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Grit-‘N’-Grind 2.0: How the Memphis Grizzlies Finally Joined the Modern NBA
- Updated: January 6, 2017
LOS ANGELES — The Memphis Grizzlies don’t own a Larry O’Brien Trophy. They’ve never won a game during the conference finals, let alone appeared in the NBA Finals during their 21 years in the league (the first six of which were in Vancouver).
But they do have pictures of the trophy prominently displayed in the hallway leading from their locker room to the court at the FedExForum. It’s one of head coach David Fizdale’s many personal touches and another not-so-subtle nod to the Grizzlies’ grander plan of upgrading the organization from perennial Western Conference pest to legitimate title contender.
“I think sometimes when new coaches take over, it’s always, ‘Let’s change everything,’” Fizdale explained. “That wasn’t my attitude when I came to this team. They had a lot of stuff in place that was working for them.
“What we had to do was take that and adapt it to the league that we play in today—being able to defend the three-point line, being able to get up enough threes to equalize the three-point line—but with the same exact toughness and grind-and-grit attitude that they’ve always had.”
This past May, the Grizzlies hired Fizdale away from the Miami Heat, where attention to detail and chain of command have long been imperatives under Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. For eight years—four with the trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh—Fizdale saw firsthand what could be accomplished when everyone was held accountable and pushed beyond their comfort zones. Player development was part of the process for the entire roster, not just for the young guys trying to find their way in the NBA.
“I had never heard anybody put it that way before,” Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said.
In Miami, that meant getting James cozy in the post, coaxing Wade into a secondary role and stretching Bosh’s shot beyond the arc. In Memphis, Fizdale has encouraged everyone to expand their shooting range.
Nobody’s made a bigger leap there than Marc Gasol. His all-around skill set didn’t need much tinkering, but Fizdale and his staff saw enough room to have Gasol take another step back like Bosh once did. When they got to work, they found a willing pupil.
“He’s taken to it like a fish to water, and he’s really used it as a weapon for us,” Fizdale said.
Through the first 36 games of the 2016-17 season, Gasol took nearly twice as many threes and made more than four times as many as he had during his previous eight NBA seasons combined. At 41.1 percent from deep, Gasol boasts the best three-point mark among centers and ranks among the top 25 in the league overall.
Marc Gasol’s 3-Point ShootingCreate column charts
“The more tools you have offensively and defensively, the better,” Gasol said. “I’m obviously not the most gifted guy athletically, so I have to do different stuff for me to be a difference-maker out there.”
Gasol’s move out has brought the big man a new set of challenges. Getting to the rim requires an extra dribble or two—no easy feat for “Big Spain” and his 7’1”, 255-pound frame. Offensive rebounding has never been Gasol’s forte but is now an even tougher task further from the hoop. And where once he might’ve shied away from jacking up shots after a brick or two, he’s now expected to keep launching even if the misfires pile up.
“That’s a different mindset for me,” Gasol explained. “I always, when something isn’t working for me, I go and flip it and try to go somewhere else and try to attack in a different way and let the other thing develop and let it come more organically.”
Gasol, though, plays the same 33-34 minutes a night as a starter that he always has and still ranks among the top 10 in post and elbow touches, per NBA.com.
Zach Randolph, on the other hand, has had to adapt to life on the bench—in his 16th pro season, no less.
“There was no debate about it,” Fizdale said. “He said, ‘Coach, whatever you need.’”
The Grizzlies see the switch as a boon for Randolph: They can more readily modulate the 35-year-old’s playing time to preserve his body and keep him productive. Z-Bo’s logging his lightest nightly load since his sophomore season with the Portland Trail Blazers, but he’s scoring (21.1 points) and rebounding (12.1 boards) on a per-36-minute basis better than he did during either of his All-Star seasons.
The move has worked well for Memphis as a whole. The Randolph-Gasol pairing, once a staple of Grit-‘n’-Grind, stalled out last season. By splitting up the hulking duo, the Grizzlies have afforded themselves a potent frontcourt at all times.
It helps that the Grizzlies had an able replacement waiting in the wings. JaMychal Green isn’t anything close to the low-post brute that Randolph has long been. What he can do—and didn’t do much of prior to this season—is shoot from outside.
He took Fizdale’s …
