Memphis Grizzlies: Are Jaren Jackson Jr.’s playing restrictions necessary?

The Memphis Grizzlies are at a crucial stretch of their season, with under ten games remaining and a playoff seeding at risk. Right now, the Grizzlies are slotted to be in the play-in tournament, but a reach for the 6-seed and a guaranteed seven-game playoff series isn’t out of the question yet,

And fortunately for the Grizzlies, Jaren Jackson Jr.’s return came at the perfect time. That said, the 21-year old forward hasn’t been playing in every game for the Memphis Grizzlies. In fact, he has only played in 66% of the games since his return. And that’s by design by the Grizzlies’ training staff.

So far, Memphis has gone with a technique of sidelining him while he continues to recover from his injury. This means that since his return, he has played two games on, one game off.

Memphis Grizzlies fans have begun to question this approach to recovery

While this isn’t necessarily a completely unusual way for a player to recover, the logic behind it can have some pretty easy holes poked in it. In fact, when you take a deeper look, it’s easy to question why an already elongated recovery is being extended through his return.

If Jaren Jackson Jr. is truly at 100%, why is he taking these breaks? The reasoning is always the same thing: “Return from injury management.” If that’s true, it would imply that he’s not at 100%, which leads me to my next question. If he’s not at 100%, why is he playing?

The Grizzlies have already shown that they don’t mind playing nearly an entire season without him, so would it make any sense to rush him into playing during the last portion of the season. Thus far, the Grizzlies haven’t really improved with him in the game.

In fact, the Grizzlies have been terrible in Jackson Jr.’s return. That’s not a knock against JJJ — I’m just reading what the numbers say. Memphis has been 1-5 in games that Jackson Jr. has played in this season.

The regression here can be traced to team chemistry issues and just a general slump, but this information further presses the question: why are they using this approach in his return?