Larry Kuzniewski
JaMychal Green is making an early case to be a legitimate rotation player this season.
Right on the heels of their 92-89 win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, tonight the Grizzlies are back in action against Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Basketball Super League. If past contests against Maccabi Haifa (and last year’s game against Flamengo from Brazil) are any indication of how tonight will go, the talent level of a middle-of-the-pack Israeli team means the Grizzlies shouldn’t have much trouble pulling away. As such, it’s probably a night for experimentation, for honing in on execution, and for playing those end-of-the-bench guys to see if maybe one of them is worth hanging on to.
What to watch for:
➭ Second unit lineups. Beno Udrih looks like he’s recovering pretty well from his injury, but the lineup that looked the best against Houston was Russ Smith, Vince Carter, Jeff & JaMychal Green(s), and Brandan Wright. With Smith relentlessly pushing the tempo, Carter and Wright running high pick & roll, Jeff Green hitting corner 3’s and attacking the basket, and Ja. Green playing garbageman on the glass, that unit has real potential. Look for other combinations against Maccabi; some will work, and some won’t, but tonight is the time to experiment with that sort of thing.
➭ The sophomore debut of Jarnell Stokes. Stokes was sick Tuesday night, so while the training camp guys got a lot of run, no one got to see how Stokes is progressing. He’s a pretty big question mark, but he has the potential to be a beast around the basket, and the Griz would like for him to show signs of progression if they’re going to commit to him. Assuming he’s over his illness, tonight should be a good chance to see Stokes in extended minutes.
➭ Matt Barnes. Barnes looked pretty rough on offense on Tuesday, and late yesterday news broke that Barnes may have been involved in a physical altercation with Knicks coach and former Lakers teammate Derek Fisher over his estranged wife. Barnes wasn’t signed for his lack of drama, and Griz fans should probably get used to this kind of thing if he’s going to be on the team, but that doesn’t mean a Knicks/Grizzlies/NBA probe into a fight during training camp isn’t a distraction. We’ll see where this goes. Hopefully Barnes can continue to play good defense while starting to develop some offensive chemistry as the preseason gets underway.