2 Grizzlies stats that must improve for championship contention

Injuries have been the talk of the town for the Memphis Grizzlies, and rightfully so, but some things that occur on the court have taken a back seat to the team's injury woes. Of course, a healthy Grizzlies team can propel this team back to the top of the Western Conference standings as it showed during their back-to-back two-seed run, but those teams only won one playoff series.

The Grizzlies are still a relatively young team with the oldest player on the team being only 30 years old (Marcus Smart) as their star players enter their prime years, so the time is now for them to make their move into a consistent Western Conference contender. To achieve that, the team must improve in these stats that held them back in their surprising younger years of contention.

Free Throw Shooting

This has been a thorn in not only the Grizzlies' side, but the city of Memphis in general as the collegiate program, the Memphis Tigers, lost a chance at the program's first-ever national championship in large part due to free throw shooting back in 2008. For the past three seasons, the Grizzlies haven't finished higher than 24th in the NBA in team Free Throw percentage, including finishing dead last in the 2022-23 season.

So far through two preseason games, the team has shot 42-56 (75%) combined from the free throw line. That percentage is higher than what they shot during the back-to-back two seed seasons, so that is a good start, but this team will need to get that percentage closer to the high 70s/low 80s percentile to feel confident that it won't bite them in crucial one-possession situations come clutch time of games.

Three Point Defense

Another stat that can bite the Grizzlies when the games really count is their opponent's three-point percentage. The Grizzlies' defensive style under coach Taylor Jenkins has been to protect the rim and force opponents to take more outside shots but with contested looks. However, that wasn't the case last season as the team ranked 29th in the league in opponent three-point percentage.

Injuries played a massive part in anything related to last season, but through the team's first two preseason games, the opponents have shot a combined 31-76 (40.8%). For comparison, the league's worse three point defense hasn't allowed higher than 39.5% over the past three seasons.

Two games is a small sample size, especially when injuries have once again hit this team to begin this preseason, but the Grizzlies will need to tap into the three-point defensive teams that finished top 11 in the league during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.