Memphis Grizzlies: What if Jaren Jackson Jr. never got hurt?
The Memphis Grizzlies have developed an entirely new personality as a basketball team without Jaren Jackson Jr., their star power forward, in the lineup.
I won’t pretend like this loss was as severe as losing an NBA All-Star, but it has had a significant impact on the Grizzlies so far this season. The lineups, personnel, and rotations have all changed, leading to a team with an entirely different identity.
Somehow though, the Grizzlies have held on without him. They’re in position to actually finish the season with a better record than they did last year, but this team has struggled in some key areas without their forward.
How would the Memphis Grizzlies have performed if Jaren Jackson Jr. never got hurt?
To answer the question of how the Grizzlies would have performed if Jaren Jackson Jr. hadn’t gotten hurt, you actually have to rewind to the end of last season.
Jackson Jr. missed 15 games at the end of the season. He wouldn’t tear his meniscus until six games before their season came to an end, but he only played in three of the Grizzlies’ last 18 games.
That said, this Memphis team was an entirely different monster without him. For starters, they couldn’t match the size of some teams. Jonas Valanciunas was essentially left alone down low and the Grizzlies struggled with numbers like points in the paint and rebounding.
After he would begin to miss games near the end of the season, the Grizzlies would go on an ugly 6-12 finish to knock them down into play-in territory. This was especially disappointing considering the fact that they were 28-27 before this stretch of time.
The Grizzlies barely finished behind the Trail Blazers, trailing them by only a half of a game. If Jackson Jr. was available at the end of the season, the Grizzlies would have had a tougher squad and home-court advantage, likely earning them a spot in the NBA Playoffs.
At the end of the day, that doesn’t matter, as the Grizz would have likely been run off of the court by an elite Lakers team. That said, the impact rippled through into the 2020-21 season.