The Memphis Grizzlies are getting some frontcourt reinforcements soon, as big man Jaren Jackson Jr. is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans, per Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.

Jackson had surgery in June to repair a stress fracture in his foot and has been recovering since then. Adding him to a Memphis team that is already off to a 9-5 start will only improve this team, but given that Jackson hasn’t had any real game action since last season’s playoffs, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him take some time to get re-acclimated.

The last time we saw Jackson, he was averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and a league-leading 2.3 blocks per game. He’s one of the best defensive big men in the league, and finished last season as a Defensive Player of the Year finalist, as well as being named to the All-Defensive First Team. The Grizzlies are just better on defense with Jackson on the floor, as they allow 4.8 fewer points when he’s on the floor. If there’s one knock on Jackson’s defensive game, it’s his knack for racking up fouls, which can hurt the Grizzlies when he has to sit for large portions of the game. But being just 22 years old, and entering just his fifth season, he’s bound to improve in that area.

On offense, Jackson can score around the rim as well as the mid-range and while he struggled last season in making his 3-pointers consistently, he’s shown in the past that he can be reliable from beyond the arc as well. You combine all that together and it gives the Grizzlies another versatile scoring threat.

Given Jackson’s injury history, Memphis will likely be cautious with him out of the gates. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him on a minutes restriction until he’s fully knocked off the rust, but having him ready to suit up again will only help Memphis improve upon its early season success.

“You can’t be small and miss 3s,” Jose Alvarado said to himself. The 6-foot-nothing guard had biffed a couple consecutively in a shooting drill with the Birmingham Squadron, the New Orleans Pelicans’ G League affiliate, and this was simply unacceptable.

“It’s hilarious,” Squadron coach T.J. Saint said. “But he’s really intense. It’s serious. He’s serious about it.”

Saint, an assistant coach on last year’s staff, recalled Alvarado peppering him and former coach Ryan Pannone with questions during timeouts and coaching up his teammates in huddles. On the court during warmups on the second night of a back-to-back, Alvarado approached Saint, calling himself out for a shaky performance in the previous game.

“I’ll never forget this,” Saint said. “He’s like, ‘Hey, keep it real with me: If I keep playing like that, what do you think next year?'”

Alvarado was on a two-way contract, which is worth half of the NBA rookie minimum salary and limited him to a maximum of 50 games with New Orleans. He suggested that, if he did not sharpen up, the best he could hope for would be an Exhibit 10, a training-camp deal that can be converted to a two-way. Saint told Alvarado that he needed to play better, but there was lots of season left.

Was there ever: Alvarado had about 40 minutes of garbage time on his Pelicans resume when he arrived in Birmingham. When his rookie season was over, he’d played more games in the NBA playoffs than in the G League. He had also signed a four-year contract with New Orleans and established himself as both a rotation player and a cult hero.

Alvarado’s signature move, “Grand Theft Alvarado,” paired irresistibly well with his story. The man snuck up on everybody.

And yes, Saint has a GTA anecdote: “It was on a free throw. He was standing on the perimeter. Usually I’m telling the guys to get back in transition. And he’s in the corner and I’m like, ‘Jose! Get back!’ And he just puts his finger up to his lips and — shhh — shushes me.

“And then he just tries to steal from behind and gets it. It’s hilarious. It’s awesome. And I’m like, ‘Well, what do I know as a coach? Good job, Jose!'”

For someone who is known for a stealthy maneuver, Alvarado is unsubtle. He changes games the way a stick of dynamite alters architecture. On Saturday the Pelicans were headed toward a regrettable, forgettable loss to the Houston Rockets, down by eight points early in the fourth quarter. Then Alvarado went bananas, the Smoothie King Center crowd followed suit and New Orleans ended the game on a 29-8 run. In the fourth quarter alone, he had 12 points, four assists, three steals and two rebounds.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle after Alvarado pulled off the GTA with 18 seconds on the clock and the Pelicans up by 11; as a result, both he and the Rockets’ Kevin Porter Jr. were ejected. That steal was not nearly as rude, though, as the one where Alvarado pressed up against Porter after a free throw and swiped the ball right under his nose. At the post-game podium, Brandon Ingram told reporters Alvarado doesn’t have an off switch: “He’s probably screaming right now.”

In his first game in the G League, Alvarado had a game-winning steal. In the playoffs, Chris Paul caught him hiding in the corner and shouted at him to “get your ass back,” but Alvarado got him with the GTA two games later. Alvarado also forced Paul, his favorite player, to commit two eight-second violations. “I’m sitting on my couch at home doing the Tiger Woods fist pump, basically,” Saint said. Saint had seen that same ball pressure in Birmingham, and even in college, when he was an assistant coach at the University of Georgia and Alvarado was at Georgia Tech.

“He was really annoying,” Saint said. “And I just remember him. He just makes everything that you try to execute on your own offensive end very difficult. He just blows things up, messes up timing. He just plays fierce. It’s a level above hard. It’s fierce.”

Back home in Brooklyn, hours before kicking off his second season in the NBA, Alvarado recalled the mindset he had before he entered the league. “Just be Jose,” he said. “Compete every single time. Do not take no days off. And I just wanted to show that I belong.”