Are the Memphis Grizzlies stuck at .500 until Jaren Jackson Jr. returns?

The Memphis Grizzlies hit an apparent ceiling and responded well

Earlier in the year, it looked like the ceiling for this team was clear. They were beating up on lesser teams and getting beat, no, destroyed by contending teams. We saw this same Grizzlies squad take two 31-point losses in the same week. It wasn’t anywhere near rock bottom, but it was hard to watch.

The team’s youth looked to be catching up to them. Ja Morant couldn’t do it all alone, especially in a year where the 3-ball simply wasn’t falling for him. Jonas Valanciunas was stepping up, but we wouldn’t see his full potential until we really got into the meat of the schedule.

So this team took a few bad losses. Not much more was expected and it was okay to lose to good teams.

But it was getting frustrating. Yes, your team is overachieving its preseason expectation, but who likes taking brutal losses? You can’t say that Taylor Jenkins, Ja Morant, and Jonas Valanciunas were happy with these blowouts.

So the Grizzlies got to work and became competitive.