Grizzlies Season Grades: Marreese Speights.

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

When people think of the 2011-2012 Memphis Grizzlies, they’ll probably think of Rudy Gay’s return from his shoulder injury, or Tony Allen, or Marc Gasol’s all-star bid, or Tony Allen, or Zach Randolph’s injury and eventual return. Maybe even Tony Allen. Who knows?

Odds are that you probably won’t think of Marreese Speights and his contributions to the team, but maybe you should.

Speights went from a guy who could barely get off the bench in Philadelphia to a valuable cog in the Memphis machine after his trade early in 2012.

The Grizzlies did surrender second year shooting guard Xavier Henry and a future 2nd round pick for him, but at the time they just needed someone who could do a reasonable impersonation of Zach Randolph until #50 returned to the line-up.

Speights really surpassed all expectations that anyone may have had for him in Memphis.

Speights entered the league as a big guy with some potential. He played on both Florida national championship teams with Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer and became a full-time starter after their departure. He was drafted 16th by Philadelphia, but had seen his playing time decrease each season he spent there.

When Randolph went down the Grizzlies, already short a big with Darrell Arthur being lost before the season, had to make a move. They settled on Speights, and while he wasn’t a superstar, he protected the rim and rebounded at a decent rate considering he only averaged a shade over 22 minutes per night.

The most interesting about Speights’ story is that when he first arrived in Memphis, Head Coach Lionel Hollins said one day that he knew no real post moves and that was going to be the team’s focus moving forward. Speights would prove to be a quick learner.

Speights also proved himself to be better defensively than Randolph and line-ups featuring him, Marc Gasol, Tony Allen and Mike Conley Jr. were pretty potent defensively. That shouldn’t come as a surprise as Speights is a little taller and more athletic than Z-bo.

Speights’ ability to hit open jump shots also opened up the low block for Marc Gasol in what amounted to a reversal of fortunes in a way, as Gasol was the big that was asked to stretch the floor for Randolph when he was on the floor.

The downside of Speights’ first season was the fact that he did get rather trigger happy from time to time, especially when his shot was falling. It was something that was far more pronounced in his first month with the team and got reigned in a bit as his Grizzlies tenure went on.

One of the more staggering displays of this was in Speights’ second game with the Grizzlies as he put up 18 shots, but did manage to hit 8 of them. The Grizzlies lost to the Lakers that night, but would start a winning streak four nights later, with Speights playing a big role.

Best Game:

So maybe the Laker game wasn’t Speights’ finest moment in Beale Street Blue, but he would have plenty. The “Best Game” committee, which is made up of only myself, had to think long and hard about Speights’ finest moment and we decided on the following game.

Speights had 18 points and 7 rebounds in a win against Minnesota in late February in Memphis.

The Grizzlies were already without Zach Randolph and were going to be without Marc Gasol in this game as well. Speights and Dante Cunningham picked the rope up and led the Grizzlies to a win against a team that was in playoff contention until they lost their star rookie Ricky Rubio a few days before.

2011-2012 Season Grade: C+