Halloween night in Memphis felt more like a coronation than a basketball game. The Sacramento Kings walked into FedExForum and got carved up by 31 points, 136-105, in a performance so complete, so dominant, so Grizzlies that you almost forgot the team’s two best guards — Ty Jerome and Scotty Pippen Jr. — were sitting in street clothes with back issues. Memphis didn’t just win. Memphis won by three times the pregame spread, improved to 6-0, and watched 19-year-old Cameron Boozer drop a career-high 27 points in 25 minutes like he had somewhere more important to be.

Nobody — and I mean nobody — had the Memphis Grizzlies penciled in as the NBA’s last unbeaten team after six games. This is a franchise that went 25-57 last season, blew up its roster by trading away Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., and handed the keys to a Finnish head coach with zero prior NBA head coaching experience. They were supposed to be a project. Instead, they’re a problem.

The Box Score That Should Not Exist

Let’s start with what Cameron Boozer did on October 31st, because the numbers still don’t feel real. In just 25 minutes, the rookie big man went 8-of-14 from the field, a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point range, and a flawless 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Twenty-seven points. Nine rebounds. Three assists. Career-high. And he barely needed half the game to do it.

But here’s the thing — this isn’t a single-game fluke. This is the latest data point in a six-game development arc that has been genuinely jaw-dropping to watch in real time:

  • Game 1 vs. Utah: 7 points, 2-of-15 from the field. Opening Night jitters. Human, normal, fine.
  • Game 2 @ Golden State: 25 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists — becoming the third-youngest player in NBA history to post a 25/10/5 line, joining only LeBron James and Cooper Flagg in that club at age 19 years and 97 days.
  • Game 3 @ Sacramento: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists. Road double-double. Business as usual.
  • Game 4 @ Utah: 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists. Back-to-back road game. Handled it.
  • Game 5 @ Portland: 18 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists — first career triple-double, making him just the fourth player in NBA history to record one within his first five games, alongside Oscar Robertson, Art Williams, and Ben Simmons. After the game, head coach Tuomas Iisalo deadpanned: “It took him long enough.”
  • Game 6 vs. Sacramento: 27 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists. Career-high. Without breaking a sweat.

In six games, Boozer is averaging 17.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 5.7 assists in 31.2 minutes per night. He is the unanimous No. 1 on the NBA’s Kia Rookie Ladder. He is 19 years old. He has already embedded himself in multiple NBA record books. And he is just getting started.

The Bloodline Is Real

You cannot talk about Cameron Boozer without talking about Carlos Boozer — two-time NBA All-Star, 13-year pro, 2008 Olympic gold medalist, and Duke legend. Cameron walked the same hallways at Duke, played for the same program, wore the same shade of blue. But while the family name has always followed him, Cameron has been clear about what drives him: he wants to make his own story.

“When you’re a competitor, you want to be great at something that you do, make your own story, create your own path,” Boozer said ahead of the 2026 Draft. And that competitive fire was forged at Duke, where he put together what data scientist Evan Miya called the best college season since at least 2009-10. The numbers back that up completely: 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game on 55.6% from the field and 39.1% from three. He won the Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year. He became the first freshman or sophomore to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists in a season since Larry Bird in 1976-77. He set Duke freshman records for rebounds and free throws made.

Carlos believed Cameron might be the best freshman to ever put on a Duke jersey — a list that includes Zion Williamson, Paolo Banchero, Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg, and Elton Brand. That’s not a father talking. That’s a basketball man who has seen the game at the highest level recognizing something generational in his own kid.

Now Cameron is on his own for the first time — twin brother Cayden stayed at Duke — and he’s responding to the independence exactly the way you’d hope. He is not hiding behind the family name. He is building his own.

The Depth Is Actually Disgusting

Here’s the part of the Memphis story that doesn’t get enough credit: the Grizzlies blew out the Kings by 31 points without their starting point guard and without Scotty Pippen Jr. Ty Jerome, who was leading the entire NBA in scoring through the first stretch of the season at 34.7 points per game in his first three outings, sat out with back soreness in his first absence of the season. And what happened?

Cam Spencer stepped into the starting lineup and quietly dropped 10 points and 13 assists. Isaiah Stewart came off the bench and exploded for 24 points. GG Jackson connected on all five of his three-point attempts for 21 points. Eight different Grizzlies scored in double figures. The lead ballooned to 34 at one point in the second half.

This is not a team built around one or two stars. This is a system. The Grizzlies rank 2nd in the NBA in rebounds per game at 52.0 — a direct byproduct of the Boozer-Edey twin tower frontcourt that stretches 6-foot-8 and 7-foot-4 respectively, with a wingspan that covers roughly half of Tennessee. They rank 6th in opponent field goal percentage at 43.1%. They are built to rebound, defend, and punish teams on both ends simultaneously.

The starting five of Jerome, Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells, Boozer, and Zach Edey is genuinely terrifying in its versatility. And then the bench sends Grant, Jackson, Spencer, Stewart, and Pippen Jr. at you when you think you’ve caught a break. There is no off-possession. There is no soft rotation to exploit. This is what a well-constructed roster looks like.

Ty Jerome’s Renaissance Deserves Its Own Headline

Before the next Cameron Boozer career-high comes along and overshadows everything else, someone needs to put proper respect on Ty Jerome’s name. The 29-year-old Virginia product entered 2026-27 as one of the most criminally underrated players on an NBA roster. He has since made everyone feel appropriately embarrassed for sleeping on him.

Opening Night? He dropped 45 points on 17-of-25 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three. In Game 3 against Sacramento, he went a perfect 14-of-14 from the free throw line. Through his first five games, Jerome is averaging 25.8 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.2 rebounds on 47.3% from the field. He was leading the entire NBA in scoring before hitting pause on Halloween night.

Jerome is also clearly having the time of his life. The man is jokingly recruiting free agents on opposing teams’ Instagram posts — he commented on the Pelicans’ page that “Streets said you coming to the [Grizzlies]” in reference to Trey Murphy III. When your starting point guard is dropping 45-burger Opening Night performances and sliding into Instagram comments with confidence like that, you know the locker room energy is elite.

From 25-57 to the NBA’s Best Record: The Rebuild That Actually Worked

Let’s just sit with this for a second. One year ago, the Memphis Grizzlies finished 25-57. They traded Ja Morant — a former Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star, the face of the franchise — to Portland in exchange for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray. They traded Jaren Jackson Jr. to Utah. It was a full organizational reset, the kind that typically buys you two or three seasons of misery before the light at the end of the tunnel becomes visible.

Instead, Memphis is 6-0 and it matches the best start in franchise history, tied with the 2014-15 season. The NBA’s sole undefeated team. Second in the league in rebounding. Playing airtight defense. And doing it with a teenager who hadn’t played an NBA regular-season game four months ago.

The architect of this transformation is Tuomas Iisalo, the Finnish head coach who joined the Memphis organization in July 2024 as an assistant coach before being promoted to interim head coach in March 2025 and officially named head coach in May 2025 — bringing zero prior NBA head coaching experience with him. What Iisalo has built is nothing short of remarkable — a player development pipeline that has produced All-Rookie caliber talent in back-to-back classes. Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells were 2025 All-Rookie First Team selections in their debut seasons under his system. Cedric Coward made the 2026 All-Rookie First Team. And now Cameron Boozer is the top-ranked rookie in the NBA through six games.

Iisalo’s philosophy, per his own words, centers on designing practices around individual player development while building a cohesive team identity around pace and intensity. His system is tactically sophisticated — weakening ball screens, creating numeric advantages offensively, limiting long closeout situations defensively. But the execution comes from players who are bought in completely, growing rapidly, and playing with genuine joy. That combination is rare. And it’s sitting at 6-0 right now.

The Sacramento Contrast Is Almost Too Perfect

The Sacramento Kings came into FedExForum on Halloween night at 0-6, the worst record in the NBA, ranked dead last — 30th — in opponent field goal percentage at 51.2%. Ben Simmons tore his right Achilles tendon during a Kings practice drill on October 18th, just days before the season tipped off. It is not a good scene in Sacramento.

Memphis has now beaten the Kings twice this season, and the margin has only grown: an 11-point win in the first meeting, and a 31-point demolition on Halloween. In both games, the Grizzlies looked like a team playing an entirely different sport. Boozer had 16/11/4 in the first Sacramento matchup. He had 27/9/3 in the second. The Kings are trending in exactly the wrong direction, and Memphis has been their mirror image at every step.

What Comes Next: The Real Tests Are Loading

Six games against a combined schedule that includes Utah twice, Sacramento twice, Golden State, and Portland is an encouraging sample. The real measuring sticks are coming. Memphis hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder on November 6th in what figures to be the most significant game of this young season — a collision between the NBA’s last unbeaten team and one of the Western Conference’s genuine contenders.

Before that, there’s the Pelicans on November 2nd and the Pacers on November 4th. After OKC, a trip to Toronto and a home date with the Denver Nuggets round out a November stretch that will tell us a lot about whether this Grizzlies team is the real deal or just an early-season hot start feeding on a soft schedule.

But here’s the thing: even if Memphis loses a few over the next two weeks, the foundation they’ve built is undeniable. You cannot fake a 52.0 rebounds per game pace. You cannot manufacture a lineup this deep. And you absolutely cannot replicate what Cameron Boozer is doing at 19 years old in his first six professional games.

The Bottom Line

The Memphis Grizzlies are 6-0, the NBA’s only unbeaten team, and they just beat a team by 31 points without two of their key guards. Cameron Boozer set a career-high with 27 points in 25 minutes on Halloween night and is averaging a 17-10-6 rookie line through six games, already cementing himself in historical company twice over. Ty Jerome is playing like a man possessed at 29. Tuomas Iisalo is quietly building one of the most impressive coaching resumes in recent memory. And a franchise that was supposed to spend the next three years in the lottery is instead standing alone at the top of the NBA.

Nobody saw the 2026-27 Memphis Grizzlies coming. That’s what makes it so good. And if Cameron Boozer keeps trending the way he has been — from a 2-of-15 Opening Night to a 27-point career-high in six weeks — then the rest of the NBA should probably start paying attention real fast. Because the kid who grew up with Carlos Boozer’s DNA and Duke’s winning culture coursing through him is not here to be a nice story. He is here to be a problem.

Happy Halloween, Sacramento. Memphis is just getting warmed up.