Grizzlies Season Grades: Marc Gasol.

(This is the sixth part of an ongoing series where we will grade the Memphis Grizzlies team and franchise for the 2011-2012 season. The first five parts can be found here: Lionel Hollins, Mike Conley Jr, Tony Allen, Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph.)

As we’ve mentioned in this space before, Marc Gasol had a pretty good season. Good enough for someone here to wonder if he was one of the elite players in the game.

The case for Gasol is simple: he affects games on both ends of the court, is in his prime and makes his teammates better. He defends the rim well enough to make up for a poor rotation on defense and is a great rebounder. Offensively, he’s not a traditional center as he plays more in the high post, but his passing ability helps get his teammates quality shots and his game meshes well with Zach Randolph when both are healthy and playing at a high level.

Rudy Gay and Gasol were the two reasons that the Grizzlies’ season didn’t turn disastrous after Randolph was lost for over half of the season in early January and his playoff run was even more inspiring. You have to like a guy who raised his play when his team needed it the most.

In just four seasons, Gasol has went from a throw-in to the trade of his older brother to a legitimate all-star and franchise corner stone. Could anyone have predicted that at the time?

To hear Chris Wallace tell it, he insisted on getting Marc in that deal and without him, there would be no trade. This is the part where you say “yeah, but it was still a terrible deal.” That’s one way of looking at it, but getting an all-star center out of any trade is a good one, even if you’re sending out another all-star center. The Grizzlies broke even, even if it took three or four years to do so.

Statistically, Gasol tied his career high in points per game and actually finished about a half a rebound per game behind his previous career high that he set during the 2009-2010 season, but his saw a spike in his assists and blocks.

His passing, which was always a strength, became even more pronounced as the Grizzlies would often run their half-court offense through him at the high post/foul line extended area.

However, he shot a career low percentage from the field, but some of that could have to do with him having to shoulder much of the scoring load in Randolph’s absence. Gasol also averaged more minutes per game than at any point in his career, a number that seemed to catch up with him near the end of the regular season. Gasol’s value on the floor (and lack of a dependable back-up) conspired to have him log 36.5 minutes a night. That’s asking a lot of a 7’1 mountain of a man.

The scariest moment of the season for Gasol came against the New Orleans Hornets when he sustained a scary-looking knee injury. He left the game and missed the Grizzlies’ next game against Minnesota, but returned in time for the playoffs where he finally started to look relatively healthy again.

Best game:

Let’s call this one the best moment, as Gasol was named the Western Conference player of the week in January.

Gasol averaged a double-double that week in January as the Grizzlies notched wins over the Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Hornets and Sacramento Kings.

2011-2012 Season Grade: A-

Hard to find too many holes to poke in an all-star campaign where he solidified himself as the Grizzlies’ franchise player for the next six years. Well done, Big Spain.