2. Who will be the third scorer?
Signing Tyreke Evans last summer was a perfectly legitimate gamble that Memphis could not be faulted for. The fault came at the NBA Trade Deadline, when General Manager Chris Wallace foolishly kept the resurgent guard because “offers weren’t sufficient.”
Wallace clung to Evans, who sat out the season’s second half, then signed with the Indiana Pacers. Is “nothing” sufficient enough, Chris?
In Evans, the Memphis Grizzlies had a legitimate third scorer who could take pressure off Gasol and Conley, or carry the team’s second unit offensively. Now they are left desperately grasping for someone to fill that role.
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The pickings are slim: Memphis’ supporting cast are good at lots of things; scoring is not necessarily one of them. Only one non-Gasol/Conley Grizzly — Dillon Brooks — has a career scoring average over 10 ppg (Chandler Parsons‘ 13.1 totally does not count). That means either a huge offensive leap by someone, or an awkward “score-by-committee” pseudo-democracy.
Brooks showed a creative and intuitive offensive game that could thrive under less defensive pressure. Another Brooks — MarShon — torched opponents over a small sample in regular season garbage time. But neither is going to provide the type of support that either Evans did, or that this team needs.
The belief that Mike Conley’s return will solve everything is misguided. Even with Conley in 2016-17, Memphis finished 19th in points/100 possessions, and ranked dead last in field goal percentage. That roster still had Zach Randolph; far more capable a third option than anything the current iteration has.
In speaking of Mike Conley…