After many years of players going west from Memphis to the Los Angeles, have the tables turned between the Lakers and Grizzlies?
Years ago, our former fearless leader Harrison Faigen penned a piece pointing out the Grizzlies had become the Lakers feeder team.
At that time, the Lakers had seen four players go from the Midwest to SoCal, including Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard on the title-winning team in 2019-20 (and technically Dion Waiters, though he barely played for the purple and gold).
Perhaps the reason the Lakers stopped winning titles is they stopped taking players from Memphis, but I digress.
It was a good running bit for years, but now, the tables have flipped. While the Grizzlies aren’t taking role players in the middle or latter stages of their career, they are taking young players potentially developing into something.
Let’s go chronologically and start with perhaps the most relevant player in Scotty Pippen Jr. The young guard spent a season as a two-way player for the Lakers and was underwhelming.
He was not signed as a two-way player the following season, but returned to the team on an Exhibit-10 deal before playing with the South Bay Lakers for the 2023-24 season. However, midway through the season, Pippen was plucked up by the Grizzlies on a two-way deal.
Given a lot more playing time and a lot more freedom to figure some things out, Pippen flourished for a fledgling Memphis team in the second half of last season. Over the offseason, his contract was converted from a two-way to a standard deal.
This season, Pippen has taken a reserve role and is still finding success, averaging 9.8 points on 41.7% shooting from the 3-point line. For what it’s worth, he only shot 33.3% from range for the Lakers and 36.2% from range with South Bay.
As a brief aside, Pippen helped the Grizzlies to a win over the Bucks on Thursday, scoring 16 points off the bench. After the game, he was the latest Lakers, current or former, to throw shade at Darvin Ham.
Scotty Pippen Jr. was one of the players who guarded Dame the most tonight. He said he “definitely” took that matchup personal. Why?
“One of the coaches over there didn’t believe in me so I definitely wanted to show I can play some defense.”
I’ll let you solve the puzzle. https://t.co/wFg1ugOIXv
— Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) November 1, 2024
But back to the point. Also in the Grizzlies rotation this season is Jay Huff, the team’s backup center. That one is a bit more of a deep cut for Lakers fans as he has had a very circuitous route to Memphis.
Back in 2021-22, Huff signed a two-way deal after being an undrafted free agent. However, with all sorts of injuries and a COVID outbreak that season, the Lakers’ roster was constantly shifting and Huff was waived in January of that season.
For the next year, Huff stayed with the South Bay Lakers and looked decent, averaging 16.3 points and 7.7 rebounds in the 2022-23 season across 18 games. He would eventually sign a two-way deal with the Wizards.
Huff bounced around a bit from there, playing seven games with Washington and 10 in the G League the remainder of that ‘22-23 season. He would then play with the Rockets Summer League team before joining the Nuggets on a two-way deal for the 2023-24 campaign.
Over the summer, he also joined the Grizzlies on a two-way deal before agreeing to a multi-year contract after impressing to start the year.
The most recent player to make the jump was Colin Castleton. After being waived by the Lakers to keep preseason standout Quincy Olivari, Castleton took the open two-way spot created by Huff’s signing.
By my math, Castleton and Huff should be taking the league by storm sometime around mid-January.
While I would say that each departure had a rationale behind it and, in a vacuum, the Lakers parting ways with each made sense, the Grizzlies reaping all the rewards is a tough one to swallow. But as they say, you either die the champion or live long enough to become the feeder.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.