Memphis Grizzlies: Friday’s Loss May Mark Permanent Rotation Change

The losses are mounting for the free-falling Memphis Grizzlies. While there is not much to be positive about with them, a welcomed change took place in Friday’s home loss. Will it last?

Life as a Memphis Grizzlies fan is brutal right now. However, it has been even worse on the players, especially one in particular.

Grizzlies Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff has highly favored his veterans in his first full-time season at the helm of Memphis’ ship. Therefore, Bickerstaff has rode the Shelvin Mack wave through thick and thin, to an unbearable point.

Through it all — including Mack being an average of a -6.3 in +/- rating on 33.7% shooting (31% from three-point land) in December — perhaps the players to suffer the most is rookie Jevon Carter.

It has been an unfortunate struggle to see the hard-working Carter receive limited opportunities for playing time this season. It took the West Virginia product 29 games to check into a regular season game, even after demolishing G-League competition from the start of his professional career.

From Shelvin Mack’s month of December, it was a lot of poor defense, bad offense, and ill-advised shots and passes. There are plenty of players for the fan base to be upset with, but Mack likely takes the cake. It is also due to the team having a very intriguing young player — Jevon Carter — chomping at the bit to hit the hardwood.

With the Memphis Grizzlies’ struggles becoming progressively worse on a game-by-game basis, they need to rely upon their few bright spots this season. Atop the short list is the impact being made by their rookie duo.

In Friday’s home loss to the Brooklyn Nets, one major change took place that had not yet occurred in 2018-19. Shelvin Mack played just three minutes and 52 seconds for Memphis. Additionally, Jevon Carter earned just over 11 minutes of tick, producing two points, two assists, two steals, and zero turnovers in that span.

Carter has been receiving spot minutes for the Memphis Grizzlies in recent weeks, and the most significant aspect of J.B.’s rotation from Friday is seeing a minimal amount of Mack minutes. However, Coach addressed this very thing in the postgame press conference (directly below). He was quoted in saying:

"“I think we will go back and watch the film and we will see, but Jevon gives us a spark — especially on the defensive end of the floor. He is extremely active and puts pressure on people, so we like what he is capable of doing. We will go back, take a look at it, and we’ll make a decision after we prepare ourselves.”"

J.B. Bickerstaff’s body language while answering the question hints that Jevon Carter has now leapfrogged Shelvin Mack in the rotation. There is nothing to lose and only positivity to gain if this is the case.

Taking an even deeper dive into the team’s issues that can be solved by expanding Jevon’s role is seen in Friday’s box score with Garrett Temple leading the squad with more than 40 minutes played.

This should not happen. As Beale Street Bears recently discussed, Dillon Brooks needs to become more involved in the team’s offense, and even if he does not start, he needs expanded minutes on a consistent basis. Jevon, too, could fulfill the shooting guard role by tag-teaming the backcourt with Mike Conley for a dual point guard lineup.

J.B. Bickerstaff has been showing atrocious lineups and running those — and the team’s record (now 18-20) — into the ground. This roster’s youth — in many cases — are better than the present veterans.

Memphis is already losing game after game, and if this trend continues, at least a key piece of the Grizzlies’ future — Jevon Carter — will get further opportunity to expedite his development as an NBA floor general and defensive stopper.

Still, there is plenty of time remaining in the season to turn this Grizzly ship in the right direction. This may be one of a few winning moves that can be made without shipping players out or costing Bickerstaff his job.