Grizzlies Season Grades: Head Coach Lionel Hollins.

(This is the part of the off-season where we here at BSB will be looking at the people and players and grading their collective performance over the past season. This is the first part of that series.)

“Hopefully the Sun will come up tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that it will.”- Lionel Hollins after the Grizzlies’ game 7 loss at home to the Los Angeles Clippers.

With that comment, he was gone. After the season ended in heartbreak for Memphis and their fans, a simple comment like that ended Coach Lionel Hollins’ post-game 7 press conference.

No real emotion either way. I’m sure he was plenty steamed about the lack of effort in a loser-leaves-town match, but he sure didn’t show it on this day.

Understand, that’s the kind of guy Hollins is. He’s not an emotional roller coaster, and he doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. He’s neither too up nor down.

Hollins hasn’t always been that way. Back in his playing days with the Portland Trail Blazers, he was actually quite expressive about his feelings and things going on around the world. In David Halberstam’s book about the world champions from Portland, Hollins was described as petulant, and even somewhat angry.

He’s obviously relaxed some nowadays, but he still remains short with the media and has even exchanged a few choice words with some fans.

A lot of people view Hollins as thick-headed and hard to get along with. I can see the case for that, as well.

No matter what you think of Hollins’ demeanor off the court and away from the game, you have to admit that Hollins is an above-average professional basketball coach. He generally seems to get the most out of the talent that he has and is excellent at getting everyone to buy what he’s selling.

Case in point: When Zach Randolph returned from his injury and the Grizzlies struggled at first, Hollins went to him and broached the idea of bringing him off the bench so that the starter’s minutes weren’t disrupted and they kept the same rotations, except with an all-star caliber big man playing against other teams’ second units.

Not surprisingly, the Grizzlies got hot, finished the season strong and clinched the 4 seed in the western conference, and with it, home-court advantage throughout the first round of the playoffs.

However, as soon as the playoffs started, Randolph was re-inserted to his usual starting power forward role as the Grizzlies lost in  7.

Understand, that’s not why the Grizzlies lost the series. They lost because they had no answer for Chris Paul and looked indifferent about playing one of the biggest games of their lives. That said, going to Randolph out of the clear blue like that was a curious decision.

Basketball, more than any other sport in my opinion, relies on chemistry and familiarity.

Take the 2011 Finals, for instance: Does anyone think that Dallas had more talent than the Miami Heat? Of course not. You could make the case that Miami had at least the two best players in the series, and Chris Bosh was waiting in the wings.

However, Miami has spent the better part of two seasons trying to figure each other out. Some nights they look spectacular and some nights they look pretty bad. The 2011 playoffs feature the best of both worlds as they laid waste to the other two eastern conference contenders from Boston and Chicago, but couldn’t get out of their own way and lost three straight to end the series against Dallas.

Miami may have had more talent, but Dallas had some players too, and they had a team that made sense and had an identity with pieces that complimented each other.

So when Hollins inserted Randolph into the starting line-up, it was a classic case of fixing something that wasn’t broken. The Grizzlies won 41 out of 66 games, mostly with Marreese Speights starting at power forward. The team had gotten comfortable with him scoring some points early and letting Randolph finish the game out.

Again, that’s not why they lost the series, but it’s those types of decisions that make following the Grizzlies so difficult.

Of course, we also covered Hollins’ game 7 rotations and substitutions and that’s another reason why he can be frustrating at times. As much as he demands responsibility from the players and as short a leash as he keeps select guys on, he really hates it when someone questions his motives or strategy.

The biggest knock on Hollins (besides his icy persona from time to time) would be that it doesn’t seem like he has a “Plan B.” That is to say that the Grizzlies play their game very well, and even on off nights, they can still struggle to play their game and win, but in the playoffs against elite competition, they have a tough go of it when they get out of their comfort zone.

The Grizzlies’ game 4 loss against the Clippers is the best example. In that game, Rudy Gay went 8-for-25 from the field and the Grizzlies lost in overtime.

When Memphis went on their run through the playoffs in 2011, did any perimeter player take 25 shots? How about 20? The offense ran through the post and they scored and if they didn’t score, they kept plugging away until they did score.

That type of stubbornness can be both admired and loathed, but if you’re a Grizzlies fan, you know what to expect from your head coach. It’s nice to have that type of consistency, sure, but an ability to adjust on the fly is almost a necessity in today’s NBA.

Overall grade for the 2011-2012 season: B+.

It’s hard to give the coach an A for not advancing as far as the team did last season, but with Randolph missing so much time and the team actually improving it’s winning percentage, it would be foolish to not give credit in that aspect.

The playoff loss is disappointing, and especially with game 7 at home, but looking at Hollins’ performance as a whole is a must. 2011 was fun, 2012 was nice, but hopefully the Sun comes up in 2013. I think it will.