The Weekside: Grizzlies Grit N’ Grind is outdated in a Warriors world

Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger’s job is reportedly in jeopardy. The team has had a disappointing start to the season, and the rumors began circling even before his team fell to 14-13 after a 13-point loss in Chicago last night.

Before the defeat, Joerger dismissed the hot-seat reports as silliness. “In our society something is written (on social media),” he said, per Real GM, “and all of a sudden it creates a life of its own from some source.”

Silliness or not — and something worth noting is that Joerger won 105 of his first 164 games (0.640) before this year — there is a growing feeling that time has passed the Grizzlies by.

Zach Randolph and Tony Allen, the two largest emblems of the Grit N’ Grind era, are both 34-years-old and their lower-profile superstar, Marc Gasol, is now 31 and shooting a career-low percentage through 27 games.

More troubling than their ages, however, is their style of play.

In the 479 minutes that Gasol and Randolph have shared the court this season, the Grizzlies have been outscored by 1.8 points per 48 minutes while shooting just 43.0%. To be sure, Memphis hasn’t scored well no matter who is on the court, but the spacing issues presented by having these two hulking bigs on the floor show up even more in the squad’s long-range shooting. With both on the court, Memphis makes just 31.7% of their 3s This is only slightly worse than their 31.8% overall, but their attempts per 48 minutes plummet to 14.5 from a team-wide average of 17.4.

They cannot even get 3s up, and this shows is just how predictable they are. With two bigs out there the team plays almost exclusively inside the arc, and defenses know exactly what is coming.

And with a roster full of middling to poor 3-point shooters, Joerger can’t even change things up if he wants to. The Grizzlies shoot few 3-pointers (27th in the league in attempts) and shoot them poorly (28th in accuracy). Even Mike Conley, normally a reliable shooter with a career 3-point percentage of 37.2%, is hitting just one-third of his attempts from deep this year.

Along with the drop in offensive efficiency (they were middle of the pact the previous two years under Joerger), the defense has fallen off a cliff. The bully ball of Grit ‘N Grind never made for a pretty attack, but it was serviceable enough alongside an elite defense.

They had the eighth-best defense in 2013-14, for example, then followed that up by improving to fourth last season, according to Basketball-Reference. But this year, 21 other teams — including the Blazers, Nets, and Wolves — are harder to score against.

It’s hard to tell how much of this is age vs. a system that has trouble containing the trend towards 3-point shooting throughout the league. Opponents are shooting 37% against the Grizzlies from deep this year, sixth-worst in the NBA and up from 35% last season.

Can we blame Joerger for this?

In one way, we cannot. The team simply doesn’t have the personnel to play any other way. When three of your best four players are bigs and non-shooters (Gasol, Z-Bo, and the Grindfather himself Tony Allen), you are limited in what types of sets you can run. He can (and should) take Allen out of the starting lineup, however, and admit that his defensive prowess can no longer overshadow is offensive ineptitude.

But he is now trying to make some changes. Even against a Bulls starting lineup last night that featured Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson, Joerger went small. Z-Bo came off the bench, as the coach went with a front court of lil’ bro Gasol, Jeff Green, and Matt Barnes. It worked well enough for the first 24 minutes, but the team simply could not score after halftime, putting up just 32 points in the last two quarters while shooting 33.3%.

Perhaps Joerger should have made changes earlier.

But perhaps none of these changes have a chance regardless.

The team’s front office has done the coach no favors, failing to get any shooting for season after season and leaving him with few reasonable options other than playing the traditional style that has gotten regular season results even though virtually every other team has abandoned it.

The Indiana Pacers, which have been Grit N’ Grind East for seasons, gave up on their “Smashmouth” approach this offseason, unloading Roy Hibbert for scraps after David West left in free agency and remaking their offense by putting the hot-shooting, 6’6″ C.J. Miles at power forward. This came after the franchise made the conference finals in two out of three seasons and easily could have tried to stay the course while trying to bounce back from a lost year when Paul George was out with a broken leg.

The Golden State Warriors are an even better success story of not letting past success stand in the way of evolution. Even after winning 51 games in 2013-14, the team swapped Mark Jackson’s more defensive style for the free-flowing offensive ideals of Steve Kerr. We all know what happened there, with the Dubs winning a title on the heels of a historically great regular season campaign under Kerr.

Memphis could bring in Kerr — or the ghost of Red Auerbach — and still not be able to make a major shift simply due to personnel issues. The roster is what it is, and there are no Xs and Os that will allow for a Warriors-style attack in Memphis. Nothing will turn Jeff Green into Draymond Green.

But seeing this franchise hit a crossroad is disappointing not just for the middling record and mediocre basketball being played. It is unfortunate because ongoing poor play may taint the several years of excellent basketball that Joerger and his players have brought to Memphis.

This was a franchise that had never won a playoff game before the second Gasol administration began. When Pau was in town, they did get into the postseason — only to get swept three straight times. Then they traded him for Marc and, somehow, alchemy-ed their way into basketball gold by adding castoffs Z-Bo and Allen.

No titles came. Only one conference finals berth even arrived. But this was high-level basketball for years in a city that had never seen such a thing. They were contenders — or at least fringe contenders — for five straight seasons. That is rare, and the continuity has given this franchise an identity in a league where few do.

It’s hard to have something that is working and then decide to scrap it for something that could potentially work better but also cause everything to fall apart. So while it’s easy to look at the Warriors or Pacers and say that Memphis was short-sighted in trying to hold onto the relative success they had enjoyed, (1) few decision-makers have the courage to risk it all, and (2) in the case of Memphis, there was little to be done this offseason due to salary cap and other limitations.

In the face of all this it would be a shame if a good coach had to fall on the sword when the real issues are larger: a league wide shift and a front office that would not — or could not — see the future coming.

The Grizzlies, as an organization, have failed to adapt. And with a 14-13 record that appears to be headed below .500 any day now, the only adjustment left for a franchise that has grown accustomed to winning at least 50 games every season might be its expectations. It will be a shame if the team tries to blame the coach alone for what has been a collective decision to stay the course.

Around the Association

Boston Celtics

The Celtics and Pistons were preseason darling squads to make some noise in the East due to the strong defensive cultures that are being instilled by Brad Stevens and Jeff Van Gundy. Yet they are in 10th and 8th place, respectively, and just played a game last night that ended  in a Detroit 119-116 win while both teams scored more than 60 points in the second half.

Which is why most preseason discussions are not worth having.

Although glibness aside, it’s very interesting that the Celtics are somehow outscoring opponents by 4.0 points per game — third best in the East — while sitting in 10th place. That seems like a stat quirk that will work itself out and lead to more wins.

Brooklyn Nets

Nets fans have little to be happy about but here’s this: Jason Kidd is slated to make the Hall of Fame a year early when the league changes eligibility wait times later this season. So rather than watch the current team, relive the better days by watching old highlights from those times when arguably the best passer to ever live ran your offense. The behind-the-back passes at 2:16 and 2:40 are pure sorcery.

Chicago Bulls

The Bulls are winners of four straight after beating the Grizzlies on ESPN and now back in second place in the East, which isn’t so bad for a team that is universally not considered particularly good right now.

Cleveland Cavaliers

This is how Skynet starts.

Denver Nuggets

A good story by Sean Deveney of the Sporting News on Will Barton begins like this: “The city of Baltimore was aflame in late April. Protests against the handling of Freddie Gray, a black man who died while in police custody, had devolved into sporadic looting, as the simmering tensions between minority communities and the local police boiled over into violence. Eagerly seeking some way to calm the situation, the White House reached out to local sports figures like Carmelo Anthony and Ray Lewis, hoping that their presence in Baltimore would help settle the trouble. Will Barton was already there.”

Golden State Warriors

Andre Iguodala will fart in your car if you don’t offer good service. Although this shouldn’t be a quality-based decision to be honest. If I’m paying to be in your vehicle, I will break wind as necessary.

Indiana Pacers

If the season ended today, Paul George would be Zach Harper of CBS Sports’ second pick for MVP (after Steph Curry, of course). “He’s still a world-class defender, but the numbers he’s putting up are historic,” wrote Harper. “If his numbers hold this season, he’ll be just the 10th player in NBA history to average 27-8-4 with a true shooting percentage of at least 58.4 percent.”

Los Angeles Lakers

Some Kobe Bryant per-game averages, as noted by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times:

Last 5 Games: 18.2 points (46.6% FG%), 5.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists

First 17 Games: 5.9 points (29.7% FG%), 3.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists

Miami Heat

I’m probably just old but I don’t know what this is all about.

Milwaukee Bucks

Let’s check in on Milwaukee …

Oklahoma City Thunder

Russell Westbrook is playing a different sport than everyone else, Exhibit 3,271

Sacramento Kings

The above-.500-at-home Kings beat the Rockets on Tuesday, but everyone beats the Rockets so I guess this isn’t even really news anymore.

San Antonio Spurs

Kawhi Leonard is leading the NBA in 3-point shooting (49.5%) and Tony Parker is fifth in FG% (56.1%). I’m not saying anybody can beat the Warriors, but the Spurs might be our only hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Toronto Raptors

Good news: The Raptors started Monday’s game against the Pacers by going up 26 to 5. Bad news: They then gave up a 39-4 run on the way to a blowout loss.

Washington Wizards

It’s time to start considering the fact that the Wizards might just be rubbish. They are allowing teams to shoot 40.9% from 3-point land against them, which means that basically facing a team of J.J. Redicks every time they step on the court.

Words With Friends

This week’s five must-read articles about the NBA. Excerpts here — click through to read the full piece.

1. This is the horrific and violent gay slur a star player aimed at a ref: Rajon Rondo’s virulent tirade
by Nathaniel Friedman, Slate

"Trying to fathom Rondo as a person was a large part of having him as one of your favorite players. For years, that activity paid unmistakable strange dividends. Even when Rondo was an asshole, he trafficked in mystique. This week, though, we all found out about a part of Rondo that’s not only deeply alienating—it’s completely prosaic. No matter what else he is, Rajon Rondo is a garden variety homophobe. And for those of us who always viewed him as special or endlessly fascinating, that might be the most disappointing part of all."

2. Ranking the NBA’s five most dynamic duos
by AJ Neuharth-Keusch, USA Today

What originated simply as “lob city” in Los Angeles has quickly turned into something much more. Both are top-five players at their respected positions, and although Paul is struggling a bit this season, there aren’t many other big man, little man combos like these two.

3. Basketball’s birth, in James Naismith’s own spoken words
by Richard Sandomir, New York Times

Naismith reminisced about the first basketball game, played in Massachusetts at what is now Springfield College by students forced inside by the winter weather. The inaugural contest became a melee, with little pretense to civility or resemblance to the game that basketball would become. “I showed them two peach baskets I’d nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s peach basket,” Naismith said in an accent influenced by his Canadian upbringing and many years in Kansas. “I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began.”

4. How to work out like Stephen Curry
by Ethan Sherwood Strauss, ESPN

“Overload” means flooding your perception, to challenge your ability to focus on the tasks at hand. At its most basic representation, that’s the idea behind Curry’s now famous pregame dribbling drills. Dribbling two basketballs simultaneously is less a test of coordination than a test of realization. Can you track two things at once? Can you do the basketball version of patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time?

5. In locker room credentialing, the lines are often blurred
by Tony Biasotti, Columbia Journalism Review

[Howard] Beck points to his experience covering the Los Angeles Lakers for the LA Daily News in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The relationship between the team’s stars, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, grew tenser over those years, and by the end they would lob passive-aggressive comments, or aggressive-aggressive ones, to each other across a locker room full of reporters and teammates. There was no expectation that those comments would stay off the record, Beck says. At the other end of the spectrum, a reporter might overhear players talk about who they’re dating or where they went out the night before. There’s a tacit agreement that those conversations won’t be reported.