What if: the 2003 NBA Draft, LeBron James and the Memphis Grizzlies
By Mike Parrott
2004-05 Season
In reality, the Grizzlies had a bit of a slump due to slowing down their pace (91.4 to 88.5) and also due to Pau Gasol missing 26 regular season games and with only glorified role players surrounding him: Mike Miller, Shane Battier and Jason Williams. The Grizzlies couldn’t do better than the eighth seed.
For Lebron James, this was his ‘coming-out’ season. With his win shares nearly tripling (5.1 to 14.3), a 7.4 increase in PER (18.3 to 25.7), and a 27.2/7.4/7.2 season, LeBron had made it as an NBA superstar. In terms of no stats being able to completely work in hypotheticals, Lebron’s increase of win shares (9.2) have been added to the Grizzlies’ record.
This would’ve left the Grizzlies at 54-28 record, good for fifth in the West. With this standing, they would have faced off against the Mavericks in the first round. In reality, the Mavs were taken to seven games by the Houston Rockets with inspired performances from Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. In fiction, Memphis would’ve topped the Mavs due to lack of defensive depth on LeBron and Gasol.
On to the second round.
Memphis would’ve faced the Phoenix Suns, the team it lost to in reality in the first round. And it would’ve stayed that way. Steve Nash was on fire in the regular season and playoffs and there’s no way Jason Williams could stay in front of him.
LeBron had become a superstar, but this Grizzlies team was getting better due to his presence.