Memphis Grizzlies: Still grinding after all these years

The Step Back has been born from the aesthetics and traditions of the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network. In the past, Hardwood Paroxysm has produced a massive stand-alone season preview. This year, that preview effort has been rolled up into the launch of The Step Back. 

The Step Back’s writers and illustrators have prepared a hefty deep-dive into each team, built from multiple smaller sections. This year’s theme is television comedies and each section is named after some of our favorite sitcoms. For links to all 30 teams, as well as details about the focus of each section, check out our guide on how to read this preview.

Community

By Kevin Yeung (@KevinHFY)

So much could go right, so much could go wrong. The Memphis Grizzlies won the offseason! They brought back Mike Conley, they signed Chandler Parsons, they hired David Fizdale, they drafted Wade Baldwin and Deyonta Davis (lottery-bound talents both, that fell to the Grizzlies at Nos. 17 and 31 respectively). Near-perfect scheming by Chris Wallace and the Grizzlies front office, all to place them upon the precipice of collapse.

This is what happens when your three most important players  —  Conley, Parsons, and of course Marc Gasol  —  are coming off seasons in which they missed huge chunks of time due to significant injuries, respectively, to their Achilles, knee, and foot. The Grizzlies didn’t have any control over that, and maybe there’s a line of reasoning that says they should’ve pursued a safer player than Parsons knowing Conley and Gasol were already hurt, but that presupposes the Grizzlies had choice. Nah. You don’t get to cry “small market” for years and then dip on a player like Parsons, especially when free agency was the wolves this year. The Grizzlies did their best.

Parsons, from a distant perspective, is everything the Grizzlies have needed for, oh, maybe a half-decade. He’s 6-10, shoots threes (41.4 percent last season), defends a few positions (he’s aight), and fits the wing playmaker mold (sorta) — imagine all of that as a small ball power forward, right!

It may not be so simple. The Grizzlies will lose a lot of presence on the glass with Parsons at the power forward, and his defense and playmaking are a touch overstated. Shifting Parsons up a position because of his defensive limitations, and matching him up with big instead of fast, is one of the better rationales for that. Still, it’s hard to complain. Parsons won’t get played off the floor à la Mike Miller, and he’ll keep the ball moving. He’ll yank the floor open for the Grizzlies in a way they’ve never really experienced before, and by that, I mean ‘for at least 30 minutes per game.’ If healthy.

Health is the key! Together, Conley and Gasol with Parsons would be dynamic. I’m so sure about this; I’d take a healthy Grizzlies team over everyone else’s favorite new challenger, the Utah Jazz, in a snap. I’d take a healthy Grizzlies team for 50 wins.

If, optimistically, Gasol can return to peak form as a rim zone defender (he faltered at the start of last season) and the addition of Parsons leads to a two-headed perimeter attack with Conley able to play off-ball more often, curl inside coming off screens looking to score, and such, then the Grizzlies are cash. Dave Joerger was ousted as coach after some time of will-he-or-won’t-he tension, but his replacement has been long in the waiting for his first head coach gig. Fizdale spent the last eight years under Erik Spoelstra, and he’s quite well-touted. I have a lot of faith in his ability to handle this roster.

But if injuries strike, and the chance of reinjury certainly seems to be high between Conley, Gasol, and Parsons, then the Grizzlies could sink far, fast. The downside of blowing cap room on Parsons and then re-signing Conley for $150 million on top of that is the Grizzlies now don’t have the underlying structure to absorb injuries. I guess never say never, since last season’s skeleton crew Grizzlies still finished above .500 (42–40, seven wins above their expected Pythagorean win total), but the best of the rest isn’t great.

Zach Randolph and Tony Allen are forever great, but this will be their age-35 season. After them, and All-PER first teamer Brandan Wright who never really found a feels-good fit in his first season with the Grizzlies last year, we’re talking about mostly unproven guys. The flip side, I suppose, is an upside hedge  —  the Grizzlies are starting JaMychal Green over Randolph this season, after the former excelled in a bench role last season, and that comes with the added benefit of preserving Randolph’s health while he gets to tear through opposing benches. Jarell Martin, who plays the same position as Green and Randolph, also looked like a keeper in his rookie season, so power forward is well set.

It’s the perimeter that looks rough. The wing consists of James Ennis (really good for nine games last season), Troy Daniels (really good at one thing), and Vince Carter (really good a decade ago). An actual rookie, Baldwin, is probably the Grizzlies’ only viable backup point guard this season, unless also-a-rookie Andrew Harrison surprises. Hey, if all breaks well, Baldwin and Ennis could pan out legit to go with all that power forward talent for a steady bench. It’s hard to forecast them overachieving in case of a long-term injury, at least this early into (most of) their careers, so, well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

The Grizzlies are a house of cards. It feels like anything could knock them over, and I would be incredibly anxious about it. But this thing, if it sticks together long enough, is going to be a very good thing. Maybe not good enough to top the Golden State Warriors, but that’s a terrible measure for success anyway. The Grizzlies could’ve been out of the game by now. They dealt with a gazillion injuries last season, they could’ve struck out in free agency, Conley could’ve left, and then we might be talking, for yet another year, about how this team is finally going to suck. But it never sucks. The Grizzlies are a team that live on the precipice, that thrive off the adrenaline rush.

Grit-and-grind, sort of a nebulous concept that has somehow swelled to encompass even Matt Barnes’ shenanigans, isn’t dead, even if it’s going to look a little different this season without the same muddy blunt attacks in the post. Parsons at the power forward, or whatever else, can still be grit-and-grind. What isn’t grit-and-grind is giving up on the thing when it can still be pulled from the edge. (Incidentally, what also isn’t grit-and-grind is not being a weirdo sap about it when given the chance.) The Grizzlies can be beat, bruised, all that, but I can never picture them having a care about the noise. Here we are now!

Don’t take the under.

Art by Luca Trovati

The Odd Couple

By Bryan Harvey (@LawnChairBoys)

Tony Allen is about to enter year seven with the Memphis Grizzlies. Before that, he played six seasons with the Boston Celtics. When he signed with Memphis, he brought the experiences of two NBA Finals appearances and one ring. His sole job in those championship bouts was to hound Kobe Bryant. He is blue collar to the bone; a steel trap with a hitchhiker’s thumb for a jump shot. His two greatest claims to fame, aside from missing wide open layups, might be that Kobe labeled him the best defender he ever played against and his nickname, the Grindfather, which makes him sound like a man married to sandpaper. When he dies, I expect his bones will be ground into dust and sprinkled between the hardwood planks, and his guts will be hung from the rims in nylon mimicry. And to honor a man who has given just about everything to Memphis basketball, no one will score a basket for at least nine minutes of what some might label a Carthaginian hell.

Parched and weather beaten, but never defeated, Allen is the metonym for all that the Grizzlies have been. Meanwhile, Chandler Parsons is the metonym for all that they hope to become, if not in body, then at least in the spirit of boundless empires.

When Parsons first arrived on the shores of that river city, one can imagine Allen’s teammates whispering, as if in debate with their own identities: “We’ve played with Tony Allen, and this guy is no Tony Allen.” And as they observed such things as the differences between alchemy and science, Parsons was probably sounding like a boy brought up on Jerry McGuire soundbites and a flood of Monopoly money. And then, just for good measure and as his new teammates started to question this proposed metamorphosis, the surfer looking dude probably swished a three-pointer and the nylon splash probably sounded sweeter than Justin Timberlake bringing sexy back. He most definitely is not Tony Allen, and anytime he makes a shot from that Forbidden Zone beyond the arc, his teammates must wonder from what reality they have escaped and if the human body can survive the slow violence of hyper sleep.

Of course, that is all well and good and maybe even possible, but what that is may also not be the way of things. While promising the future, Parsons is nowhere near the steady hand at the till, at least not in the way the Grindfather is.

CP-25 has played five seasons with two different teams. When he suits up for the Grizz at the start of the sixth, well, you do the math. Memphis coach David Fizdale recently compared Parsons’ skillset to that of LeBron James, whom Fizdale coached in Miami. The statement is ripe with hyperbole, but the seed of truth in it, if there is one, is the versatility of Parsons. While his body has prevented him from playing at least 70 games in three of his five seasons, he can, when healthy, fill out a stat sheet. I don’t know if that makes him LeBron, Josh Smith, or Derrick McKey, but I do know it makes him something other than Allen, which is not to say he will necessarily be any better or more valuable to the Grizzlies than Allen has been for what is almost a decade of Grit-and-Grind.

But there is no denying that Allen embodies the abyss. Offense disappears in his presence, even his own. Watching Parsons alongside him on the wing will be a bit like aiming a radio wave into a black hole, or watching Death and a knight play chess by the ocean. And yet, staring off into the future, one might find it easier to imagine more players like Parsons taking the court in Memphis than the possibility of another Allen, which is to say, what does anyone really know about that odd pairing of creation and destruction?

Perfect Strangers

by Matt D’Anna (@hoop_nerd)

Ten Word Analysis: I hope this lineup happens often…but I doubt it.

TeamSPACE charts are based on mapped clusters of shot activity. These areas are affectionately called Hunting Grounds, because they are the areas on the court where a player hunts for shots — and successfully scores most often. TeamSPACE takes the Hunting Grounds of all five players in a lineup and puts them on the court together — because, you know, they have to share that physical space, and there is only one ball.

In the past, it was one color per player; which meant that blending colors represented overlapping spaces for shot activity. But this time around, these are not your ordinary TeamSPACE shot maps. Each lineup is analyzed in the aggregate — one color! — and that unit is compared that unit to the rest of the league. So you will see a persistent red layer on every chart, highlighting the league’s Hunting Grounds from last season. The most prolific locations should come as no surprise: the paint, the corners, most of the top of the arc, and a couple of dabs at the foul line and top of the key.

So…how were these lineups chosen for each team? In the past, it’s been about projecting the starting lineup, estimating the most used lineup, or even designing the “most favoritest” lineup. This year? It’s the these charts represent the “most interestingly feasible” lineups….what? That’s a loaded phrase, so let’s unpack it a bit.

The goal is to identify the collection of five players on a team that could potentially play together, and if they did, the offensive results could be glorious. Ideally these lineups aren’t too far-fetched, but also slightly off-kilter and confusing to an opposing defense. While this type of analysis is not conducive for assessing defense, somewhat reasonable decisions are attempted to be made. So while it’s tempting to just put all the best shooters together…how realistic is it (outside of Houston, at least)? And, full disclosure: I favor some stretch in my lineups. It not only provides plenty of high-octane potential, but getting stretchy is also on par with current league-wide trends.

Each TeamSPACE chart has a couple of other sitcom-related features:

Family Matters: You’ll notice a series of Jaleel White’s across half court. Each lineup is scored on a scale of 0-7 Steve Urkels for how well it matches league-wide trends. Remember, there’s seven league Hunting Grounds (right corner three; at the rim; left corner three; foul line/top of the key; right wing; middle 3pt; left wing). A lineup gains points for matching each area; it loses points for messy excess shot activity.

Odd Couple: “Most interestingly feasible” is obviously debatable, so in order to account for some of those decisions, you’ll see Oscar and Felix on each chart. Often, there are players that are in the lineup…and maybe/probably they should not be. They get the Oscar label. And, there are those players that are out of the lineup…and maybe/probably should be included. They are the Felix for their team.

And briefly, a word about data. These strange visual displays are based on last season’s shot data, weighted by made buckets — so rookies and season-long injuries are sadly excluded. This analysis is nothing without the help of Darryl Blackport, and the research materials available atBasketball-Reference and NBA.com. Further, these charts feature some of the best logo re-designs I could curate from the ol’ Information Superhighway, including Dribbble.com and Pinterest. I made none of the logos; I merely selected some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Everybody Loves Raymond

By Matt Cianfrone (@Matt_Cianfrone)

Honestly, there probably isn’t a team with more likable players on it in the NBA than the Memphis Grizzlies. Part of it is the idea that the team has completely bought into a culture that goes beyond basketball. “Grit-and-Grind” is a lifestyle. It is the city of Memphis. Most importantly, it is the personality of each and every core member of the Grizzlies. So trying to pick one single player out as most likable should not have been easy.

After all, there is Marc Gasol, a feisty Spaniard who has adopted the city of Memphis as his own and decided to stay their long term. Or Zach Randolph, the big bully who turned his perception around mid-career, forgoing his jump shooting ways to drag opponents into the mud with him. Add into it that he does things like pay utilities bills for families in need in Memphis and choosing Randolph would have upset nobody.

But honestly, it would have been dishonest. Because despite how lovable the Grizzlies are as a whole, one player stands above the rest: The Grindfather, Tony Allen, is the most lovable player on the roster. And, while we’re still being honest, it may not even been that close.

The most important thing about Allen is that he is focused about nothing more than being himself. On the court that means not really worrying about offense so that he can just make life miserable for opponents on the other end of the floor. There is something fun about knowing that when you turn on a Grizzlies game Allen is going to be harassing some poor sucker all around the court by invading their personal space. And when Allen does get the ball on offense, especially on a fastbreak, the result is completely up in the air. Considering how skilled NBA players are, seeing someone revert back to their middle school self when no one is around is something everyone can laugh at.

The best part about Allen, though, is that it is easier to love him based on his off-court actions. There was the time while filming a commercial Allen signed a ton of autographs and danced around. Or the time he hosted a charity karaoke event and sung “Whoomp There it is” with the winner.

But the most fun thing that Allen does off of the court is spend time with his son. Follow Allen on Twitter long enough and you are sure to see a video of the pair hanging out. And listen to Allen as he speaks in those videos and you’ll hear a parent as happy and proud as one can possibly be.

Really, those videos are the perfect encapsulation of why it is so easy to love Allen — he is going to do exactly what he wants at all times. And whether it is playing defense, dancing for a commercial or raising his son, he is going to do it with a passion that most normal people don’t have. We should all take a lesson from the Grindfather, the most likable player on the Grizzlies, and maybe in the entire NBA.

Boy Meets World

By Andrew Ford (@AndrewFord22)

It’s difficult to remember the last time the Memphis Grizzlies heavily relied on young players. For so many seasons, the franchise has brought in veterans as stop gaps and positional backups because both Lionel Hollins and Dave Joerger were adamant about veterans being more reliable. The problem with that philosophy is that the young players on the roster never get a chance to properly develop if they aren’t ever thrown into the fire.

Heading into this season, the Grizzlies are in an interesting spot. With several guys just one step away from retirement and less veterans on the roster to plug in when injuries strike, the Grizzlies will likely need to rely on young talent this season more than they have in the last half decade.

Incoming rookie point guard Wade Baldwin IV is the most likely youngster to receive significant minutes. Unless the Grizzlies go out and sign a veteran point guard between now and the start of the season, Memphis will need Baldwin to back up Mike Conley. Given Conley’s shaky bill of health, Baldwin could be needed even more than the Grizzlies would like him to be this season.

Assuming Conley stays healthy all year, Baldwin will likely slide into the rotation as a change of pace backup floor general when the Grizzlies offense is stagnating, as it is prone to do. Baldwin thrives on the break, where he can utilize his incredible athleticism, speed, and strength to pulverize defenders and get to the rim.

Baldwin will likely end up playing more off the ball in halfcourt sets than he ever did at Vanderbilt, so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts to the bulk of his shots coming off of set plays rather than a plethora of high pick-and-rolls, where he is free to dribble into a shot.

Defensively, the Grizzlies are hoping that Baldwin lives up to his tenacious reputation. He’s long for a point guard, with a 6-11 wingspan, and that length coupled with his sturdy frame allows him to guard three positions well. With Conley oft-injured and Tony Allen not able to stay on the floor due to his offensive limitations, the Grizzlies will ask Baldwin to help with the duties of locking down the opposing team’s star guard.

The Grizzlies have also begun prepping for the future of the frontcourt by selecting Deyonta Davis early in the second round of this year’s draft. Davis is more of a project than Baldwin, and he’s not likely to be seen too much on the court this season. However, his motor, ferocity on the boards, and mobility make him an interesting upside play for the Grizzlies. If he can expand his back to the basket game as well as learn how to step out and knock down a midrange jumper with consistency, he should be useful to the Grizzlies when, or if, Zach Randolph ever retires.

Davis’ frontcourt mate Jarell Martin is the young guy most likely to contribute this season in the frontcourt. He might not have ever been 100 percent healthy last season after fracturing his left foot before the first preseason game. Martin’s a little bit traditional in terms of what he can do offensively, and many worry about his tweener build. However, he showed off his impressive motor by eating up the glass when he did play last season, and he has shown that he should at the very least be capable of cleaning up the offensive boards. Defense is still a bit of an unknown for Martin, but with hard work and assuming his body holds up, he should be passable enough on that end to stay on the floor.

The Grizzlies youth has never been the team’s strong suit during the Grit ‘N’ Grind era, but with the golden years possibly coming to an end, it’s time to look towards the future!