Memphis Grizzlies: What Will JaMychal Green’s Role Be?
By Chris Kern
The Memphis Grizzlies have been without JaMychal Green the past few weeks. What will his role be once he returns to the team?
The Memphis Grizzlies have needed players to step up in JaMychal Green‘s absence and Jaren Jackson Jr. has done that in a big way.
The rookie has played well averaging 12.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game through 14 games. His success makes Green’s role whenever he returns uncertain.
Omri Casspi is a guy who hasn’t played a lot but his minutes have been big for this teams success. He has averaged 5.6 points and 2.4 rebounds in the eight games he has played in.
He has also missed some games due to right knee soreness but returned Friday night against the Sacramento Kings.
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It’s been a team effort to replace Green but they have done just fine without him. They have a 9-5 record which has them tied for 4th place in the Western Conference.
What Will His Role Be?
With the way Jackson has played in the starting lineup, it seems unlikely that Green will be put back into the starting lineup.
He will still play a big part for this team. They’ve played a lot of small ball successfully in his absence but his presence will still help a lot inside, especially with his rebounding.
In the only full game, he played in which was against Indiana he had nine points and seven rebounds.
The backup guards have done a great job of stretching the floor and allowing this team to play small. With the injury to Dillon Brooks, they need Green to come back ready to go as soon as possible.
The Memphis Grizzlies have shot the three-pointer well this season hitting 36.5% of their shots which is the 11th best in the league.
Green has continued to improve each season and has become a reliable three-point shooter. He is a 35% shooter from deep throughout his career.
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Last season he had the best season of his career. He averaged 10.3 points and 8.5 rebounds in 55 games played.
He has been the starter the past couple seasons after taking that spot from Zach Randolph late in the 2015-16 season so it’ll be an adjustment for him to come off the bench.
Green came off the bench some early in his career so he’ll know how to handle it. If he can buy into his role he can be one of the better backup bigs in this league.
He has that toughness that the Grizzlies have brought back into this new grit and grind era in Memphis.
The offense has been limited in ways and Green will help with that. Having another big who can score in a variety of ways will help this team avoid those cold stretches they have gone through multiple times.
A lot of the Grizzlies struggles in the past have been caused by a lack of scorers and depth. That hasn’t been the case so far this season and Green will help with that even more.
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Expect him to come in and play hard and play close to 20 minutes a game. The way Jackson has struggled to stay out of foul trouble, Green may be needed to play starters minutes some nights and he is more than capable of doing so.