SALT LAKE CITY – With experience from 50 games against some of the NBA’s elite players behind him, Grizzlies forward GG Jackson was a fast learner during his rapidly developing rookie season.
Promoted from the G League’s Memphis Hustle midway through last season, Jackson needed just three months to etch his name onto the NBA’s All-Rookie squad as a second-team selection.
Not bad, considering it was a rigorous crash course at the time for the NBA’s youngest player, who didn’t turn 19 until last December. But perhaps the most impressive thing about Jackson’s performance in his first season was how disappointed he was to see it end.
And how thrilled he was after learning how soon the schooling would continue in the summer.
“I can’t wait,” Jackson said recently. “There’s so much to work on. So much I can do to get better and hopefully help my team. Any chance I can get better, I’ll take it. For sure.”
Another development window is set to open as Jackson takes on more of a leadership role guiding the Grizzlies’ summer league teams. The 6-foot-9 versatile swingman highlights the team’s young roster players, rookies and aspiring prospects who begin this week in the Salt Lake City Summer League before moving on to Las Vegas for the NBA 2K25 Summer League.
The Grizzlies will play three games in as many days at the four-team Salt Lake City Summer League, starting with Monday’s debut against the host Jazz. Memphis then travels to Las Vegas, where all 30 NBA teams will play at least five games over 10 days in tournament-style action.
This summer’s slate gives Jackson a chance to build on a breakout rookie season, when the No. 45 overall pick took advantaged of extended playing time due to several injuries to key veterans.
July also marks the debut of the Grizzlies’ 2024 draft class, featuring No. 9 lottery pick in center Zach Edey, No. 39 pick in forward Jaylen Wells and No. 53 pick in guard Cam Spencer. The summer league roster includes second-year players in guard Scotty Pippen Jr. and center Trey Jemison, who played a combined 44 NBA games last season on Two-Way development deals.
Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins pointed to the collective experience and accomplishments of the newcomers as he laid out expectations for the summer league assignments.
The 7-foot-4 Edey was one of the rare players in history to win consecutive National Player of the Year honors in college, where he guided Purdue to the NCAA Tournament title game. There, Edey lost to Spencer’s UCONN team that won its second consecutive national championship.
Whereas Edey adds the size and interior production the Grizzlies prioritized in the draft, Spencer and Wells should provide the outside shooting Memphis also covets. Both ranked among the NCAA’s leaders in 3-point accuracy last season, when they each shot over 42-percent from long range. Wells did his work at Washington State after transferring from Division II Sonoma State.
“The first thing when you look at all three of these men, (you see) winners,” Jenkins said of the rookies. “That’s the thing we’ve constantly tried to prioritize – not just the makeup of the player, but also the person. As we’ve gotten to know all three of these guys (in the draft/scouting process) it came across that these are three individuals we definitely have to add to our group.”
Jenkins is confident Edey, Wells and Spencer all possess specific qualities the team prioritizes with incoming prospects. First impressions have been remarkable, so far.
Preferring to grow acclimated immediately with the Grizzlies for short and long-term success, Edey already sacrificed his spot on the Canadian national team preparing for the Paris Olympics. Born to parents of Canadian and Chinese descent, Edey has been in Team Canada’s pipeline since his freshman year at Purdue.
“For this to be the year I have to miss out is tough,” Edey said in a Grind City Media appearance on The Gary Parrish Show. “But it’s a decision I felt I had to make, just for myself and to put myself in the best position to help the Grizzlies on opening night. I take that super seriously.”
Edey’s mission is to use summer league to take initial steps toward a major role in the Grizzlies’ rotation next season, perhaps even as the starting center to fill the team’s biggest void.
While there have been skeptics who question if Edey’s size and mobility will allow him to be effective in the pace-and-space NBA, he points to his track record of dominant production.
“It’s kind of expected now – I would be uncomfortable if people weren’t doubting me,” Edey insisted. “It’s just been part of it, part of my life and in college. I can’t tell you why people keep doing it, but they keep doing it. And it keeps working out for me.”
Edey’s goal right now is to “just get comfortable” in building a firm foundation in Memphis.
That’s the case for Wells and Spencer, too, as they look to continue the Grizzlies’ recent trend of second-round picks who developed into promising rotation pieces. It happened with former Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks seven years ago.
It happened again with Vince Williams Jr., who two years ago was taken with the No. 47 pick and worked his way into signing a four-year contract midway through last season.
And the most current example is Jackson, who ranked fourth among all NBA rookies in scoring last season at 14.6 points per game and scored 20 or more points on 12 occasions.
So the expectation is simple from the start for the incoming Grizzlies, who went through their initial summer league camp workouts just days after arriving from the draft last week.
“It was a little bit different than I was doing in college,” Wells said of the intensity of his first NBA practice with the Grizzlies. “They want me to compete. They’re really big on just bringing the energy on everything you do. So as long as I go out there and bring the energy, paying attention and learning, soaking in everything, I think I’ll be alright.”
If there’s any doubt about that, just ask Jackson.
He made the adjustment by taking a sponge-like approach.
That mentality got Jackson through his rookie season, when he often sat courtside after his own workouts to watch NBA superstars push through their pregame routines.
“I would stay out there and catch Kawhi (Leonard), Paul George, Dame (Lillard), Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and Brandon Ingram, those guys,” Jackson shared. “Out there, it’s just like it’s only them and the basketball. They literally replicate what they did in pregame when they get in the game. It’s like they know in warmups they’re going to get to their moves in the game.”
Jackson allowed that to sink in, then continued.
“I feel like every player should want to get to that level,” he surmised.
For Jackson and the newest Grizzlies, that’s why the schooling never stops.
There’s always opportunity for improvement.
Especially in the summer.