Entering the NBA postseason this year, the Grizzlies mostly resembled the Denver Nuggets in the wrong way. They fired their head coach, Taylor Jenkins, with nine games remaining in the regular season, and the Nuggets fired their head coach, Mike Malone, with three games remaining.
However, the Nuggets have had far better success since the switch, as they won their final three regular-season games, including a win over Memphis, to clinch the fourth seed in the Western Conference. Also, they won their first round series against the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games, and are currently ahead of the team that swept the Grizzlies, the Oklahoma City Thunder, 2-1 in the second round.
Denver has now made at least the second round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year, including winning the NBA championship in 2023. Of the remaining Western Conference teams, the Nuggets are the team the Grizzlies should most want to resemble, and here is how they can attempt to reach their heights.
Ja Morant must reach MVP-caliber status again
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is a three-time NBA MVP winner and is a finalist for the award once again. Every NBA champion since 1980 has been led by a player who has finished in the top five of MVP voting at least once in their career. Only five of those champions haven't had a player who didn't win MVP during their career at the time they won the championship.
Ja Morant's best season was during the 2021-22 season, when he led the Grizzlies to their only second-round playoff appearance since he was drafted in 2019. He finished in the top seven in the league in MVP voting, and possibly could've finished at least in the top five of voting if he played more than 57 games that season.
For the majority of this season, Morant didn't look like the former MVP candidate due to injuries and offensive philosophy changes. However, after ending the season scoring 20+ points in his final 17 games and looking like arguably the best player on the court in the team's two play-in games, the Grizzlies need him to continue that momentum into next season.
The good news is that newly promoted head coach Tuomas Iisalo runs a system that caters to Morant's strengths to return to that form. MVP caliber players are needed for championship contenders, and the Grizzlies have one; they just need to unlock the last step of his potential to become perennial contenders.