Who would have thought that this set of the NBA's cheapest lineup would become the favorite today's championship race?
Before the start of the season, no media outlet put the Grizzlies in the top five in the West, such as ESPN, who believed that the Grizzlies in the new season still needed to play the playoffs to get a playoff ticket.
Yeah, no matter what you look at, the Grizzlies are struggling to compete with the strong teams in the West.
One has no top-paid players, two no All-Stars, the team is full of a bunch of strange recruit eggs, the total salary of the whole team is only $116 million, ranking 29th in the league, only more than the Thunder, compared to the first-paid Warriors, a full $59.1 million, however, in this situation where almost no one is optimistic, the Grizzlies have completed a ladder jump, with a record of 51 wins and 23 losses, ranking second in the West and second in the league.
So, where are the Grizzlies strong?
First: Role players are too good
The Grizzlies also play team basketball, somewhat similar to the Bulls in the 11-12 season, and the Jazz in the 20-21 season, and even if the stars Derrick Rose and Donovan Mitchell are not there, they can also play very tough and win the game.
In the 11-12 season, in 27 games without Rose, the Bulls still had a record of 18 wins and 9 losses;
In the 20-21 season, in 19 games without Mitchell, the Jazz still achieved a record of 13 wins and 6 losses;
This season's Grizzlies have been even more so, with the Grizzlies winning 15 of the 17 games without Morant;
The reason why they don't rely on the stars is that they are defensively good enough (as we will say below), and secondly, there are a lot of role players who can participate in the offense, the Bulls' Lol Deng, Boozer, Hamilton, the Jazz's Conley, Bojan, Clarkson; the Grizzlies' side is Bain, Dillon Brooks, Clark, Melton, etc., without Morant, they can still keep the Grizzlies with an offensive efficiency of 118 points per 100 possessions.
The only difference is that the Role Players of the Bulls and Jazz are both long-established veterans, while the Grizzlies, most of them are still in rookie contracts.
Second: The defensive upgrade was successful
In fact, the Grizzlies' defense last season was good, but with the addition of Adams, the Memphis' defensive network is more three-dimensional and rich, especially the young player Jaren Jackson, whose weak blocking and rebounding ability has been greatly compensated, and more importantly, with Adams Town guarding the basket, Jackson can make up for it without scruples, just like Favors behind Gobert.
At Adams' side, Jackson's defensive talent can also be unleashed, when he is on the court, the opponent's shooting rate will drop by 5.8%, of which less than 6 feet, it will drop by 14.6%, and outside the three-point line will drop by 0.9%, not only the defensive coverage is wide, the defensive effect is also the top existence, quite Gobert's style.
Third: Mr. Key – Morant
For the Grizzlies, although the team does not seem to rely so much on Morant, the latter is still the most valuable asset of the Memphis people, they need Morant to raise the team's ceiling, they need Morant to step up at key moments, and they need Morant to win the championship for them.
As of now, Morant's average score at key moments is as high as 4.6 points per game, the league is second only to Embiid, under his leadership, the Grizzlies have won 17 of the 26 key-moment games, saying that in the absence of Morant, they rarely let the game enter the key moment, but once in the playoffs, in the case of rhythm, confrontation, defense fully upgraded, how can they play every game, when the game is stuck in a stalemate, who can win the game with talent except Morant?
Remember the Bulls in the 11-12 season, they were the first in the regular season, and they were eliminated by the 76ers 4:2 in the first round. Because there is no Rose, the latter in the G1 to help the team to defeat the opponent, it suffered injury season reimbursement, the next 3 games, the Bulls all lost, the key 6th game, the Bulls lost by 1 point difference, open the technical statistics, you can find that the Bulls lost 4 games, 3 of the point difference is within 6 points, in fact, lost at the key moment.
Only if Morant stays healthy can they go further in the playoffs.
I have to admit that the rebuilding of the Grizzlies has been too successful:
Rebuild for the first year, 32 wins and 33 losses, 8th in the West, lost in the play-offs;
Rebuild for the second year, 38 wins and 34 losses, 8th in the West, advance to the play-offs;
Rebuild for the third year, 51 wins and 23 losses, 2nd in the West, 2nd in the league;
Regardless of whether they win the championship this year, Morant and his Grizzlies will be regulars in the championship list in the next few years.