The Memphis Grizzlies front office gives players a second chance

The Memphis Grizzlies front office already has a reputation of creating something out of nothing, and giving players new life. How do they do it?

Dillon Brooks was in the middle of a career year.

After two incredibly shaky seasons, the Memphis Grizzlies homegrown talent was only able to play 100 games over the course of his first two seasons, and where he averaged 9.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game on an average of 23.5 minutes per game.

This year, he blew those numbers out of the water. He averaged 15.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 0.9 steals per game on a shooting split of 40/36/80 with 28.5 minutes per game.

But when you look at some of the other players on this roster, this seems to be becoming a trend. Tyus Jones was averaging his highest points per game and is shooting at his best clip, Grayson Allen (before his injury) was outpacing anybody’s expectations after his rookie season, and Josh Jackson was turned from a problematic off-court personality into a 20+ point per game scorer with the Memphis Hustle and when he was called up, he averaged 10.4 points on 43.9 percent shooting and 31.9 percent 3-point shooting.

All of these players have played under multiple systems over a short time span, which is almost always a productivity killer, and yet the team is thriving. How are they doing it?

Well, astoundingly, it’s primarily due to the efforts of the new front office. I say it’s astounding because many of the people behind the scenes with Memphis are in their position for the first time. Zach Kleiman has never been an NBA General Manager, Taylor Jenkins is coaching his first NBA team (albeit he coached in the G League team), and the team’s new President of Basketball Operations, Jason Wexler, came into the league with the Grizzlies.

Typically, front offices who are this new will struggle getting their team into the playoff race, but–at the time of the hiatus–the Grizzlies were eighth in the West with a 3.5 game lead over the ninth seed Portland Trail Blazers, and went 11-9 over their last 20 games after starting the season 6-13 through the same amount of games. This number doesn’t seem as impressive, but that’s including the five-game losing streak the Grizzlies went on following the All-Star break. Not including those loses, the Grizzlies were 14-6.

So how has the new front office done this? Well, primarily, it’s been about trusting the talent that they’ve acquired. There are more than a few teams that would have cut Brooks after his lackluster performance over his first two seasons. Even if they didn’t release him, there’s almost no team that would’ve signed him right after a hugely successful trade deadline to a 3-year deal worth about $12 million per year.

Allen was a player with a lot of, shall we say, “personality issues”, and he wasn’t able to back it up on the court once he got into the NBA. Still, Memphis took a risk on him in a trade with the Jazz, and he’s paid off their risk with a reliable season.

Jackson is a player with similar issues off the court, but the Memphis front office put trust in him and showed that they were willing to give him another chance, and it paid off in full.

Once again, the Grizzlies have taken a risk on a player. This time, it’s Justise Winslow. Winslow is a player with a lot of talent, averaging 9.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 0.9 steals. The problem is that Winslow is a player with a lot of concerns around whether or not he could stay healthy enough to have a productive season. Still, Memphis made a trade for him, and if their previous track record proves true, it could certainly pay off.

The Grizzlies have turned almost their entire roster over during the last two years, and normally that would be cause for a lot of player uncertainty. However, this new front office has shown their players that they are behind them, and have given them the confidence to perform.