Memphis Grizzlies | Pace and Space

The Memphis Grizzlies’ Worst Season: 2018

October 3, 2022 - by Fox Doucette

Since moving after the 2001 season, the Memphis Grizzlies have, in 21 seasons, managed to avoid the status of a true Dumpster fire. And since teams that moved do not, for this feature’s purposes, count, that means we’re not really going to be talking about the worst of Grizzlies basketball. The Vancouver Grizzlies were awful for their first six years. They won 15, 14, 19, 8 (in 50 games in 1999), 22, and 23 games in those first six campaigns. This in turn means that there are four seasons in six worse than the worst in the next 21. A …

Highlights

Are the Memphis Grizzlies for Real?

February 5, 2022February 5, 2022 - by Fox Doucette

The Memphis Grizzlies developed a reputation toward the end of the Grit N’ Grind Era of being a team that looked like a contender in February before completely falling apart in April and crashing out of the playoffs hard. This year, echoes of 2016 and 2017 may very well haunt the 2022 edition of the team as they stand 36-18 through games of Feburary 4 and sit third behind runaway leaders Phoenix and Golden State, the likeliest candidates for the Western Conference Finals. But that was true in 2016, when the Grizz stood 37-24 on March 4 and ended up …

Analysis

The Memphis Grizzlies’ Best Season: 2013

October 4, 2021 - by Fox Doucette

The “Grit N’ Grind” Memphis Grizzlies were the last gasp of the old-school, late-90s/early aughts Dark Ages style of basketball to enjoy NBA success. Lousy on offense because of their allergy to 3-pointers, shunning eFG% and with a defense-first philosophy, it wouldn’t be until 2015 that the team even took a fifth of their shots from long range and escape the dead-last spot in 3PAR. But before the rest of the league left them behind—the collapse of the 2016 Grizz down the stretch and a similar late-season meltdown in 2017 would finally force a rebuild that would have them back …

Is He Any Good

Josh Jackson: Is He Any Good?

March 20, 2020 - by Fox Doucette

Josh Jackson, in his first two years in Phoenix, was one of the worst players in the entire league, one of those complete garbage fires that so often end up on draft day as dishonorable mentions for “the biggest bust ever to go No. __ overall” (in Jackson’s case, fourth to the Suns in the 2017 draft, a year after they’d drafted another candidate for “worst 4th pick ever” in Dragan Bender.) How utterly putrid was Jackson in his first two years? Well, how about not just a negative career total for Win Shares but a catastrophically bad one, namely …

Analysis

Zion Who? The NBA’s Rookie of the Year Candidates Through October

October 31, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

The first calendar month of the young NBA season has come and gone, in a manner of speaking, as even though the season started just nine days ago, it’s still “the end of October.” And with a four- or five-game sample size, we’re still very much in wild overreaction territory but certain narratives are coming together about who in the NBA’s 2019-20 rookie class is truly “NBA ready” and who, at best, needs some seasoning in the G-League (looking at you, Goga Bitadze, after that massive egg you laid in nine minutes against Brooklyn Wednesday night for the Pacers) and …

2020 Preview

Are the 2019-20 Memphis Grizzlies Good?

October 10, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

It’s hard to draw an accurate bead on the Memphis Grizzlies as they proceed to try and move past the Grit N’ Grind Era and into a newer, more modern approach to the game. On the one hand, they have a good combination of promising youth and savvy veterans that you need for a team on the rise. On the other hand, they have an absolutely awful coach in J.B. Bickerstaff, a complete moron of a GM in Chris Wallace, and an approach to analytics powered by John Hollinger, a guy whose statistical analyses have been passed by thanks to …

Analysis

NBA Best And Worst Contracts Part V: Southwest Division

August 23, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

Welcome to Part 5 of our 6-part series taking a look at every contract in the NBA—except for rookies and two-way contracts, plus anyone who didn’t play in the league last season due to injury or having been overseas or something—and quantifying the ratio of minute-weighted dollars paid to Win Shares produced. To remind folks who haven’t read previous entries in this series: As a quick reminder, a rookie, veteran minimum, or midlevel exception contract should produce a Wiggins Factor below 100, a rotation player with a rotation salary should be under 200, and ideally you want your superstar-level contracts …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Blazin’ the Nets in Portland

March 26, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

There were only four NBA games on Monday night, so of course one of them had to go 10 extra minutes to make up for it. The Portland Trail Blazers held home court, clinched a playoff berth, and made the race between 6 and 9 in the East a little more interesting by dropping the Brooklyn Nets 148-144. Damian Lillard was wildly inefficient in this one, scoring 32 points but requiring 31 shots to do it, while D’Angelo Russell wasn’t much better for Brooklyn with 39 points on 16-of-34. All the same, even by the standards of double ovetime, this …

Highlights

Breakfast Special: Revenge of the Scrubs

March 21, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

There were a few real head-scratcher losses by good teams in the NBA Wednesday night, and while we’ll save the recaps for the lightning round because they don’t merit a feature (with one exception for the top three that you’ll see when we get there), it is endlessly interesting every year when March and April roll around and for every team that provides a compelling storyline as they fight for a playoff spot (Pacers and West Coast road trip, anyone?), there are five more that are either bad teams winning as their garbage fire roster finally provides some hope for …

Analysis

How Do Fringe NBA Teams Make the Playoffs?

March 7, 2019 - by Fox Doucette

It’s a maxim in the NBA that your typical 8 seed gets into the playoffs by taking care of business against bad teams and then winning just enough against other teams in their neighborhood to get a little separation when the wins are counted after 82 games. And sure, because it’s a long season, there will be some surprising wins in there, beating Houston or Golden State on the road, and there will be some cringeworthy losses, dropping a game to a tanking team at home, but for the most part, you get to that 42-win range (East) or 48-win …