Will this season's Grizzlies replicate the Suns' success last season?
Up to now, the Grizzlies have made a 3-2 start, temporarily ranking 7th in the West, although the record is not worth bragging about, but in some data, we can feel that the changes of this civilian team, they have a little strong team shadow, including offensive efficiency, total rebounding rate, true shooting rate and other 8 data, the Grizzlies all rank first in the league.
Their progress, thanks to the evolution of Ja Morant, compared to the previous 2 seasons, the latter's projection has been greatly improved, the three-point line outside the average shot 6.4 times, shooting rate can reach a terrifying 40.6%, the impact of him, and installed 8 times the scope, which makes the opponent more difficult to defend, 5 games, Morant handed over an average of 30.4 points per game, 5.4 rebounds, 7.8 assists report card, completely MVP performance.
In addition to Morant, there is another person whose contribution must be mentioned, that is, the new signing Steven Adams.
At first, the outside world was not optimistic about his future in Memphis, because in the past 2 seasons, Adams's state has been declining, especially in the year of the Pelicans, and it has fallen into a trough, the offensive end, he can't even eat the cake, Averaging 7.6 points per game, his lowest score outside of his rookie season, the defensive end, which was originally Adams's strength, but in that season, it became a drag-like existence, averaging only 8.9 rebounds per game, 58 games, only 38 blocks, under his defense, the average shooting rate of opponents will increase by 0.2 percentage points.
When he was on the floor, the team had to lose a lot of points on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and there was no value in the existence at all, and this offseason, the Pelicans asked for a round of quotations about Adams, and all they got was "no" answers, only the Grizzlies, willing to take out their starting center Valanciunas in exchange.
Valanciunas is a star center trained by the Grizzlies, in the 18-19 season, the latter had handed over a report card averaging 20+10 per game, but after 2 seasons of experimentation, the Grizzlies also understood that Valanciunas is not the most suitable interior line for the team, and he cannot complement Jaren Jackson and help the team go further in the playoffs.
Sure enough, today's Adams, not only returned to the top, but also handed over an average of two double-doubles (11 points, 10.6 rebounds) report card per game, which is a record he has never completed in the past 8 seasons, but this is not the most surprising, although on the offensive end, he does not have valanciunas as rich scoring means, but a delicate pass, but attracted the attention of coach Jenkins, in the past 5 games, Adams often mentioned the online deal, and the 2 games with the Los Angeles doubles, He delivered five assists and six assists respectively, averaging 3.2 assists per game, second only to Morant in the team.
I have to admit that Jenkins does have a hand in tapping the potential of players, which has many similarities with Monty Williams, and give him some time, I believe Jenkins will train Morant to be an MVP-level star, and will train the Grizzlies into a championship favorite.