The Memphis Grizzlies have performed well, inserting themselves into NBA Playoff talks down the stretch. They’ll look to make a late-season push into the 6-seed, where they’ll be guaranteed to compete in the NBA Playoffs. Anything short of that would either land the Grizz in the play-in tournament or worse, completely out of the competition.
That said, they’ll prefer to make the playoffs.
But as the regular season is winding down to an end, the Grizzlies have a few potential outcomes ahead of them. Here are the best, middle, and worst-case scenarios for the remainder of 2021.
I’ll get the worst one out of the way early.
Memphis Grizzlies worst-case scenario: fall out of playoff contention
Thankfully for Memphis, this case is extremely unlikely. The Grizzlies have established themselves as a team that can hover above .500. With an extremely easy schedule ahead, there’s no reason to believe that this could happen.
That said, it’s still a possibility. Right now, Memphis is 4.5 games removed from being out of the play-in tournament. They should be able to, at the very least, secure a spot in the play-in, but if they were to go on a late-season losing streak, it’s possible that they’ll be knocked out.
Hypothetically, this could happen due to chemistry issues with Jaren Jackson Jr. back in the lineup. That said, a regression of that proportion is not likely to happen two years in a row. The difference? Instead of losing Jackson Jr. this year, they’re adding JJJ to the rotation.
Not likely, but bigger implosions have happened.