When: Friday, February 2nd, 7:00 PM CST
Where: FedEx Forum, Memphis, TN
How to Watch/Stream: NBA TV
In the most recent episode of what has been a roller coaster ride of a season, the Memphis Grizzlies have continued the puzzling trend of being the best bad team in the league (or the worst good team, depending on how you look at it).
As mentioned above, I find their recent competitiveness confusing mainly because 99% of the league would have used the Ja Morant injury as an excuse to add one more lottery-level talent to this roster or leverage that asset in a trade. Desmond Bane and Trip would’ve had “exploratory surgeries” immediately, and the tank would be well underway.
However, watching this under-manned team battle has been a joy, and the pride I’ve felt that this team hasn’t succumbed to that pressure is immense. However, I do think the Grizzlies have correctly responded to the usage vacuum that Ja left and have brought in several “flier” type signings. While the aspirations of bringing a title to Memphis fell short, there is freedom in the sense that the rest of this season can be used to try and find rotational pieces for the core beyond this year. *COUGH Trey Jemison COUGH*
In a way, all of the pressure of the season is gone. No one expects anything of this team, so every win should be celebrated, and every performance should be reviewed under the lens of “can ____ help us lift the Larry O’Brien.”
As for the Warriors, they find themselves in 12th place, 3.5 games better than the injury-riddled Grizzlies. Their average age of 28.7 (4th highest in the league) and insanely high tax bill suggest that the team is trying to push the chips in for one more run centered around Steph Curry, but their recent record suggests another.
The Warriors, 4-6 in their last 10 games, rank 16th in the league in Net Rating. The team couldn’t be any more mid if they tried, currently being outscored by .1 points per 100 possessions. Even accounting for the off-court issues that have hindered them, Curry and co. are a long, long way from championship contention.
Vince Williams Ascension
There have been several times this season where I’ve had to recalibrate my expectations for certain players, teams, coaches etc, but I don’t think there has been a bigger growth in that department than what I expect out of Vince night in and night out.
At the beginning of the season, it started out with me (and the majority of Grizzlies Twitter) begging Taylor Jenkins to give him any sort of minutes. While this was born out of the lack of success with Ziaire, Roddy, and LaRavia, VWJ had shown that he fit the mold of a complementary wing through stints in the G-League and his summer league excursions.
For the longest time, no one knew why he wasn’t getting minutes. It’s frustrating to think that had it not been for injuries forcing him into the rotation, Vince may have never gotten this chance to shine. Thankfully, he did, and he’s made the most of his opportunity and then some.
Ironically, the former VCU man has been invaluable due to the parts of his game that I had no clue he was capable of. The general perception around him was centered around the prototypical 3 and D tag, which is great because that’s exactly what this team needed.
While he has provided that and then some, the aspects of his game that have really popped off the screen have been his off the dribble scoring and his connective playmaking. With no Bane. Smart, or Ja, he’s one of the players I trust most to initiate offense. His court vision is superb for a player of his archetype, and he has leveled up his scoring as well, averaging 17.6 over his last 5 appearances.
Neither of these categories take into account that he is a huge factor in rebounding (something the Grizzlies desperately need) and has taken the role of guarding the other team’s best player. In fact, he seems to relish the opportunity to shut down elite scorers.
Against the Warriors, Vince will have the opportunity to show a national audience what we Grizzlies fans already know. His continued growth will be essential to any long-term aspirations that this franchise has, and it doesn’t hurt that his 3 yr 7.9m contract ALREADY looks like a massive steal.
Jaren’s Continued Development
Similar to the emergence of VWJ, Trip’s continued improvement has been one of the silver linings of this season.There were small rumblings of whether the Grizzlies should trade him earlier in the season, and JJJ’s play has been the perfect response to those idiotic claims.
In his age 24 season, Jaren is averaging 21.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, amd 2 assists per game, adding in 3.6 stocks and elite rim deterrence. It’s notable that his efficiency numbers have declined slightly, but that can easily be explained by the increase in defensive attention he’s seeing with no Ja, Des, Marcus etc for large stretches of the season.
The scoring jump is real and the eye-test backs it up, but it’s the way that he’s scoring that has impressed me the most. His free throw attempts are up, as are his rim pressures. Quite simply, JJJ is getting to the rim as frequently as he can, something Grizzlies fans have wanted out of him for a long, long time.
However, wanting something and it being possible are two very different things. For a while, Trip wanted to attack the rim as much as we wanted him to, but he lacked the lower body strength to chisel out angles and scoring opportunities. This season, that hasn’t been the case, with him looking more and more like a grown-ass man.
The move above shows exactly what I’m talking about. It was rare to see other players bounce off JJJ the way Gobert does in that clip, and Trip is doing THAT to one of the best interior defenders in the league.
It would be one thing if this bulked-up version of him was forfeiting something else, but Trip still looks mobile. In fact, his handle has never been tighter, and with the vacuum of healthy ball-handlers on the Grizzlies roster, he’s been forced into way more PnRs and other situations where he has to initiate offense. Game after game, he’s seeing passes that he wouldn’t have before, and in the long-run, that’s the best thing for him.
There will be times where seeing a near 7 footer handle the ball will be awkward, but there will also be times where he pulls shit off like the clip above. That is NOT normal for a 24 year old to be doing, and I expect that a heavier burden during this season will result in a better version of Trip when this team is competing for titles. (By the way, I didn’t even mention that he is on THE BEST value contract in the NBA)