The Memphis Grizzlies signed Ben McLemore in the hopes of adding young talent at the guard position. To say that it hasn’t worked out would be a massive understatement.
As the Memphis Grizzlies begin to collapse against the Boston Celtics on Monday night, Ben McLemore catches a pass on the wing. He starts to size up his defender — before he loses control of his dribble. He then regains control and attempts to make another dribble move — and loses the ball once again. Now, a Celtics fan can be audibly heard yelling “He can’t dribble!”. And after all of that misfortune, McLemore finally gets called for a travel, a merciful end to a painful possession.
But there is nothing merciful about watching Ben McLemore, future MVP of the Chinese Baskeball League, play basketball. There is a reason why he has earned much vitriol on different forms of social media from fans of the Memphis Grizzlies. It certainly isn’t an effort issue; he just isn’t good.
There were many people who believed that a change of scenery in Memphis could unlock his potential, but those people simply do not exist anymore.
If you were going to try to describe me, I would say that I am a numbers man. And as a numbers man, allow me to be the first to tell you that numbers, in the case of Ben McLemore, do not lie.
There really is a legitimate argument –both statistical and eye test– that McLemore is the worst player on the Memphis Grizzlies. Yes, he could be the worst player on a team that plays Myke Henry and Mario Chalmers big minutes.
GRIZZLIES RECORD:
— Peter Edmiston (@peteredmiston) March 1, 2018
When Ben McLemore plays: 5-33
When Ben McLemore does not play: 13-9
TODAY'S FUN TANK FACT:
— Peter Edmiston (@peteredmiston) February 28, 2018
In February, when both Ben McLemore and Mario Chalmers are on the floor, the Grizzlies are 40.7 points per 100 possessions worse than their opponents.
(Mario Chalmers is not very good either.)
Ben TankLemore
The problems that make Ben McLemore a bad NBA player are not necessarily physical ones. To be sure, he cannot consistently create for himself or shoot, two things a guard should definitely be able to do. Also, his defense is about as effective as a traffic cone that was set on fire. He’s fairly athletic, but there is a difference between athleticism and explosiveness, which is something that he lacks.
Okay, maybe they are physical ones.
The true problem with Ben McLemore is his apparent lack of basketball IQ. Even though he has some physical tools, he often looks lost when he is out on the court. On offense, he often will try to do too much, whether it’s taking ill-advised shots or dribbling his way into trouble. As for players who frustrate Marc Gasol on defense because they are not in the right position, McLemore may be at the top of the list.
When a team starts a player and only plays him nine minutes like the Grizzlies did with McLemore against the Suns, there could be three reasons why.
- First, he could have had an injury and have had to come out of the game. That did not happen.
- Second, he could be a player that the team is trying to showcase so that they can trade him. Since the trade deadline has already passed, we can eliminate that option.
- For the last option, that player could be so bad that a tanking team believes that starting him will improve their chances of losing the game.
I shall go with door number three.
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McLemore’s future
I honestly do not expect McLemore to be on the team at the beginning of next season. If you believe that Chris Wallace won’t give up on him so soon after signing him to a two-year contract, you must have never heard of Wade Baldwin. McLemore will be just another piece of toilet paper in the endless toilet of Chris Wallace’s crappy mistakes.
Maybe I am being way too hard on McLemore. Perhaps all he needs is a healthy start to a season in order to properly acclimate himself to the team and franchise. If that is the case, he certainly hasn’t showed it to this point.
Time is running out for Ben McLemore to show that he has a future with the Memphis Grizzlies — or the NBA in general.