Lessons Grizzlies could learn from 2024 NBA Playoffs
What lessons could the Memphis Grizzlies learn from the Boston Celtics, 2024 NBA playoffs to position themselves for a championship?
The NBA has crowned a new champion for the 6th consecutive season, as the Boston Celtics have won the 2024 NBA Finals.
With the offseason officially beginning, NBA teams are wondering how they can be the ones hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. And that will be the goal for the Memphis Grizzlies this offseason, to re-position themselves into contention status after a season ravaged with horrible injury luck.
The Grizzlies will have its Big 3 of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. back — along with their most important role player, Marcus Smart. In addition, we are closer to seeing how the emerging GG Jackson and Vince Williams fit on the wing next to the core. Brandon Clarke is back and looks healthier than expected. And they also have the 9th pick at their disposal — an asset that’ll be the catalyst for a pivotal offseason.
What are some lessons the Grizzlies could take from this NBA playoffs in their quest to reclaim a top spot in the Western Conference, and to ultimately win a NBA championship?
Health
So let’s get the easiest one out of the way: health.
Aside from Kristaps Porzingis, the Boston Celtics were healthy enough to not have their postseason derailed. Luka Doncic dealt with ailments, but their top-6 in the rotation remained healthy. Mostly the same goes for Minnesota Timberwolves, as their top-7 were relatively healthy.
This postseason, we saw how health could derail a series — sometimes before it could even start. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard’s injuries halted their season. Jamal Murray’s lingering injury impacted the Nuggets in their repeat quest. The Knicks finally broke down in the Pacers series. Tyrese Haliburton couldn’t finish the Eastern Conference Finals because of an aggravated hamstring injury. Joel Embiid’s health changed the outlook for the 76ers postseason, as his midseason injury dropped them from a homecourt contender to a play-in team. Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell’s injuries slowed down the Cavaliers’ playoff run.
Obviously, we could go all day with historic examples.
This era of Grizzlies basketball has already seen this in their runs. Ja Morant’s knee injury in 2022 cut their run short. Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke’s absences midseason changed the profile of their team, and series injuries to Ja Morant and Luke Kennard played a role in their 1st round exit.
The playoffs are grueling. It’s nearly 2 months of intense basketball every night. It takes the right breaks health-wise, along with building the right team, to win a NBA championship.
Role players need to defend and hit shots
Role players either sink or swim in these moments. While championships rest mostly on the team’s pillars, role players have the capability of swinging games — and enough of those performances around the margins could add up to significant success.
It’s rather simple: they need to defend and hit shots.
Most contending teams have multiple weapons that can dissect the defense and take over a night. It’s imperative to build role depth — possessing as many defensive stoppers to take on various assignments, including star-level talent. They need to be prepared to defend various archetypes as well.
Defensively, the Grizzlies may fare better than most teams in role depth. Marcus Smart is a high-level stopper, a defensive chameleon capable of shifting to different matchups. Vince Williams Jr. broke out as a menacing defender. With the presence of a 5, Jaren Jackson can rim-roam and take on specific 4’s. Desmond Bane has only gotten better defensively, and GG Jackson will be challenged as a stopper — especially with his size.
Hitting shots is a major “no shit, Sherlock” observation. However, you see in these games where complementary players hitting 3, 4, 5 three’s in a game can swing the outcome. Likewise, a cold outing can do so negatively. If one builds a team of shot-makers around its core, it opens up the floor for their best advantage creators to attack the defense.
Dallas made a big run with PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. hitting shots. While Boston is top-heavy, they relied on players like Sam Hauser and Xavier Tillman in their run. Minnesota had Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels, and Mike Conley rise to the occasion. Andrew Nembhard and TJ McConnell stepped up big time in Haliburton’s absence.
For the Grizzlies, their shot-making is a point of emphasis for their team makeup — as they’ve ranked near the bottom of the league in 3-point percentage and halfcourt offense. Getting a playmaker like Ja Morant back is vital and will open up the offense immensely. However, work has to be done to elevate their offense.
Around the core, GG Jackson is the one with the most potential to break out. Luke Kennard’s 3-point shooting is elite and could prove paramount in a playoff series, as long as his defense isn’t exploited. Marcus Smart is streaky, but has a history of rising to the occasion. The Grizzlies need to continue exploring how to acquire as many shot-makers around its core as possible, since it could open up the floor for the Big 3 to work.
In series often built like chess matches — identifying and exploiting any potential weaknesses and mismatch to get the upper-hand — it’s valuable to have as many versatile players that can fill gaps and hit shots.
Optionality is king
Whenever a team wins a championship, a front office could look at them and ask “how do we build a squad like that?” It’s a copycat league. Emulation is why the NBA is what it is today — after all, imitation is the biggest form of flattery.
With the parity existing in today’s game, it may not be the best route to copy a model. Instead, it’s best to strive for optionality.
You can’t build a team that can specifically beat a certain style construction. It should be adaptable to any potential style you could face in 4 playoff series.
Take Minnesota for example, they built the perfect team to dethrone the Denver Nuggets. They had the defensive stoppers to lock up the Phoenix Suns. However, they had problems against the spacing and mismatch-hunting of the Dallas Mavericks.
This sort of optionality will be a huge element to monitor for the Memphis Grizzlies offseason with their needs at the center position. They have a big man of Jaren Jackson Jr.’s caliber that poses stylistic advantages at the 4 and the 5. At the 4, the defense is massive and shuts off the paint, while Jackson typically has a size advantage offensively. At the 5, there’s more opportunity to deploy a 5-out offense with Jackson attacking slower 5’s off the dribble, and it’s more malleable for potential mismatch-hunting defensively.
They have the optionality with Jackson at the 5 next to either Brandon Clarke or Santi Aldama — and maybe the combination of GG and Vince at the 3/4. They need the option of shifting bigger with a true 5 to throw out there to either play alongside Jackson, or spell him a break.
How the Grizzlies address the center need this offseason won’t indicate a clear direction, but it could show a percentage pie of their stylistic preference. Maybe getting more of an innings-eater at the 5 may shift more of the focus to Jackson at the 5, or using more significant resources (the 9th pick or trades) could show more of a 50/50 split.
After all, you’re not just trying to beat the Boston Celtics. You have to be prepared to go at larger, physical teams — Denver, Minnesota, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, New York, Cleveland. You have to be prepared for the elusive 5-out teams — Boston or Oklahoma City.
Committing one way or the other can make your team suspectible to a bad matchup. The best teams are the ones with optionality, possessing the malleability to strategize against any potential play-style they encounter over the postseason.
Blending aggressiveness with patience for a core
All 4 teams that made the conference finals made aggressive moves. Boston chased Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday last summer. Dallas traded future 1st-round picks for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford at the deadline — and bought low on Kyrie Irving in a trade last year. Minnesota sent a haul for Rudy Gobert. Indiana pushed chips in the middle of the season for Pascal Siakam.
Aggressiveness doesn’t always lead to success, as it’s ultimately a gamble. These 4 teams should be credited for the secondary moves they made to bolster its roster. Boston trading for Derrick White as he’s blossomed, and developing Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard into players worth of Finals minutes, were tremendous developments next to its core. Dallas nailed the Dereck Lively pick, but nabbing Derrick Jones Jr. on the minimum as his perimeter game took a leap. Minnesota swiping Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the Russell Westbrook salary dump was sensational. Indiana drafting Andrew Nembhard, acquiring Aaron Nesmith, and signing TJ McConnell paid off quite well.
Aggressiveness is key, but the margins are nearly just as pivotal.
However, let’s focus strictly on Boston.
They believed in their core with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — holding onto them through a plethora of trade rumors, and murmurs of needing to break them up. And this core had battle scars prior to this run — as they made the Eastern Conference in 5 of the previous 7 seasons, and the Finals in 2022. In the process though, they were aggressive and calculated around the margins when bolstering and tweaking the roster around them to the point of winning a championship.
They made tough decisions to trade away the heart and soul of the team with Marcus Smart to acquire Kristaps Porzingis — an All-Star caliber player that gave the team a different look — while accumulating valuable draft assets that led to pairing Robert Williams and Malcolm Brogdon to go get Jrue Holiday. They turned a matching salary (Josh Richardson) and draft capital (even a top-1 protected 2028 1st-round pick) for Derrick White. While they’ve made these aggressive moves, they still found value around the margins through the draft with Hauser and Pritchard, and bench acquisitions with Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman.
It’s a beautiful blend of patience, aggressiveness, and calculation that created a championship formula. And the champions of the past several seasons had similar processes.
Toronto is a different case, because they traded a part of their core (DeMar DeRozan) to acquire Kawhi Leonard. However, they drafted and developed enough talent to either flip them for ready-to-win veterans (DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl into Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green; Jonas Valanciunas and Delon Wright into Marc Gasol; Terrence Ross into Serge Ibaka), or develop them into legitimate contributors (Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby).
The Milwaukee Bucks had their core with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. They were aggressive trading for Jrue Holiday. They also found Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis in free agency at a low cost, developed Pat Connaughton into a Finals rotation player, and made a smaller deadline move for PJ Tucker.
The Denver Nuggets had their core with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. They took a swing on Michael Porter Jr. in the draft despite his medical concerns. They traded a beloved player in Gary Harris with draft capital for Aaron Gordon to bolster the frontcourt. Then, they turned Will Barton and Monte Morris into Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith, which made more sense next to Jokic and Murray.
When you have your core and do well around the margins, it makes the aggressive moves seem more calculated than anything. And in this new CBA, the margins are going to become even more important — given the harsh penalties for being deep into the tax.
For the Memphis Grizzlies, they’re committed to the core of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Now, it’s about blending aggressiveness with calculated moves to bolster the roster around them. Trading for Marcus Smart was the first semblance of this mindset. GG Jackson and Vince Williams Jr. showed upside this past season to be awesome moves around the margins. Turning Danny Green and a few second-round picks into Luke Kennard was strong in terms of value. Brandon Clarke was a late 1st-round pick that has yielded tremendous value, prior to his injury.
The Grizzlies have the 9th pick, all their first-round picks, and 5 more second-round selections — along with a good number of tradable salaries — to enhance the roster around its core in hopes to contend for a championship.
The Memphis Grizzlies have a championship-level core with Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane — a reality that materialized in 2022 and 2023, with a 9-game reminder this past season.
As Zach Kleiman has once said in an interview as EVP of Basketball Operations, progress isn’t linear.
The Dallas Mavericks and the 2022 Golden State Warriors showed it’s possible to go to the Finals in a “gap year.” The Boston Celtics showed the perfect blend of patience, aggressiveness, and calculation in constructing a championship roster.
It takes all the right breaks to win a championship. The Memphis Grizzlies will be looking to overcome the bad injury luck to reclaim its spot in the contention circle and to ultimately bring a title to the city of Memphis.
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