As usual, I ran out of time to do all the season-preview posts I’d hoped to do. (Damn you, Indie Memphis!) As a result, I had several mental or recorded notes that I never got into any posts or my print-edition preview. So, with a few hours until the Grizzlies regular season begins, I’m emptying the notebook here:
The Importance of Gasol: If you want to find one common denominator for team success or failure for the Grizzlies last season it was this: They were a good team with Marc Gasol on the floor and a bad team without him. Gasol was the one player on the floor who seemed to have a positive impact on both ends of the floor and the player who seemed to have the most tangible impact on his teammates. This was all a factor of both how well Gasol played and how poor the team’s center situation was behind him. With Hasheem Thabeet not looking much, I’m not sure if things will change much this season. (Though perhaps an improved Darrell Arthur will allow the team to play more effective small-ball lineups.) Which means Griz fans should hope that Gasol’s current ankle injury doesn’t linger and there aren’t many more health problems ahead for him.
The Thabeet/Gasol Combo: My first season preview piece looked at five-man lineups from last season, illustrating the big gulf between how the team played with all five starters on the floor and how they played with any other lineup:
Full Starter Lineup: +7.3
All Other Lineups: -6.7
An interesting exception to that trend? Lineups that paired Gasol and Thabeet together:
Gasol/Thabeet Lineups: +5.0
