Tag: Tayshaun Prince

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizz Front Office Woes? Pera Doesn’t Have To Look Far For a Solution

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

With the Grizzlies now on the verge of possibly trading the last two pillars of the Grit ‘n Grind Era in Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, many fans and media members have shown concern. Not so much a concern over whether or not it is a good idea to trade the two veterans, but more a concern about who would be in charge of trading them — namely Grizzlies General Manager Chris Wallace.

Larry Kuzniewski

Tayshaun Prince

Wallace has been connected to his share of baffling moves and blunders while serving as the team’s general manager. From the Hasheem Thabeet draft pick, the countless other picks that didn’t pan out, the questionable trades, the giving away of draft picks haphazardly, the overpaying for players, and the signing of Chandler Parsons to a max contract. Is it understandable fans might be gun-shy about trusting Wallace with another rebuild?

Yes it is. Especially when this rebuild is different — for many reasons.

This isn’t the fresh, cute and cuddly Grizzlies franchise that was new to a city that didn’t know what to expect. This team has grown on — and with — the city and the fans have tasted the spoils of victory. They won’t settle for years of bad basketball or a poorly run franchise. It’s a crucial time for the organization. A mishandled rebuild could be fatal to the organization by driving away its fan base. 

So let’s assume that Grizzlies majority owner Robert Pera also has concerns about Wallace’s ability to prepare the organization for its next phase. Where does he turn at this point in the season? Who would be willing to come on board with the organization (or lack thereof), with its seeming constant flux and instability? To me, the answer might be simple. In fact, the answer in this case might already be here.

NBA.com

Chris Makris

The Grizzlies have two under-utilized members of their front office in former NBA player Tayshaun Prince, who serves as Special Assistant to the General Manager, and Chris Makris, the Director of Player Personnel. As a former highly respected and professional NBA player, Prince has clout around the league. Players, coaches, and executives, alike, respect Prince and his work ethic. He is highly intelligent in terms of seeing the game, identifying problems, and looking at the many intricate ways in which they can be addressed. He has a wealth of knowledge about the game — and knows what it takes to win. Most fans will also remember that he was a steadying presence on the Grizzlies’ Western Conference Finals team — and a major loss off the court when he was traded for Jeff Green two years later.

Prince is still relatively inexperienced in the area of day-to-day operations, but this is an area where Makris could come in and support Prince by filling that void. Similar to the Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka partnership with the Lakers, I could see Makris and Prince being a tandem that accentuates each other’s deficiencies for a common goal — a successful NBA team built the right way, with no short cuts or ulterior motives. With the Lakers, Magic Johnson has the clout, pull, and credentials, while Pelinka handles the behind-the-scenes grind. Neither Prince nor Makris are yes men. And both choose to let their work and their actions do the talking.

I originally became aware of Makris when he was serving as General Manager for the Iowa Energy, after the Grizzlies acquired the team as a developmental league affiliate. He served in this capacity for 10 years, during a tenure that included four division titles and one league championship. Makris ran the basketball side, as well as the business side. He hired three Iowa Energy coaches that now serve as either NBA head coaches or assistants: Head Coach Nick Nurse and Assistant Coach Nate Bjorken in Toronto, and Sixers Assistant Coach Kevin Young. Makris and his revamped and refocused scouting team also identified Jaren Jackson Jr. early in the scouting process and saw his potential as the best player in this draft, when many others didn’t.

Are Prince and Makris experienced enough to handle this team for the upcoming trade deadline and beyond? Maybe not, but they have done the work and have all of the tools needed to succeed. And they would be a breath of fresh air in a front office that needs a major upheaval. The fanbase has seen what Wallace and Hollinger have to offer and most think it’s time for a change. I believe that Prince and Makris have the DNA that matches what the fans want to see, going forward.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (November 13, 2014) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Kevin Lipe’s post “Next Day Notes: Grizzlies 93, Pelicans 81” …

Tayshaun’s swagger was turned up to 11. It was amazing and terrifying to watch #TheTaykeover.

Youngblook_901

About Toby Sells’ story, “Study Says Bicycling Boom Could Bring Gentrification” …

I would refer the authors of the study to Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” If people are worried about how to pay their rent or feed their families, they won’t benefit as much from quality of life amenities as someone whose basic needs have been met. Gentrification can never be a bad thing. It rebuilds decaying neighborhoods.

Jenna S’ais Quoi

Jenna: “Gentrification can never be a bad thing.” I assume you’re talking about Memphis and not those cities like NYC and San Francisco where natives are forced out in droves.

Mia S. Kite

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Letter from the Editor, “Talking Heads” …

The flip side is that artists now have fewer barriers to reach an audience. If you make good music, you can get discovered without having to go through a record label and without having to have some record exec agree to promote your music. You can record it at home, post it online, and create your own following, which you can then use to generate profits.

I know everyone hates him, but Justin Bieber is a prime example. He got famous due to YouTube videos, and he was discovered and channeled to make it big. Before, he would’ve had to go to numerous record labels and just hope someone felt he was worth their time.

The term “starving artist” exists for a reason. Only the best of the best (or sometimes the luckiest) make it big. That hasn’t changed, but the barriers between someone and their audience are gone now.

GroveReb84

About Wendi C. Thomas’ column, “Teen Makeover” …

As an African-American male in his 50s, I find this article somewhat perplexing. The behavior of those students at that Kroger indeed was barbaric and savage. It was the worst of an out-of-control mob that gained more and more power from those who were made helpless from the swarm.

The following statement concerns me: “None of the victims’ injuries were severe.” That certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. They didn’t care whether the young man who was being stomped would be injured permanently or not. And of course, your statement does not include emotional damage. I hope that the young boy who was assaulted can recover emotionally. I think his dad is a hero. He has what I do not have, grace. I would not be as patient and understanding as he was. His son had the right to be left alone, and wasn’t.

As a community, specifically the African-American community, in this case, we should make it clear that this type of behavior is unacceptable and barbaric. It is not the behavior of civilized people who were the first to walk on the planet. There should not be any ambivalence in that regard.

Memphomaniac

It is a sad place where many of today’s black youth are. Some people think that this is a new type of violence, but it is not. It has always been around, but smartphones make the world a different, more exposed place.

TruthBeTold

Nice grab there, Bruce and the Flyer. [With Wendi] you brought some real quality journalism to what is generally one of the better alternative newspapers I’ve read.

Smitty1961

About Bianca Phillips’ story, “Sierra Club Proposed Alternatives to Shelby Farms Parkway” …

I live north of Shelby Farms. Farm Road in the current alignment and in the alignment proposed by the Sierra Club is inadequate. The current alignment is a scar across the park. It places those using the amenities of the park in undesired close contact with those using Farm Road as a thruway. Construction of Shelby Farms Parkway, as designed, will separate traffic and provide safer conditions for those using the park. I support construction of Shelby Farms Parkway as designed with the stipulation that it be made a “No Trucks” route. This stipulation has been discussed, endorsed, and will require approval.

Enrico Dagastino

Categories
Cover Feature News

Hoop City 2013: 20 Questions – pt. 1

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies had the most successful season in the short, mostly futile history of the franchise last season with their run to the Western Conference Finals. There was a sense last May that anything was possible: The team could bring an NBA championship to Memphis, or they could get swept by the San Antonio Spurs (which is what actually happened, since the Spurs were on their own star-crossed run to a seven-game finals with the eventual champion, Miami Heat). Either way, it was Memphis’ time to shine. The Grizzlies, in what felt like a culmination of something that started in the 2011 first-round victory over San Antonio, put the whole city on their backs and tried to take us to the promised land. It was a magical couple of weeks, even if it didn’t end up going according to plan.

Since then, a few things have changed with the Grizzlies: Lionel Hollins — whose contract was up at the end of last season — wasn’t brought back, and assistant coach Dave Joerger — who won multiple championships in the NBA D-League and the CBA — was promoted to the head spot. The bench was completely overhauled, bringing in several new faces to play alongside some of the familiar ones — players like Kosta Koufos, Nick Calathes, and incoming rookie Jamaal Franklin. The offense is being retooled around the tandem of Mike Conley and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Marc Gasol. Things are different, and there are a lot of unanswered questions facing the Grizzlies as they head into the 2013-14 regular season, questions we probably won’t know the answers to until the season is well under way. Here are 10 of them, along with a brief discussion of “what we know so far” with each.

1: Was hiring Dave Joerger instead of bringing back Lionel Hollins the right move?

The question of whether Dave Joerger is the right head coach for the Grizzlies and the question of whether Lionel Hollins should have been brought back on a new contract are really two distinct issues. As to Hollins, I’ll just say this: The Grizzlies’ new ownership and new front office didn’t hire him, and they didn’t think he was the right kind of coach to implement the philosophy with which they want to run the organization. Whether or not he was winning basketball games, he simply didn’t have the approach that the front office wanted in their head coach, and thus his fate was sealed.

Joerger is more of a question mark, but, to my mind, not much of one: He’s got clear winning credentials at the minor-league level, and he’s been with the Grizzlies since 2007 as an assistant. He’s a guy who excelled at player development in the minor leagues, and that capability goes hand-in-hand with the way the new Grizzlies leadership wants to run the team. We heard it from owner Robert Pera himself on Media Day: The Grizzlies want to emulate the Spurs’ model of creating a perennial contender through player development and smart roster moves. Joerger’s coaching credentials and his approach to developing raw young guys make him an important part of that equation.

2: Will Zach Randolph be in Memphis at the end of the season?

Randolph, 32, has been a defining figure in the emergence of the Grizzlies on the NBA scene as a legitimate force to be reckoned with, but he’s got a player option in his contract for $16.5 million next year that could potentially cripple the team’s ability to make other roster moves, especially since Gasol, Conley, and Tony Allen will combine for almost $30 million next year. Randolph’s game has started to change as he ages. He’s getting his shots blocked more and having to work harder for every basket. It hasn’t been all bad, as he led the league in offensive rebounds last season, but how many of those rebounds were off his own missed shots? As his game starts to decline, which it will inevitably do at some point, will Randolph accept a more limited role, or will he still want to be the Man? All of these factors will determine whether Randolph is still in town next year or not. At this point, there’s no way to know.

Larry Kuzniewski

Guard-forward Nick Calathes

3: Is Nick Calathes the backup point guard the Grizzlies have been missing?

Calathes, a 24-year-old rookie with a winning pedigree in Euroleague and Eurocup play (you may remember him from his college year at the University of Florida), has already made an impression in the preseason with his playmaking ability and drives to the basket. His size and quickness allow him to use his excellent court vision to find the open man — sometimes when the open man isn’t even looking, sending a basketball zipping into the expensive seats. (Hold on to your beers down there, courtside folks.) Even given the limited reliability of preseason games as indicators for future success, Calathes brings a confidence and maturity to the floor that we haven’t seen from a rookie since Greivis Vásquez, and Calathes moves a lot better than Vásquez. That said, he’s still unproven and has some adjusting to do to the NBA game. If Calathes can be a floor general to spell Conley for large stretches, though, the Grizzlies will be in better shape point-guard-wise than they’ve been in years.

4: How much will the Grizzlies miss Rudy Gay’s offensive efficiency?

Next question.

Larry Kuzniewski

Forward Ed Davis

5: Who is going to be the backup power forward?

The popular opinion is that Ed Davis was brought to Memphis by the front office specifically to be the power forward of the future and that Davis is all but guaranteed to ascend to Zach Randolph’s starting spot when Randolph is inevitably moved. Some national media types even speculated that Randolph would be traded this offseason in order to clear the way for Davis. That didn’t happen and for good reason: Davis still needs time to develop. He doesn’t finish at the rim as well as he probably should, and he spent most of last year on the bench in Lionel Hollins’ infamous doghouse rather than on the court gaining valuable experience. He’s likely to get those minutes from Dave Joerger, who has stressed time and again his belief and confidence in Davis’ abilities. In preseason thus far, he’s been true to his word, playing Davis a lot and starting him in Randolph’s absence against the Bucks.

What’s made it a question is the play of Jon Leuer. Leuer, who barely saw the floor last year after being acquired from the Cavaliers in January, was signed to a long-term (though relatively inexpensive) deal this summer and has entered the 2013 preseason playing like a man with something to prove. He’s looked confident, comfortable, and assured on the court, and his long-range jumper has proved valuable to the Grizzlies’ floor spacing.

With Davis still needing some time to develop before the Grizzlies can really evaluate whether his basket is the one in which the Grizzlies want to put all of their eggs, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Leuer and Davis could share the backup minutes at the four spot depending on matchups. Ultimately, this depth is a good thing, especially on a Griz team that has been severely lacking in frontcourt depth for as long as anyone can remember. But it certainly won’t make answering questions about whether Ed Davis is the future any easier.

6: If the Grizzlies struggle this year, what will that do to their burgeoning fan base?

This is one question nobody likes to talk about. The Grizzlies’ recent run of successful seasons has brought with it a level of Griz Fever heretofore unseen in Memphis. The sales of unauthorized and/or unofficial Grizzlies T-shirts alone have probably been enough to boost the local economy by 50 percent. Everyone is talking about the Grizzlies, and Griz fans are making a name for themselves nationally as loud, proud, and die-hard.

But what happens to those fans if the team hovers around .500 this year and struggles to get itself together under the first year of a new coach? What happens if, God forbid, an important player suffers a major injury and misses a significant stretch of the season? Are the fans who made articles of clothing out of Growl Towels going to stick it out, or will they turn on the team and the front office, in light of all of the changes made by the new regime to a roster and organization that was (from outside appearances, anyway) working?

To be clear, I don’t think the team will trend downward this year, but the Western Conference finals are a high bar that not many teams are able to reach — much less reach two years in a row. If the team’s newly won fans expect the same level of performance this year and things start to go south, it could create some interesting tension around the team.

Larry Kuzniewski

Guard Jerryd Bayless

7: What will be the first in-season roster move the Grizzlies make?

I don’t think the Grizzlies expected Jerryd Bayless to pick up the player option in his contract and stay with the Grizzlies another year. I think they expected him to become a free agent and sign a contract that he earned by playing well for the Grizzlies last year. That’s not what happened, though: Bayless stayed in Memphis, and now the Grizzlies have an awful lot of shooting guards. Tony Allen, Quincy Pondexter, Bayless, and rookie Jamaal Franklin can all play the position, along with the occasional Nick Calathes. Bayless’ responsibilities as backup point guard were absolved last year after he proved to be a much more effective playmaker off the ball, especially when paired with Mike Conley.

At the same time, Tayshaun Prince is probably entering the twilight phase of his career, after many years of making deep playoff runs with the Detroit Pistons, and his conditioning failed him in last year’s playoffs even though he showed flashes of “the old Tayshaun” before getting injured in the Oklahoma City series.

Both of these guys, I’d say, are probably available to a team that makes the Grizzlies the right offer. What that offer would be I can’t say, but given that Prince is owed $7.2 million this year and $7.7 million next year, you’d have to think some salary relief would be involved. Don’t misunderstand me: I think both players could also stick around and make valuable contributions to the Grizzlies this year. I just think that of everyone on the roster, they’re probably the two who would be traded first if the right option came along.

8: Is the Wi-Fi in FedExForum going to work this year?

Robert Pera says yes. We shall see. One gets the impression that it may be even harder to make internet access work for 18,000 people sitting in the same room than it is to evaluate draft prospects.

9: What effect will Kosta Koufos have coming off the Grizzlies’ bench?

Koufos started 81 games for the Denver Nuggets last season, so the fact that the Grizzlies were able to pry him away from Denver for a never-quite-healthy Darrell Arthur and what essentially amounts to pocket lint is surprising. Koufos represents the best chance Marc Gasol has ever had of not having to play 40-plus minutes a night this year. He averaged eight points and almost seven rebounds per game last year in Denver, and his size, toughness, and basketball IQ mean that Gasol has a legitimate NBA center as a backup for maybe the first time in his career. (I’m not counting Darko Milicic.) A reduced workload for Gasol means a fresher Gasol in the playoffs, and anything that makes that happen while strengthening the Griz bench is a win.

Larry Kuzniewski

Guard Mike Conley

10: Where will the Grizzlies finish in the Western Conference this year?

The Western Conference is as competitive and as close as it’s ever been. The Spurs, Thunder, Grizzlies, and Clippers all look primed to make another run, and the Rockets and Warriors made significant improvements in the off-season.

The Grizzlies are going to have to work that much harder for home-court advantage this year, and simply catching one or two unlucky breaks over the course of the season may be enough to put them down to the fifth or sixth seed.

Last year’s seeding battle was close, but this year it looks to be even closer. The Grizzlies could legitimately finish anywhere from second to about sixth in the standings, and the separation between those spots could be as small as a game or two. The breaks of the season will determine it as much as their actual win/loss record will.

The offseason brought with it a host of changes to the Grizzlies from top to bottom. Really, this season is the first manifestation of the philosophy brought in with last year’s ownership change, and we’re just now seeing the fruits of that transition on the court and in the front office.

We know what the Grizzlies organization is trying to do. The only question is whether they’ll be able to do it. As of right now, it’s anybody’s guess — yet another question that remains to be answered.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 4: Grizzlies 104, Clippers 83 — Gasol & Randolph Tag Team Secures a Game 6

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Grizzlies evened up the series behind a dominant performance from their frontcourt stars.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • The Grizzlies evened up the series behind a dominant performance from their frontcourt stars.

The big trains from Memphis kept rumbling along Saturday afternoon at FedExForum, as Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol combined for 48 points and 22 rebounds on 61 percent shooting to lead the Grizzlies to a 104-83 victory over the Clippers that sends this series back to Los Angles tied at two games apiece.

Fitting their city’s pro wrestling heritage, this was a classic tag-team affair.

Randolph got it going early — in more ways than one. Randolph’s 16 points on 8-11 shooting in the first half came with 10 attempts at the rim. How has Randolph’s game transformed since his middling production in Los Angeles? Randolph credits the home-court eruption to “getting the ball in the right spots, being aggressive, going a little faster instead of waiting for the double team.”

Gasol echoed this, saying the team had to get Randolph the ball in the right spots instead of getting it to him in isolation situations and asking Randolph to simply go get shots.

In the second half, the team made a clear choice to emphasize Gasol, and he responded with 18 points and 6 rebounds on 7-9 shooting in the half, all of his second-half shots, in contrast to Randolph, coming on short or mid-range jumpers. Gasol’s three quick makes early in the third quarter helped keep the Clippers from building any kind of lead, and Gasol hit a couple of back-breakers later in the quarter: A 23-foot catch-and-shoot make off a Tayshaun Prince in-bounds pass, with .6 seconds on the shot clock, to tie the game at 60, and then a 13-foot baseline jumper off a Tony Wroten feed with .2 seconds on the clock to end the quarter and give the Grizzlies a two-possession lead going into the fourth. What does Gasol present to opposing defenders?, Randolph was asked later. “Trouble,” he responded.

And it wasn’t just Randolph and Gasol’s scoring. They combined for more offensive rebounds (seven) than the Clippers’ entire team (five). The most important sequence in the game might have come midway through the fourth, when Gasol contested Blake Griffin at the rim, forcing a miss, securing the defensive rebound, and starting a fastbreak that ended with a drop-down assist from Randolph to Tony Allen, who finished at the basket despite a Griffin foul and hit again from the line. The Grizzlies were up 10 at the time and the sequence made it a 13-point game with 7:14 to play instead of the 8-point game it might have been if Griffin had converted over Gasol. From that moment, the Grizzlies blew the game open.

The Grizzlies have now outscored the Clippers 380-370 through four games, but the series is tied and the Clippers maintain a homecourt advantage. For the Grizzlies, this may be a painful reminder of last spring, when the Grizzlies outscored the Clippers across seven games but were sent packing because of the failure to close out the close ones. Though Chris Paul’s fourth-quarter magic from Game 2 still has the series even, the Clippers have to be concerned about their downward trend. From their perspective, here’s how the series has gone: +21, +2, -12, -21.

“We haven’t accomplished anything yet,” Gasol said after the game. “But we’ve gotten a little bit better every game, and we have to continue to do that.”

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Griz-Clips Game 3 Preview: Lessons from Los Angeles

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Its that time again.

The playoffs move from Flophouse to Grindhouse tonight, with an 8:30 tip down at FedExForum. A few things on my mind as the series moves to Memphis:

Fourth Quarter Contrast and the Unremarkable Bench Disparity: I don’t have much in the way of expectation in terms of performance or outcome tonight, but I do in terms of strategy. Based on adjustments between Games 1 and 2 and his subsequent public statements, it seems like Lionel Hollins has come around to a notion that, frankly, I wrote and talked about in the run-up to the series: That, against the Clippers, the Grizzlies likely need to tighten their rotation, lean more on the starters, and be careful with early fourth-quarter lineups.

While the details are different between Games 1 and 2 in terms of foul issues and player performance, both games ended up only one bucket apart through three quarters. In Game 1, the Clippers lead 75-69 to start the fourth. In Game 2, the Clippers lead 75-71. After that, things went very differently, with the Clippers running over the Grizzlies 37-22 in Game 1, and the Grizzlies battling to a 20-18 advantage in Game 2.

What was different? Let’s start with who was on the floor. In both games, the Clippers started with the same full bench unit, which happens to include what might arguably be three of their five best players this season — Eric Bledsoe, Jamal Crawford, and Matt Barnes.

In Game 1, the Grizzlies countered with a “throwing-stuff-against-the-wall” small-ball lineup, with Tayshaun Prince sliding to the four and three bench players on the perimeter. Marc Gasol was the only starter playing his regular position. This lineup made a couple of shots early to cut the deficit to one, but couldn’t handle the Clippers on the boards or Eric Bledsoe in the backcourt and by the time the Grizzlies started coming back with more starters the game was already beginning to slip away.

In Game 2, by contrast, The Grizzlies began the quarter with a more conventional two-starter lineup (Mike Conley and Zach Randolph) but came in more quickly with other starters when signs of trouble emerged.

On the whole, the biggest difference between the two fourth quarters for the Grizzlies came in the backcourt, where starters Conley and Tony Allen combined for roughly five minutes in Game 1 but played 23 of 24 minutes in Game 2. Perhaps this had something to do with the enormous defensive disparity between the two games.

On the Clippers end, the biggest disparity was the odd gift from Clippers’ coach Vinny Del Negro, who had played proven fourth-quarter Griz killer Eric Bledsoe for the full-fourth quarter in Game 1 and but then yanked him after five minutes in Game 2.

The good news for the Grizzlies is you can probably expect their Game 2 adjustments to carry over. The bad news is that Del Negro may not be so reliable.

In general, I shrug off worry about the bench disparity between the two teams, with the Clippers’ bench outscoring their Grizzlies’ counterparts 79-51 through two games. It is what it is at this point. The Clippers are built like this. Their strong bench isn’t just a luxury. Reserve guards Bledsoe and Crawford are more dynamic than veteran starter Billups. Starting center DeAndre Jordan is such a deplorable foul shooter that he can’t be trusted in the fourth quarter. All season, reserve small forward Barnes has outplayed starter Caron Butler. The Clippers best lineups, on the season, have tended to be bench-heavy lineups. While the Grizzlies would love to get better, more consistent production from the likes of Jerryd Bayless, Quincy Pondexter, Darrell Arthur, or Ed Davis, they don’t need to play the Clippers even bench vs. bench. Basketball isn’t played that way. The only match-up that matters is roster vs. roster.

The question for the Grizzlies is if the starters can play heavy minutes — and have their rest staggered effectively — without wearing down. Conley and Gasol played 44 minutes each in Game 2. That’s probably a bit much to expect. But with the season on the line and no back-to-backs in the playoffs, there’s no reason — beyond poor play or extreme foul problems — starters can’t play 38-40 a game.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies-Clippers Series Preview: Ten Takes, Part Two

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Playoff-tested Tayshaun Prince could have the right match-up against the Clippers.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Playoff-tested Tayshaun Prince could have the right match-up against the Clippers.

After a cover package in this week’s Flyer and a first installment of this series-specific preview yesterday, I wrap it up today with this second installment. The series begins at 9:30 tomorrow night in Los Angeles. Until then …

6. TP3: The Clippers are associated with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. The less starry Grizzlies with the trio of Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and Mike Conley. But if Eric Bledsoe is the secondary player I see as most crucial for the Clippers’ hopes in this series, I think Tayshaun Prince could be the Grizzlies’ wild card.

Prince has been a very modest scorer for the Grizzlies since coming over at midseason, averaging only 8.8 points a game on 43/37 shooting, with his 9.1 field-goal attempts per game including only 1.1 three-points attempts.

But Prince has been a bigger factor against the Clippers. In three games this season, including one when he still played for Detroit, Prince has averaged 15.3 points on 54/57 shooting, his minutes (31.7 average for Griz, 36.3 vs. Clips), shot attempts (12.3), and three-point attempts (2.3) all up.

Though the sample size is obviously tiny, Prince’s shot selection has been less mid-range dependent against the Clippers than it’s been this season overall. And it’s easy to see why that might be the case. None of the Clippers’ small forwards — Caron Butler, Matt Barnes, and Grant Hill — are a deterrent to Prince’s post game. Meanwhile, the Clippers have proven susceptible to both wing scoring and three-point shooting overall, so if Prince spaces the floor out more than is typical for the Grizzlies — and this was happening in last week’s meeting between these teams — there will be open long-range looks.

Prince has hit the 15-point plateau only twice in 37 games with the Grizzlies, one of those against the Clippers. But with favorable match-ups, an expected bump in minutes, and so much defensive pressure on the Grizzlies’ backcourt, the bet here is that Prince does it a couple of times here if the series goes long and averages double-digits.

Prince’s ball-handling ability can also be a crucial release valve for the Grizzlies offense, giving the team a viable option outside the backcourt to advance the ball downcourt and initiate offensive sets, an adjustment the team made in the second half of the last meeting between these teams, after Eric Bledsoe had manhandled Griz guards in the first half.

The lanky Prince could also be the catalyst in another potentially key element of the series: Three-point shooting. Last spring that was — unsurprisingly — a big advantage for the Clippers, who made six a game on 38% shooting while the Grizzlies made three a game on 29% shooting. There’s good reason to think this disparity might even out this time.

The Grizzlies were an average team in terms of defending against three-point shooting before the Rudy Gay trade, but have been the NBA’s best in that department since. A more attentive Prince is less likely to surrender the kind of long-range barrage that helped the Clippers steal Game 1 last spring. Meanwhile, the Clippers have struggled to defend the three this season. In the two games between these teams since the trade, the Clippers and Grizzlies have each made 12 three-point field goals, but the Grizzlies have done so on 48% shooting to the Clippers’ 29%.

The key to threes in this series could be at the three, where the Clippers’ Butler and Barnes averaged three makes a game between them in the regular season while the Grizzlies’ Prince and Quincy Pondexter — who combined to shoot 8-15 from three against the Clippers this season — averaged a combined 1.5 a game. Winning the small forward match-up — overall but especially from three-point range — could be a quiet tipping point in the series.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Take Five: Linked Observations the State of the Griz

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

DSC_5793.jpeg

Five quick-ish and related observations on where the Grizzlies stand today:

1. The Race for #3: With the Dallas Mavericks beating the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime last night, the race for the third seed remains very tight with the Grizzlies, Clippers, and Nuggets all tied in the loss column at 23. Here’s how the schedules for all three teams set up the rest of the way:

Grizzlies:
at Knicks
Rockets
at Wolves (back to back)
Spurs
at Blazers
at Lakers
at Kings
Bobcats
at Rockets
Clippers (b2b)
at Mavericks
Jazz

Notes: 5/7 home/road split with two back-to-backs and 9/12 against teams currently in the playoff race. Grizzlies are difficult to project based on how they’ve played without Marc Gasol and the uncertainty of his return. If the team gets back on track, 8-4 seems like a reasonable finish, which would get them to 55-27, but it could easily be a little worse if their defense continues to flounder without Gasol. The “Hollinger Playoff Odds” on ESPN.com has them projected at 54-28.

Clippers:
at Hornets
at Spurs
at Rockets (b2b)
Pacers
Suns
Lakers
Wolves
at Hornets
at Grizzlies (b2b)
Blazers
at Kings

Notes: 5/6 home/road split with two back to backs and 6/11 against teams currently in the playoff race. But not included among those playoff-caliber opponents are the Hornets, whom the Clippers still play on the road twice. The Hornets have beaten both the Grizzlies and Nuggets in the past week, so the Griz will hope they can continue to play sleeper. I’m feeling a 7-4 finish against this schedule, which would also land the Clippers at 55-27, which is where ESPN also has them projected.

Nuggets:
at Spurs
Nets
at Jazz
Mavericks (b2b)
Rockets
Spurs
at Mavericks
Blazers
at Bucks
Suns

Notes: 6/4 home/road split with one back to back and 8/10 against teams currently in playoff race. Denver has to play better teams on average but with more rest and more games on their near-insurmountable home floor. Like the Grizzlies, there’s mystery here about the availability of their most important player, point guard Ty Lawson. I’m saying 7-3 the rest of the way, which would put the Nuggets at 56-26. ESPN has them at 55-27.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 91, Blazers 85 — Hollins Goes Small, Comes Up Big

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Mike Conley and the Griz finally found a groove in the second half.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Mike Conley and the Griz finally found a groove in the second half.

The Lead: After getting poor combined play from three young frontcourt players elevated by the absence of Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur, seeing his team look sluggish and out of sync on both ends of the floor, and falling down by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, Lionel Hollins went small, bringing Tayshaun Prince back into the game for Ed Davis late in the third quarter.

At that point, the Grizzlies were down 11 points and Marc Gasol and Mike Conley were playing well but couldn’t find anyone to join them. Jerryd Bayless and Quincy Pondexter had just missed consecutive wide-open jumpers that would have cut the deficit to single digits. Nothing was working. But against the Blazers reserves, with combo forward Victor Claver at power forward, going small generated energy in the form of a furious 10-1 closing run.

Hollins stayed small throughout the fourth, even when the Blazers brought their starters back in, and the Grizzlies ended up closing the game on a 36-19 run over the final 15 minutes with Prince joining Marc Gasol up front, Mike Conley and Bayless manning the backcourt, and Pondexter and Tony Allen splitting up small forward minutes.

Prince put on a clinic for much of the game in the art of missing wide-open mid-range jumpers — when one finally dropped, he raised his endless arms to the sky in relief — but his ability to hold his own defensively and on the boards even after the Blazers brought back burly starter J.J. Hickson was a quiet key that allowed Gasol, Bayless, and Conley to make a series of game-saving plays.

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Sports Sports Feature

Memphis Grizzlies: Bigs & Balance

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Memphis Grizzlies emerged from last weekend’s NBA All-Star break still on pace for the best record in franchise history but with many questions to answer over the season’s remaining 31 regular-season games.

If the team, projected to finish fifth in the Western Conference even before the trade of longtime would-be star Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors, slides further than that, then jettisoning Gay will obviously be seen — fairly or not, given the preexisting downward trajectory — as a turning point. But if the Grizzlies maintain their ground or better, the correction will have begun not so much with the deal itself but with the delayed acceptance of it.

The Grizzlies, from the head coach down through the locker room, wasted a few days pouting in the wake of the Gay trade, despite the fact that the team’s slide since November had coincided with Gay’s worst season since his rookie year.

The trade itself was a reminder of something we learned with the Pau Gasol deal: that, in a lot of quarters, any deal made by the Grizzlies that includes financial motivation will be seen entirely through that prism.

Make no mistake, with new controlling owner Robert Pera acknowledging some initial cash-flow issues in the immediate wake of his purchase agreement with Michael Heisley, there are legitimate questions about the wherewithal of the new ownership group. But those questions can’t begin to be answered until we see how they conduct the coming off-season. The problem with drawing such conclusions from the Gay deal, of course, is that “financial reasons” and “basketball reasons” are becoming increasingly inseparable in the NBA. Gay is set to make north of $19 million at the conclusion of his current contract without having ever made an All-Star team. In a league with strict rules that tie player payroll to methods of player acquisition, that’s a poor allocation of resources, no matter your market.

Nevertheless, the deal was disruptive, and the team seemed very fragile in its aftermath, with Lionel Hollins seemingly incapable of making public statements without generating controversy and the team’s defensive effort looking near non-existent in the first half of a road loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

But the team rallied to play a competitive second half in Atlanta, and, afterward, team leaders such as Marc Gasol and Tony Allen responded with tough-minded comments that went beyond the usual locker-room platitudes. A day and a half later, Hollins used his pre-game press availability to finally end the mourning. He didn’t pretend to approve the deal, but he did re-engage the season’s challenge.

“Have I been emotional about the trade? Yes,” Hollins said. “But I don’t want it to be taken that I can’t move forward and for my players to take it that I can’t move forward. Because I have and I will. And I expect them to.”

This “calming-the-waters” address was at once emotional, positive, and tinged with defiance. It was also effective, because an hour later, his team took the floor and replicated that tone in a rousing win over the playoff-seeding rival Golden State Warriors, launching a three-game winning streak going into the break and ushering the post-trade malaise out of the organization.

This winning streak brought the Grizzlies to 4-2 post-trade. That’s a small sample size and one made even less persuasive given that five of the six games were at home and four of the six were against teams with losing records. But these games still offer a useful glimpse of the way the Grizzlies may play after two trades that turned over more than a third of the team’s roster.

Removing Gay, who, over the course of the season, has led the team in minutes and used — via shot attempts, assists, and turnovers — nearly a quarter of the team’s possessions while on the floor, created a huge hole in the team’s offense. And replacement small-forward Tayshaun Prince was never going to — really, was never meant to — fill it.

The idea was that Prince would use his possessions more efficiently while fostering better overall team play on the offensive end. Though six games post-trade, so far so good.

There was some thought that the extra touches freed up by Gay’s departure would shift heavily to Zach Randolph, but that has not been the case so far. Randolph’s usage rate since the trade has held steady, and while he’s rebounded from his historically rough January, his still-all-star-level production this season hasn’t come with much that would convince onlookers he can still put a team on his back the way he did two seasons ago.

Instead, these extra touches have essentially been dispersed, with Gasol leading all starters in usage rate since the trade. Fittingly, exchanging an offense driven by a turnover-prone isolation scorer in Gay for one driven by the team’s most talented combo passer/scorer in Gasol has had a dramatic impact.

Prior to the trade, the Grizzlies’ team assist ratio and overall offensive production had both fallen to the bottom third of the NBA. In the six games since the trade, against a pretty solid array of defenses, the team has notched an assist ratio that would be in the league’s top five and an overall scoring rate that would be approaching the top 10. People worried about replacing Gay’s team-leading 17 points per game, but, in reality, Gay’s low-efficiency ball dominance may have been a drag on the offense.

For the past few seasons, the over-emphasized question for the Grizzlies has been: Randolph or Gay? The answer, unsurprisingly, may turn out to be Gasol.

Gasol is probably a slightly more prolific scorer on the (left) block than he is in the high post. There, he can score with rumbling hooks and short turnaround jumpers and is more likely to draw fouls. But the team’s overall offense seems to function best with Gasol stationed around the free-throw line, where he can direct the offense out of the high post or form a pick-and-roll partnership with Conley.

Here, Gasol can send bounce passes to backdoor cutters or set up frontcourt mates — namely Randolph — for low-post attempts. If that’s not there, Gasol can simultaneously deliver the ball to curling shooters — primarily Conley — while hip-checking their defender to free them up for open jumpers. And if he can’t make a play for someone else, Gasol can torch defenses with his own near-50 percent mid-range shooting.

While Conley’s individual production has not been as strong as it was in his unsustainably superb November, the team’s offensive performance with him on the floor has been nearly as good, and he’s combined solid shooting with his best assist ratio of the season.

While the early returns on the team’s post-trade offense have been very encouraging, there’s some concern on the other end, where the team’s once-elite defense has slipped a little. The post-trade defensive efficiency would still land the Grizzlies in the league’s top 10 but several spots lower than the overall second-place rank for the season.

The conventional wisdom after the trade was that the Grizzlies would miss Gay’s scoring and shot creation, but they would become even more solid on the defensive end. But Gay’s defense may have been as underrated as his offense was overrated, and exchanging Gay’s minutes on the wing for aging Prince and physically weak Austin Daye has drained the team of some dynamism on that end. An even bigger concern may be Gasol. The team’s defensive efficiency with Gasol on the floor, while still very good, has slipped each month, and the Grizzlies need Gasol, even with an expanded offensive load, to get back to the all-NBA-caliber defense he displayed earlier in the season.

Still, the balance the team has displayed before the trade is more promising going forward than the all-defense/no-offense game the team had played for much of the previous two months. And the realistic goal before the trade — not “winning a title,” which was always loose talk, but fielding a competitive playoff team — seems just as realistic now.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Bigs and Balance: Elevating Marc Gasol and sharing the ball will be the Grizzlies’ second-half path.

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Zach Randolph has bounced back from a rough January, but dealing Rudy Gay hasnt really changed his role so far.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Zach Randolph has bounced back from a rough January, but dealing Rudy Gay hasn’t really changed his role so far.

The Grizzlies emerged from last weekend’s NBA All-Star break still on pace for the best record in franchise history but with many questions to answer over the season’s remaining 31 regular-season games.

If the team, projected to finish fifth in the Western Conference even before the trade of longtime would-be star Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors, slides further than that, then jettisoning Gay will obviously be seen — fairly or not, given the preexisting downward trajectory — as a turning point. But if the Grizzlies maintain their ground or better, the correction will have begun not so much with the deal itself but with the delayed acceptance of it.

The Grizzlies, from the head coach down through the locker room, wasted a few days pouting in the wake of the Gay trade, despite the fact that the team’s slide since November had coincided with Gay’s worst season since his rookie year.

The trade itself was a reminder of something we learned with the Pau Gasol deal: that, in a lot of quarters, any deal made by the Grizzlies that includes financial motivation will be seen entirely through that prism.

Make no mistake, with new controlling owner Robert Pera acknowledging some initial cash-flow issues in the immediate wake of his purchase agreement with Michael Heisley, there are legitimate questions about the wherewithal of the new ownership group. But those questions can’t begin to be answered until we see how they conduct the coming off-season. The problem with drawing such conclusions from the Gay deal, of course, is that “financial reasons” and “basketball reasons” are becoming increasingly inseparable in the NBA. Gay is set to make north of $19 million at the conclusion of his current contract without having ever made an All-Star team. In a league with strict rules that tie player payroll to methods of player acquisition, that’s a poor allocation of resources, no matter your market.

Nevertheless, the deal was disruptive, and the team seemed very fragile in its aftermath, with head coach Lionel Hollins seemingly incapable of making public statements without generating controversy and the team’s defensive effort looking near non-existent in the first half of a road loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

But the team rallied to play a competitive second half in Atlanta, and, afterward, team leaders such as Marc Gasol and Tony Allen responded with tough-minded comments that went beyond the usual locker-room platitudes. A day and a half later, Hollins used his pre-game press availability to finally end the mourning. He didn’t pretend to approve of the deal, but he did re-engage the season’s challenge.