Two weeks ago in this space it was asserted that, with the
addition of small forward Mike Miller, the Memphis
Grizzlies had assembled the makings of one of the best fast-break offenses in the NBA.
But even with that prediction in print, I must confess that I didn’t expect results of
this magnitude this soon, especially with Miller’s play hampered by a back injury.
In the 14 games heading into the All-star break, the Grizzlies went 2-12, scoring
over 100 points only twice. In the 14 games since the break, heading into Tuesday
night’s matchup with the Knicks, they’ve gone 8-6 (10 of the 14 games against potential
playoff teams) and have broken the century mark 10 times, topping 95 points 12 times.
A favorite pastime among Grizzlies fans since the trade seems to be checking
Orlando Magic box scores and bemoaning the production of since-departed
Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek. But lost amid all the grousing that the trade made
Orlando better is that, even with Miller hobbled and Giricek replacement
Michael Dickerson out for the season (and possibly
beyond), the Grizzlies have gotten better as well. Without Gooden and Giricek’s
ill-conceived one-on-one forays and quick-trigger shots, the team’s offense is clicking as an
unselfish unit for the first time all season.
This addition by subtraction has also fostered quicker mastery of what is
becoming a trademark style: a relentlessly up-tempo game in
which pressing and trapping defense and shot-blocking
force turnovers and the team runs at every opportunity, scoring a high percentage of
its points either in transition or on the secondary break. Consider the following
numbers: Over the 10-game span since the February 20th trade deadline, the Grizzlies
rank tied for first in the NBA in points per game, first in field-goal percentage, second in
assists, third in blocks, and second in steals.
And it’s even more impressive that the Grizzlies have
been able to impose this style in the face of such adversity — not
only Miller’s back injury, the negative feelings surrounding Gooden and Giricek’s
success in Orlando, and Dickerson’s demoralizing return to the injured list but the tragic
death of center Lorenzen Wright’s infant daughter on March 1st, which has kept him
out of the lineup ever since.
Why have the Grizzlies flourished so? The personnel is built for this style
of play, so it was only a matter of time before an already effective offensive
team developed this kind of open-court cohesion. Jason Williams was born to play
this brand of basketball, but now, for the first time in a
Memphis uniform, he’s surrounded by players who can run with
him, catch his passes, and finish plays. Pau Gasol is already one of the best floor-running
big men in the league, Wesley Person is deadly spotting up for jumpers in the open
court, and Mike Miller is an ideal fit for this style.
But the wild card has been Stromile Swift, whose game, when he chooses
to bring it, is also perfectly suited to this style of play. Up until the trade
(which he and everyone else anticipated would include his name), Swift had
regressed badly over the course of his third NBA season. But the jettisoning of
Gooden and the unfortunate absence of Wright seem to have given Swift a new lease
on life. Playing limited minutes on a second team that often included
shot-happy rookies Mike Batiste, Giricek, and Gooden, Swift was too often a
nonfactor, rarely touching the ball and, possibly as
a consequence, wilting in other aspects of the game. This changing matrix of minutes
and touches, as much as the psychological ramifications of seeing Gooden dealt instead
of him, seems to have sparked Swift. His rebirth is as much reflected in the
aggression and enthusiasm of his play as by his
dramatically improved numbers.
Playing Gasol and Swift at the power slots is an unorthodox pairing, the
lack of bulk only exacerbating the team’s already weak interior defense. But
while the Grizzlies have lost in their half-court defense, they’ve gained even more in
their open-court offense. In back-to-back road blowouts last week, Gasol and Swift
used their length and athleticism to go over, past, and around the variously
small, slow, and aging front lines of Cleveland and Toronto en route to
eye-popping averages of a combined 51 points per game on 73 percent shooting.
Over the course of this surge, the Grizzlies have climbed from the
third-worst record in the league to sixth and counting. Some fans would tell you this
is a bad thing, that the team is losing ping-pong balls every day in a draft lottery
that will net high school phenom LeBron James or nothing at all. (The team’s draft pick
goes to Detroit to complete an earlier trade if it isn’t number one overall.) I say hogwash.
The lottery is a crapshoot regardless of record and this franchise has been
losing too long to go in the tank for the sake of better draft odds. At a time
when most NBA bottom feeders are looking to next year, Grizzlies fans have a
reason to care about right now, and this is why:
What the Grizzlies have done over the past two weeks and what they have
a chance to do over the season’s final 20 games is as important as a future
playoff run will be. They are in the process of finally killing the franchise’s
much-deserved reputation as NBA laughingstock. By beating Denver, Cleveland,
and Toronto by double digits in consecutive games and by moving rapidly up the
standings, they are separating themselves from the league’s dregs. By establishing an
identity and a style of play, they are laying better groundwork for future success than
they would be by jockeying for draft position.
Grizzlies fans should ignore the LeBron lottery and enjoy watching
this young group of players gel into a team. At the All-star break, the Grizzlies
needed to finish a seemingly unlikely 17-17 to reach the 30-win plateau. Heading
into Tuesday night’s game with the Knicks, the team only needed to go 9-11. At the
break I said it didn’t matter how many games the team won this season, and ultimately it
may not. But with the team’s young talent suddenly coming together, “30” seems like
a number worth watching.
