Garrett Temple Finding His Shot Benefits More Than Memphis Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies’ Garrett Temple has reason beyond basketball to get back to knocking down the three-point shot.

One of the most noticeable aspects of watching the Memphis Grizzlies over their past five or so games is the demise of Garrett Temple‘s impressive play.

Temple began the 2018-19 NBA season with a 30-point outing (10/11 shooting) in the Grizzlies’ home-opening victory over the Atlanta Hawks. This quickly won fans over into his favor during his first season as a Grizzly.

Garrett Temple has the reputation as a solid veteran player that can potentially play three positions in the backcourt. He fits the team’s mold as defensive-minded, but his hot shooting was absolutely welcomed within an offense thirsty for scoring production.

There are many factors that have played into the Memphis Grizzlies’ early-season success, which led them to temporarily being the Western Conference‘s top squad. One of these keys has been Temple’s all-around strong play, where he has utilized his defense in order to trigger better offense.

Memphis has easily won the offseason trade that landed them Garrett Temple, but they want to further reap the benefits of his presence. Now in December, they are hoping he finds his hot shooting touch once again in order to string together wins versus top competition.

Garrett has not produced 14+ points in a game since November 16th. Since going 100% on two three-point shot attempts on November 19th against the Dallas Mavericks, he has struggled mightily in reaching the 50% accuracy mark.

Since that meeting with the Mavs, Temple has gone 12/41 (38.6%) from beyond the arc. For reference, he began the season by hitting 44.8% of his triples in the Memphis Grizzlies’ first six games.

In Memphis’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, Garrett Temple had four three-point tries, but missed on all of them. He has received open looks by way of his teammates getting him the ball in his comfort zones, but he needs to see a couple go through the hoop in order to continue his early-season splashing ways.

For Garrett, with each three-point basket made by himself during this past November, money was donated via pledges to the Hoops2o program based upon the number of three-pointers made by the Grizzlies’ No. 17. Approximately $4,040 was raised based on the amount of treys splashed home by Temple. This directly benefited East Africa by providing clean water to their people.

2018-19 marks Garrett Temple’s best season yet in terms of shot attempts, including three-point tries. His current 44.2% field goal accuracy is on track to be atop his 10-season NBA career, and he is already boasting his second-best season of three-point accuracy.

This is great news for the Memphis Grizzlies. His shot will start falling at a high rate once again, but he just needs confidence. The open looks are being created. It then becomes an emphasis of proper shot mechanics and putting the ball through the hoop.

Though his shots in December are not as charitable as the ones he made in November, he remains a major key to the Grizzlies’ success. With a tough slate of upcoming games, Memphis needs Garrett Temple to continue to trust his shooting ability.