energy that I just haven't seen from Jakob Purtyell, probably in a year and a half. Edey doesn't put up an insane stat line, just averaging 8 points and 8 rebounds a game, but he changes every shot near the rim, and if you don't game plan for him, if the Raptors run some micro small ball lineup, we're going to see the Zach Edey of Purdue come out and just cook the Toronto Raptors. So let's make sure that that does not happen. So Jakob also has to be very effective out there as a screener to pull Zach Edey away from the basket and allow the Toronto Raptors to open up more driving lane. And then finally... The other big key, and we talked about it, is whether or not the Raptors players are going to play. Scottie Barnes especially, as he's averaged 7.8 assists per game in his career against the Memphis Grizzlies. So strategically, they come out and try to prevent Scottie Barnes from scoring on his own in his own right. But he does a good job at picking the defense apart with his passing. And that's something I'm going to keep my eye out for in this game. So, we're looking for a big night from Scottie Barnes, not just as a scorer, but also as a playmaker, especially with Kawhi out, but if Scottie does sit, then a lot of that onus is going to be on Colin Murray-Boyles, who will probably get the start once again. It'll be a very fun matchup going up against Cam Boozer, who can beat you as a scorer or as a passer, and has been really, really good, even though he's a rookie. There's one reason why this game is especially important for the Toronto Raptors. After this game, the Toronto Raptors are facing up against Boston at home on Wednesday. Then they fly to Philadelphia for the second night of a back-to-back. Then the NBA champion, New York Knicks, come to Toronto twice on November 15th and November 17th. And if you haven't been looking at the records of those teams the Toronto Raptors are facing up against, it is going to be difficult to get wins. They need to perform very, very well against those squads in order to pull out dubs. Last season, Boston won 56 games, the Knicks won 53 and an NBA championship, and Philadelphia won 45, and they're currently at the top of the Eastern Conference, adding LeBron James out there to this team in the offseason, and Jalen Brown. So that's four straight games against elite teams in the Eastern Conference that you're going to be jockeying for position for out there come postseason time that you want to get an early jump on in the standings. Now, hopefully Kawhi Leonard will be back for some of these games coming up. But you are facing against a Memphis Grizzlies team right now that, of course, I don't want to overlook the Grizzlies. I don't want to look past them by any stretch of the imagination. But. They've lost three straight. They aren't the level of talent. They don't have the level of players that the Sixers do, the Celtics do, the Knicks do. And you need to get this win to build some momentum going into that bloodbath of a schedule that they have for middle November. They need to come into it with some wins, with some confidence, and a little bit of swagger so they don't come out and, you know. Build off of the disappointing road trip that they just had and get some wins. The Toronto Raptors need some wins right now. You don't want to fall behind the Knicks, the Celtics, the Sixers out there in the standings this early on in the year. So again, if we're making predictions, I'm hopeful I'm... I predict in every single one of these previews the Toronto Raptors are going to win, so it's not really a novel idea, but the Raptors are coming in after a tough road trip at home. The Grizzlies are on a little bit of a skid right now. They need to, right from the jump, settle this game. You don't want the Grizzlies to get hot. You don't want Ty Jerome to get hot, Cam Boozer to start rocking. You don't want Zach Eady to bully you in the paint. You don't want Cedric Coward to come out and dominate your squad. The Raptors need to set the tone early and establish dominance. Regardless of Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett, well, R.J. Barrett's going to play Emmanuel quickly. Kawhi Leonard are out there on the court. You need to get this W. So we'll be on the lookout for Scottie Barnes, Emmanuel quickly out there to shoot around this morning. Hopefully news comes out by the time this video is out. But let me know what you guys think in the comment section down below. Who do you think is going to win the Toronto Raptors, the Memphis Grizzlies? Comment down below. If you want to stay up to date on all the latest news regarding trade updates, check out this video right here.