The Memphis Grizzlies have gone from afterthought to the NBA’s last unbeaten team in a hurry.
That’s not exactly how most people saw this season opening. Memphis came into 2026-27 with modest expectations after officially moving on from its entire last playoff core - Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane. But after Saturday’s win over the Kings, the Grizzlies are 6-0, sitting atop the Western Conference and owning the league’s only perfect record.
A big part of the story is Cam Boozer, the rookie forward who looked ready for the league before he ever played a game. The former Duke standout has been exactly that through six contests, and maybe more.
He’s averaging 17.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, production that has come with some inefficiency - 36.5% shooting from the floor - but also with the kind of all-around impact Memphis hoped for when it brought him in. On Saturday, Boozer dropped 27 points against Sacramento to help deliver the Grizzlies’ sixth straight win and their best start in more than a decade.
Ty Jerome has been just as important, and maybe even more surprising. The starting point guard has turned himself into one of the early stories of the season, averaging 25.8 points, 5.8 assists and 1.0 steal through five games.
For a player who entered the league as the No. 24 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and built his reputation as a dependable backup, this is a different level. Jerome has gone from steady reserve to one of the NBA’s top scorers in the opening stretch, and while keeping that pace for a full season would be a tall order, he’s done enough to force the conversation around his ceiling.
If this keeps up, All-Star talk won’t be far behind.
The offense around them has been humming, too. Memphis has piled up 727 total points through six games, the most in franchise history over that span, and its 121.2 points per game leads the NBA.
The Grizzlies have five players scoring in double figures - Boozer, Jerome, Cedric Coward, Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Wells - and they also top the league in bench scoring at 49.0 points per game. Stewart has settled in well as a veteran center, while Coward has been scorching from 3-point range.
It’s a roster without the kind of marquee names Memphis used to lean on, but there’s balance here.
The schedule has helped set the table, of course. The Grizzlies haven’t faced a true title contender yet.
Their six wins have come against the Jazz twice, the Kings twice, the Warriors and the Trail Blazers. That changes soon, with the Pacers and Thunder coming to Memphis this week, followed by matchups with the Raptors, Nuggets, Wizards and Cavaliers on the early November slate.
So no, the Grizzlies may not be as dominant as the record says. But they’re also clearly better than most expected. And if Memphis keeps this group together past the trade deadline, a Play-In push doesn’t sound far-fetched at all as the franchise keeps one eye on the future.
In Other News...
Cam Boozer Is Giving The Grizzlies A Rookie Of The Year Buzz
Cam Boozer has wasted no time making the Grizzlies early-season start feel even more promising. The rookie has already checked off a string of eye-catching milestones, including a triple-double that made him the second-youngest player ever to do it, and he has quickly become one of the biggest reasons Memphis is unbeaten to open the year.
The production has been just as loud as the buzz around it, with Boozer giving the Grizzlies a steady two-way presence and a playmaking element that is not usually expected this soon from a first-year player. With a relatively favorable stretch coming up, Memphis has a chance to keep building momentum while the Rookie of the Year conversation starts to take shape around one of its newest faces. [Read more 🡒]
Grizzlies Unbeaten Start Faces A New Concern Before Pelicans Game
Memphis has opened the season unbeaten, but the first real pregame concern on the injury front is starting to take shape ahead of its meeting with New Orleans. The Pelicans are dealing with a mixed report of their own, with Trey Murphy III listed as probable even as he works through bilateral patella tendinopathy, while Yves Missi and Jordan Poole have already been ruled out.
For the Grizzlies, the attention turns to their own availability list, where Scotty Pippen Jr. is doubtful and Quinten Post is questionable. It is the sort of early-season wrinkle that can matter even in a game that already carries plenty of weight, especially for a Memphis team trying to keep its strong start intact while managing bodies before the matchup tips. [Read more 🡒]
Grizzlies Are Finally Seeing Why Tuomas Iisalo Trusted His System
Tuomas Iisalos first full season guiding the Grizzlies drew plenty of skepticism, mostly because of the way he handled his rotation. The short, high-intensity stints were easy to question when Memphis was trying to find its footing, but the roster looks different now with more key players healthy and the offense starting to reflect the structure Iisalo has been building all along.
The payoff has shown up in the way the ball moves and in the expanded responsibilities for players who are being asked to do more than before, including Isaiah Stewart and Cam Spencer. For a team that spent much of last season getting judged through the lens of its coachs methods, this early stretch is at least offering a clearer picture of why Iisalo stayed committed to his system. [Read more 🡒]