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Choose Your Own Adventure: Searching For A Fresh Center
!WARNING! This piece contains many different adventures as you locate a replacement for Steven Adams…Your choices may lead to success or disaster…
By Luke Hatmaker - February 8, 2024, 9:53 am - 1 comments
It’s one of the most exciting days of the entire NBA season. The Trade Deadline. It’a day that involves the wheeling-and-dealing of players, contracts, draft picks, etc.
It’s a day that rosters use to make themselves better… Or in some cases worse, depending on how you view roster construction. I find that the Grizzlies or in the former camp.
And make no mistake about it… This roster needs to get better. After last week’s news that Steven Adams would no longer be on the roster… The team finds themselves in need of someone—not on a 10-Day—capable of playing the center position.
Team’s may rectify problems by means of trade today—making it a day full of excitment. Will Memphis take advantage of the day and improve upon their roster? The center position to be more specific.
That’s this adventure’s focus… We’ll see if by day’s end the Grizzlies have found themselves on one of the paths below… Will they orchestrate a trade? Or will they find the answer further down the roster? Be careful and good luck.
!BEWARE and WARNING!
‘This piece is different from other pieces. You and YOU ALONE are in charge of what happens the remainder of Memphis season. There are dangers, choices, adventures, and consequences. YOU must use all of your numerous talents and much of your enormous intelligence. The wrong decision could end in disaster—even death…
But don’t despair. At any time, YOU can go back and make another choice, alter the path of your story, and change its result… As players are targeted towards the deadline, Memphis’ seeks a replacement for Steven Adams at the center position…’
If you’re acquiring a fit-perfect big turn to #33…
If you’re more inclined to keep Jaren where he is and go for a true center… Then setting your sights on the Brooklyn Nets may be the move this Trade Deadline.
As is, they already have a plethora of guys—dudes any team would want in their rotation—on their roster. For this adventure though we’re focusing on one Nic Claxton. Now, will the Nets take calls on their starting big man?
Because that’s the ultimate question when you get down to it.
Iș the answer is yes… And with the recent play of Day’Ron Sharpe I don’t see why it shouldn’t’ t be… But, if it’s yes… Memphis should pick up the phone yesterday.
With Claxton in their frontcourt it immediately addresses their rebounding issue for one. Currently in the middle of his 5th year, he’s on pace to hit career highs in boards with 10.3. That mark is good enough to be 10th best in the league.
For the sake of context, Memphis doesn’t have a rebounder in the top 65. That’s league wide. So yeah—rebounding helps.
On top of that, pairing him with JJJ—that duo would more resemble a concrete wall than two hoopers. Their fit together is exceptional. How the hell are you going to score on those guys in the interior? Getting to the rim would be come such a daunting task… Would it force teams to abandon it?
Per Cleaning the Glass, since the ’20-’21 season… Claxton’s block percentage hasn’t dipped below the league’s 81st percentile. Jaren hasn’t dipped below it’s 76th percentile—an off year for him. All that to say, good luck getting the ball in the hoop.
It’s the journey that may reap the largest bounty for you adventurer. Both in the interim… as Well as in the long-term. Will you be willing to take the steps necessary to make the move?
If you’re willing to spend on the position, turn to #15…
What happened to Clint Capela? Once receiving votes for Most Improved Player… And even Defensive Player of the Year… He’ seems to have lost minutes to Onyeka Okongwu and doens’t appear to be a part of the Hawks long-term plans.
Would that mean he becomes available?
I’m not sayiung he would—nor am I saying the Grizzlies should—but he would definitely be ‘swing for the fences’ way to go.
For his career Capela is a 12.3 PTS, 10.7 REB, and 1.5 BLK big man. Those are the type of numbers that have potential to pair like a dream with Ja Morant and Desmond Bane.
As well with JJJ. The two would form a devastating frontcourt—noticing a pattern in these options? Capela’s rebounding skill as well as blocking ability would make the paint a no-no zone.
Since his second year in the league per Cleaning the Glass…. His BLK% has never dipped below the league’s 73rd percentile. His fgOR% never below the 86th percentile. And his fgDR% never below the 70th percentile.
Will the Grizzlies be willing to take on his contract? That remains the only thing that gives me pause on this adventure… But the chose is yours, and it’s hard to not see the potential there.
If instead of a trade you look down the roster, turn to #13…
He may not like it, but the Grizzlies could already be sitting on their long-term answer at center. And he’s a Unicorn-sized answer at that. I’m referring to Jaren Jackson Jr. for the uninitiated.
Before you get to scoffing hear me out… Beacause I get it… Steve Kerr’s mishandling of the FIBA roster this past summer is still fresh in plenty of y’all’s minds.
Now, does the way Trip prefers to hoop make him better suited to play power forward? Sure. But that doesn’t mean that when he’s played center in the past he’s not had success.
In fact, he’s had equal levels of success at the 5 as he’s had at the 4 in the past. I’m excluding this current season mind you. Lord knows he’s doing the best he can for this squad, ravished with injuries.
Look at last season if you will. Lineups with Jaren at the four were elite. In 2,385 possessions their efficiency differential was in the league’s 96th percentile. Damn good that is. Thing is… Lineups with him at center weren’t far behind. In 1,314 possessions those were in the 91st percentile.
The year before that? At the 4? Lineups had an efficiency differential in the 90th percentile in 2,606 possessions. At the 5? Ditto the league’s 90th percentile. All those numbers are per Cleaning the Glass.
That’s evidence that supports the “Trip at center” theory—and strong evidence I’d say too. But if you need more than that… Remember Brandon Clarke is due back soon. And remember how deadly those lineups were.
Go back to Cleaning the Glass. The past two seasons, how have the lineups been with BC at the 4 and JJJ at the 5? Well… Those lineups were efficient as hell. They had efficiency differentials in the 97th and 95th percentiles.
Albeit a small sample size but still… There’s a chance that the Grizzlies were comfortable with trading Steven Adams… Because they’re ready to saddle up the Unicorn and get on the adventure.
If you succumb to your hubris, turn to (the other) 13…
‘The hours stretch into days; the days stretch into weeks. Now you have waited so long that the computer tells you your chances of surviving hibernation are nearly zero. You can only hope that somehow your crystal ship will reach the new planet before you grow old and die… But the months go by and nothing changes. You grow more and more depressed as you sit and wait, and finally, disoriented by the incredible loneliness of outer space, you lose all will to survive.’
God. I hope this dude turned out alright.
The Grizzlies, have been incredible when it comes to player development. I get it. But at this point… We’re on two teams that have tried—and failed—at unlocking James Wiseman’s potential.
The Warriors couldn’t do it. The Pistons aren’t doing it. Could the Grizzlies be different? Sure. I’d love nothing more than for my fellow Tennesseean to prove every doubter wrong. And if it was back on Beale St.? Talk about poetic justice.
But will the Grizzlies be different than those teams? That’s the question. And I’m sorry—but I’m not taking the chance. Even if it seems like the season to do so.
Who replaces Steven Adams as your center?
That’s the question we’re answering here. Who replaces Steven Adams at the center position? The Grizzlies will have options with the Trade Deadline ticking away… Come the end of the day we’ll see if the question’s answered with one of the above options. Enjoy adventurers.
Photo Credit: (Michael Wyke/AP Photo)
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