It has been a season out of hell for the Memphis Grizzlies. However, the future is still bright.
The season is on the line for the 2018-2019 Memphis Grizzlies. After a rough start to the season, the team has rallied down the stretch to a 44-37 record, now needing to win their final game on their home court to get back into the playoffs. But there is a problem. It has to come against the Golden State Warriors.
Mike Conley brings the ball down the floor and begins to initiate the offense. The score is tied at 98, but the Grizzlies do not call a timeout–head coach J.B. Bickerstaff prefers to allow his players to do just that–play. Conley swings the ball to Tyreke Evans (for once, one of Chris Wallace’s gambles payed off) who then throws the entry pass into Marc Gasol in the post. Draymond Green and Zaza Pachulia immediately double-team him. However, this soon proves to be a fatal error for the Warriors.
After all, they failed to see the open Deandre Ayton cutting across the lane.
Ayton had started the season off slow, but by the end, had the looks of this generation’s Shaquille O’Neal. And just like Shaq, Ayton was going to make the playoffs every single year of his career. A mere team like the Golden State Warriors was not going to stand in the way of that.
Deandre Ayton dunks the ball as the buzzer sounds. His teammates mob him as confetti reigns and the Grizzlies make the playoffs for the 8th time in 9 years. And a new legend begins to form in Memphis…
Only in the movies and in Memphis, as the late Don Poier once said.
Light in the darkness
Times have never been harder than they are right now for the Memphis Grizzlies. After losing to Milwaukee, they have now lost 18 games in a row and have the worst record in the league. Sometimes when Marc Gasol is on the court, he is the only true NBA player out there, God bless him. Household names such as Kobi Simmons, Jarell Martin, and future hall-of-famer Xavier Rathan-Mayes are playing major minutes.
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
However, as bad as it may seem right now, there is still much to hope for from the Memphis Grizzlies. Though they are currently at the very bottom of the league, they have a solid shot of being back in the playoffs again next year. They are the only team in the bottom tier of the NBA that can say that.
It’s important to remember that the Grizzlies aren’t in the situation they are now because the roster is terrible. Yes, the roster was and still is way too top-heavy, and there isn’t enough role players to bridge the gap between the Gasol/Conley tier and the young prospects on the team. But the real reasons that the team is in this position are simple.
Mike Conley and injuries. Or both, since the two unfortunately seem to go hand-in-hand.
Even with an average roster, I firmly believe that the Grizzlies were a playoff team if Conley had remained healthy. It only makes sense that a top-heavy roster falls apart when its best player is lost for the season. The numbers reflect this: The Grizzlies are 7-5 with Conley this year and 11-44 without him. It is also worth noting that Conley played hurt in several of those losses.
Imagine a Grizzlies team where Mike Conley had played in 80 percent of their games, Tyreke Evans hadn’t sat out for two weeks, and Chandler Parsons wasn’t held out for tanking purposes. In a wide open western conference, they could have been fighting for the 8-5 seeds.
When you consider all of this, the picture of next year’s team does not look bleak at all. The Grizzlies will have a returning Mike Conley, who has had an entire year to rid himself of any nagging injuries. For better or for worse, there is a solid chance that Tyreke Evans will return. A returning core of Gasol-Conley-Evans-Parsons certainly won’t light the world on fire, but it will certainly make a far better team than this year’s product.
And adding a potential franchise centerpiece definitely won’t hurt.
A chance at greatness
If the Grizzlies finish the season with the worst record in the league, they are guaranteed no worse than the 4th pick in the draft. There will be no shortage of potential transcendent stars for the Grizzlies to select.
Deandre Ayton. Luka Doncic. Michael Porter Jr. Trae Young. Marvin Bagley. The list continues.
This is one of the most top-heavy NBA drafts in recent memory. Even if the Grizzlies have just the 4th pick, they will still have a good chance of picking a future all-star. Someone like Deandre Ayton can come in and be a great contributor from day one.
And if they do get someone who turns out to be a generational superstar, the Grizzlies could soon find themselves in position for something greater than just making the playoffs.
I wrote back in January about how the Grizzlies are in a similar situation to the 1997 San Antonio Spurs. Much like the Spurs sitting out David Robinson allowed them to get Tim Duncan the following year, the Grizzlies sitting out Mike Conley gives them a great chance of getting the number one pick. The Grizzlies won’t win a championship next year like the Spurs did, but they do have the chance to become relevant again after a year of irrelevance.
Adding in a Dendre Ayton or Luka Doncic to a healthy Grizzlies core could bring them back to the playoffs. And if the Grizzlies get someone truly special, it could elevate them to even greater heights down the road.
Do not sleep on the Memphis Grizzlies. The years pass, the uniforms change, and players come and go. But through it all, they just never seem to truly go away.
The 2021-2022 Memphis Grizzlies look to finally reach the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. But in order to do that, they have to find a way to halt Golden State’s dynasty in a pivotal game 7 in Memphis.
The Grizzlies have possession and are down 104-103 with less than 10 seconds remaining. There is no question of who is getting the ball.
Dillon Brooks passes the ball to Deandre Ayton, the league MVP who averaged 27 points and 10 rebounds on the year and led the Grizzlies to a 62-20 record, who catches it in the low post. Draymond Green and Jordan Bell come to double-team him like they did Gasol all of those years ago. This time, there is no open cutter to pass to in the lane. But it doesn’t matter. Deandre Ayton doesn’t need one.
Three seconds. Ayton spins through the double team. Two seconds. Kevin Durant now rotates over to contest the shot. One second. Ayton gets the hook shot off right as time expires.
Swish.
The Memphis Grizzlies are heading to their first NBA Finals, finally dethroning the Warriors after a 5 year reign of dominance. As pandemonium ensues in the FedexForum, a retired Tony Allen and Zach Randolph grin ear-to-ear behind the Grizzlies’ bench.