The Grizzlies didn’t trade for Steven Adams because they thought he was an upgrade on Jonas Valanciunas. And the Pelicans didn’t trade for Valanciunas because they were desperate for a bit of what JV had to offer. That trade for the Grizz was about moving up in the draft (to select Ziaire Williams at tenth overall) and for the Pels it was about cap flexibility and getting past a misguided bit of roster building a year ago... which to be fair might not have been so bad had a couple other things gone differently but with Power Point Zion being the way forward and with Coach Stan Van Gundy in the past tense it certainly got there. Hence the trade.

That the two teams ended up swapping centres, well that was merely the cost of doing business. That’s how things got balanced out. Valanciunas has one fewer year on his contract than Adams and they also dumped Eric Bledsoe, with a pick swap taking care of the rest of it. But forget about the context for now. Fact of the matter is that they did swap centres and one of those dudes should be a whole lot happier with where they ended up than the other and it’s not Brother Jonas.

Head to head there’s not much of a case to be made for Steven Adams at the moment. Jonas Valanciunas was brilliant for the Grizzlies last season, career highs in points (17.1/g) and rebounds (12.5/g) while shooting 59.2% from the field and 36.8% from three point range. He’s an excellent post up player who can stretch the floor. A very good free throw shooter for his position. A big body. Great leader off the court. Really popular within the team and beloved by fans. He’d been very good for the Toronto Raptors but he’s been fantastic in two and a half years for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Some of that applies to Steven Adams. Size, leadership, popularity, close range shooting... all very much in his wheelhouse. But Adams is a poor free throw shooter to the point where it’s a problem and he doesn’t have almost any range to his shooting, making him a much more one-dimensional player with the ball in hand. That lack of range became a concern next to Zion Williamson, a legendary scorer in the paint already. Zion’s got priority for obvious reasons so Steve-o was left with nothing to do but clear out and hope for offensive rebounds... of which there weren’t many because Zion doesn’t really miss. Like, that was Adams’ whole offensive game getting buried, pretty much. There were hints of a lovely pick and roll combo with Brandon Ingram but only hints.

Point being: while Valanciunas is coming off his best season, Adams is coming off his most disappointing.

Tell you what though... sell high, buy low. So much of basketball is about fit and for Adams in Memphis, he’s got a pretty nice role carved out for him already. He’s not the offensive force that Valanciunas can be but maybe that’s not what the Grizzlies really want? They’re trying to stock up on shooters around Ja Morant. They’re trying to space things out better and a big man who needs the ball in his hands much less is going to be a boost in other ways. Because the other aspects of what Adams does offensively are sweet as with the Grizz. He’s a monster screener. He rebounds like a champion, especially offensively for those bonus possessions. And he’s going to finish pretty well around the rim when the ball does come his way, he always does. Not to mention he’s a very underrated passer for his position too – something that’s only really been utilised in the last couple years.

There are drop offs from Valanciunas for sure and Adams simply is not going to give you 17 points a night. His injury history might also be a concern. But if the team believes they can pick up the scoring from other areas then suddenly it’s a different story because Adams is a better defender than Valanciunas. It may not have been immediately apparent last season but that’s because he was on a bad defensive team. Get him in a system like in Memphis where there’s buy-in off the ball and see what happens. He won’t be stretched or switched as often and will be able to hang about the paint more often and be a physical presence. It worked for JV who made steady increases over his time with the Grizzlies and it’ll surely work for Steven Adams.

And as for the rebounding side of things, well they’re both pretty bloody good. 6’11 will do that for ya. Valanciunas has numbers that slide a little higher if we compare them...

... yet we do have to consider the teams that each has played for and the tendencies of the players around them. Yes, we’re talking about Russell Westbrook here and his triple-doubles. Russ getting the boards was beneficial to the Thunder because of how quickly he could transition into offence so Adams developed this habit of going hundies on the box out and ensuring that his team got the ball - whether he grabbed it or not was irrelevant. Even away from Russ he still played with guards who rebounded well. Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball with the Pels. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in OKC... in fact even Chris Paul that season had the third best Reb/36min rate of his career.

Also, in two of the last three seasons Steven Adams has played for the number one offensive rebounding team in the NBA (2018-19 OKC & 2020-21 NOP). When Adams was on the court for the Pels they grabbed 54.7% of total rebounds, while the Grizz with JV out there got ‘em at 53.7% last season. Valanciunas may have better individual rebound numbers but Adams has the better team numbers. Though, lets be honest here: we’re splitting hairs. Both were top seven in the entire league in each of those three offensive rebounding stats listed above. They’re both immense and will continue to be so on their new teams. Nothing to worry about there.

Maybe the most important thing to consider here is the legacy of the Grizzlies themselves. These are the Grit & Grind protagonists, where there’s a culture that celebrates players who get into the trenches. That’s Steven Adams to a tee - the man who his peers consider the strongest man in the NBA. It’s kind of a perfect fit for him... even more so when you consider that he did his best work playing alongside Russell Westbrook, right? Well, Ja Morant is basically the closest thing to a carbon copy of Russell Westbrook that there is in the sport at the moment only he’s young enough that he could still add a legit three-point shot to his mixture. Steven Adams’ top two scoring seasons where Russ’ last two in OKC (both 13.9ppg)... Ja and Steve are poised to bring back the Kiwi Steve Pick and Roll, baby. It’s going to sizzle.

And just quietly since we’re speaking about three point shots...

Most Mins Played Without Making A 3PT In 2020-21

1. Rudy Gobert (Utah) – 2187

2. Clint Capela (Atlanta) – 1898

3. Jakob Poetl (San Antonio) – 1845

4. Steven Adams (New Orleans) – 1605

5. Montrezl Harrell (LA Lakers) – 1580

6. Nerlens Noel (New York) – 1547

7. Mason Plumlee (Detroit) – 1499

8. Bismack Biyombo (Charlotte) – 1349

9. Tristan Thompson (Boston) – 1287

10. DeAndre Jordan (Brooklyn) – 1246

However... whether we see it in a game any time soon or not who knows but, mate, the man’s been working hard on his jump shot during his offseason and that release is looking sweet...

Slow but sweet. And slow is fine, Jonas Valanciunas has one of the most notoriously slow releases in the comp. Adams isn’t going to suddenly become Damian Lillard or anything, he’s just adding variety to his game so that every now and then there’s at least the option of sliding him out into the corner for an open shot (because it’s definitely going to be open... gotta start drilling these in games before anyone takes it seriously... but that gives him a window to make a statement, potentially). The precedent is there. Brook Lopez shot 3/31 from deep in his first eight seasons combined and then his 34.6% from 387 attempts in year nine and has kept that steady ever since. Adams has shot 1/13 during his first eight years and year nine is right around the bend.

It’s a little hard to talk about what the Grizzlies roster will look like because it’s still in limbo at the moment. Ja Morant we know will be there showing off his freakish athleticism. Dillon Brooks has emerged as a feisty lockdown defender. Kyle Anderson will most likely be there doing a little bit of everything. Jaren Jackson Jr is hopefully healthy again (having only played 16 games last season including playoffs) and nearing an extension.

As the power forward of the future, there’ll be a lot of emphasis on how JJJ fits with Steven Adams. Jackson is super tall, already a solid defender for his age, and he drills the three pointer. Adams had a great impact on guys like Jaxson Hayes and Willy Hernangomez with the Pelicans and surely deserves credit for how those two improved on the defensive side in particular. He did the same with Enes Kanter back in the day (and probably picked up a few offensive tips back the other way in the process). Another reason for Memphis to embrace him.

However with more trades flinging around every day it’s best to chill for a bit on the wider team prospects. That’ll be a future article. Like, Eric Bledsoe came across to the Grizz with Adams and there are genuine ways to project how he could have a big bounceback season in Memphis too but he’s been sent to the Clippers with Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Daniel Oturu coming back the other way. Not sure how many of them will be on the team come opening weekend but Patty Bev seemed pumped about the idea...

Another crunchy, ruthless defender. And someone who is been personally acquainted with what Steven Adams can do with a sturdy screen as the 2017 playoffs can attest to. It remains a legendary moment in OKC history in light of the time Beverley fell on Westbrook’s leg and injured him in a playoff series several years earlier – Westbrook still holds that grudge. So when Kiwi Steve did this, phwoar...

But we don’t have to worry about Steve crossing the picket lines coz Beverley’s Grizzly tenure lasted about a day before he was flipped to Minnesota for even more players...

Which leaves them at the exact moment of publishing this article with 18 players on the offseason roster. You can have up to 20 at this stage but obviously you need to cut that back to 15 come time for real basketball. Suffice to say that they’re not done moving the chess pieces around yet. There’s basically no chance that Rajon Rondo kits up for the Grizzlies for example.

Neither are the New Orleans Pelicans, and it’s hard not to look at the positivity around what the Grizzlies are doing and how well Steven Adams seems to fit into it all without it reflecting on how much that just wasn’t the case with the Pellies. NOP have not had a flashy offseason like many had hoped. They’ve done some clever things, moving Bledsoe and Adams in one foul swoop was good business, as was getting Josh Hart back... but also they cleared space to target Kyle Lowry and missed out as he chose Miami instead. That meant sacrificing Lonzo Ball to Chicago which has copped some heat – the point that most people seem to miss is that Lonzo wants to go play in Chicago where he can have a more natural role rather than the hybrid spot shooter he was forced to be in New Orleans.

There’s no doubt that Jonas Valanciunas is a better fit than Steven Adams for that team. But how much better is a topic for discussion. JV may have a three point shot in his arsenal but he only attempted 55 triples last season, he’s not a guy that anybody is going to worry about on the perimeter. Given the choice of doubling on Zion Williamson and leaving JV open in the corner or taking your chances 1v1 with Zion... pretty sure most coaches are leaning towards the first option in which case, sure, you’ve got a better jump shooter in that position but ultimately the end result is exactly the same.

And with a weaker defender for a team which, let’s be honest, didn’t have too many dramas offensively last season even with a centre who didn’t fancy a jump shot. They were one of the top scoring teams in the entire league in the second half of things. It was defensively where they struggled and it kinda looks like they’ve gotten weaker there. Not only with Adams either because Ball is a loss there too. Devonte Graham is a nice pick-up but to be honest they’re not gonna make the strides they need to until they get more from Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram defensively. That’s where the step up needs to happen most of all. But hey that’s their problem.

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