Why the Memphis Grizzlies need Grayson Allen to step up

The Memphis Grizzlies have had an up-and-down season. As most NBA teams do, the Grizz have gone on long winning streaks and horrible losing streaks in a very short period of time. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles in this league.

Among the overall team struggles, there are a few very specific players who haven’t been playing their best basketball. One name that comes to mind is Justise Winslow, who has been a strong defender but still hasn’t managed to settle in on the offensive end. Fortunately for the Grizzlies, he is still in a fairly limited role.

But while Winslow is able to play poorly on offense without completely derailing the game plan, there is one player who is more important to this team’s flow. That player is Grayson Allen.

Memphis Grizzlies SG Grayson Allen has been off of his game recently

Following one of the better stretches of his NBA career, Grayson Allen has gone ice-cold recently, shooting himself into a slump in the past few games. As they say, shooters shoot, but this shooter has done no favors for himself by putting up more shots recently.

Specifically, there has been a lid on the bucket for Allen, who has only converted six of his past 27 attempts from long range. The slump actually began in a game where he would score 27 points against the Denver Nuggets in a double-overtime loss in which he would go 3-10 from 3-point range.

Since this performance, the former Duke Blue Devil hasn’t managed to hit double-digits in the scoring column. This double-digit scoring drought is the longest of his since the second week of the 2020-21 season.

If the Memphis Grizzlies want to have a shot at the 6-seed in the NBA Playoffs, it starts with Allen getting back on track. He is the volume shooter on this team, so when his shots aren’t dropping, the team struggles to find momentum and certainly struggles to create 3-point shooting.

The flow of this team lives and dies with Allen’s shooting.

Fortunately, this is the longest dry spell of his career, so he’s likely to bounce back soon, as he always has done in his few years in the league.