Trade deadline was predictably bonkers as it came and went on Friday morning NZT. Sean Marks was front and centre as he often seems to be, but the other kiwi in the league spent the morning blissfully preparing for a game. The Memphis Grizzlies didn’t do anything. The Memphis Grizzlies didn’t need to do anything. The trade deadline is sort of like a symbolic date for teams to announce their intentions as championship contenders but the Grizzlies didn’t need to act because the Grizzlies are already there.

Some people might not be ready to say that. After all with an average age of 23.7 years this team is the second youngest in the league right now, going hand in hand with the fact that they also have the second smallest salary payroll. In fact Steven Adams is the oldest and the highest paid player on the roster. Earns five milly more than Kyle Anderson and is also two-months older than Slo-Mo. Steven Adams is only 28 years old. There are 72 NBA players earning more than him this season.

Your standard championship roster has a superstar or two in their absolute prime. Often there’ll be a few young dudes on friendly contracts but there’ll also be a collection of esteemed veterans with heaps of playoff experience. Probably a coach who’s been there and done it all before too.

The Grizzlies don’t have any of that. Adams (8), Anderson (7), and Tyus Jones (6) are the only players to have taken the court for Memphis this season with more than four previous seasons of NBA experience. 14/23 players used this term have only played for the Grizz. Again, Adams, Anderson, and Jones are the only three who’ve experienced more than one playoff campaign. Sam Merrill did win a championship with the Bucks as a rookie last season but he was a bit-part player for them and is a bit-part player for Memphis.

Career Playoff Games, Current Grizzlies Roster:

• Steven Adams – 59 games

• Kyle Anderson – 35 games

• Entire Rest Of The Team – 48 games

Those are legitimate ways in which they don’t fit the standard idea of what a championship contending roster looks like so you can sorta accept why they’re still getting slept on in some places. Sure the Grizz are getting plenty of recognition for the way they’re playing at the moment. But there are always folks out there who won’t believe it until they see it in the playoffs and that’s fair enough. That’s where legends are made, amigos. Hence there’s still a hint of condescension even in the praise that they get – you know, like, ‘the Grizzlies are a super young, super fun roster from a small market who might be truly good in a couple of years’ kinda thing.

Make no mistake though, this Grizzlies team is the real deal right now. After starting 9-10 they’ve got a 30-8 record since – that’s better than three wins out of every four games. Only the Phoenix Suns have a higher winning percentage from that date onwards (November 26). We played this game a few write-ups ago but more time has passed and the Grizzlies have not slowed down in any way, shape, or form so let’s play it again. This is were they ranks since that tenth loss back on November 26...

• Third in points per game (114.8)

• First by miles in offensive rebounding (14.3/gm)

• First by miles in total rebounds (50.1/gm)

• Tenth in turnovers despite being third in pace of play (13.2/gm)

• First in steals, more than an entire steal per night better than second place (10.5/gm)

• First in blocks (6.7/gm)

• First in plus-minus (+10.2)

• Sixth in offensive rating (116.7)

• First in defensive rating (104.4)

• First in net rating (9.8)

• First in points off turnovers (20.0/gm)

• First in second chance points by almost three points per game (19.2/gm)

• First in fast break points (17.8/gm)

• First in points in the paint by more than five ppg (59.2/gm)

• Second in opposition points off turnovers (13.5/gm)

• Fifth in opposition second chance points (12.1/gm)

• Sixth in opposition points in the paint (43.6)

They flipped the switch coinciding with an injury to Ja Morant. The question at the time was whether this defensive revolution could last when their star player returned... and it did. Then it became a matter of, well how long can they sustain this? They’ve now kept it going for two and a half months throughout various ins and outs in the line-up (and a stint where their head coach was missing in covid protocols). There is nothing left for them to prove until they get to the playoffs. All they’ve gotta do between now and then is keep doing exactly what they’ve been doing since late November and get as high a seeding as possible.

The Grizzlies actually aren’t a particularly good shooting team and if they fall short in the playoffs then that, combined with their inexperience, is likely to be the main factor. They’re 15th in FG% and 23rd in 3P%. Not great numbers... but that hasn’t been a problem for them at all because even if they don’t shoot as efficiently as other teams, they shoot a whole lot more often. First in total field goal attempts. How do they manage that? By being first in steals, first in offensive rebounds, top ten in turnovers. Those aren’t ‘since Nov 26’ stats either, those are full season yarns. In other words, they have the most shot attempts because they have the most possessions. Simple, right?

We’re long past the point of this being some kinda fluke. This is what the Grizzlies are. The atmosphere around the team is amazing, they drive each other hard but they love what they do and they love each other. There’s a fantastic vibe. And the style in which they’re winning these games, through efficient basketball and defensive prowess... those are things that tend to be amplified come playoff time. Their strengths align with what it takes to win playoff games.

There are no guarantees in professional sport. Anything can happen, any title contender is only an injury away from collapse. But there’s no need to get all frantic about whatever it’ll take for the Grizzlies to get to that next level because they’re already there.

Peep The Scout Vid

Constructing A Contender

In fact if you wanna get funky with it, and this is a Steven Adams themed feature so we definitely do, you could make the case that the Grizzlies have already made the trade that they needed in order to get to the next level. They made it in the offseason when they swapped out Jonas Valanciunas for Steven Adams.

Sure it was an offensive drop-off... if you’re only going to compare them man to man. But there’s a wider context here which is that Steven Adams is completely low-maintenance when it comes to his shots. He’s not gonna complain at all if he goes a full game without a single field goal attempt except those that came from his own rebounds. He averages around seven or so shots fewer per game than Jonas averaged last term and those are shots that they instead get to distribute around the rest of the roster.

In other words, you might still have gotten Ja Morant’s stunning improvements this year. Probably Jaren Jackson Jr too who has absolutely slaughtered teams when paired with Adams but has been making a killing without Adams on the floor too. But you wouldn’t have gotten Desmond Bane’s steep rise without making that deal. Or the overall team rise. At least not to this extent - Steven Adams has freed them all up.

Plus Adams passes like a champion out of that high post and his screen game is unparalleled. He’s a facilitator in ways that aren’t always obvious. Something that his coach often talks about: the things that Steven Adams does best are things that directly impact winning. The Adams/JV trade was part of a specific plan to fully hand over the reigns of this team to their young core. One stylistic shift via trade and then a whole lot of internal growth. That was the plan. That’s been the formula for success.

It’s hard to find comparisons for another team that made a similar leap to what the Grizzlies have done without really doing anything external. Especially with such young stars. The only example that stands out is the OKC Thunder side that went to the NBA Finals with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. All three of those guys went on to win MVP awards and all three of those dudes were top four picks in consecutive years by the same team. The fact they never got back to the finals is kinda bonkers, to be honest.

The three players with the most minutes played for Memphis this season were all drafted by the franchise. Two of them were even drafted top four although only one of them is ever going to have a chance to win MVP. That’s Ja Morant, who is on the outskirts of that conversation already in year three, who was picked second overall in 2019. Jaren Jackson Jr was picked fourth overall in 2018. Desmond Bane was picked 30th overall in 2020. Might wanna chuck 45th overall 2017 pick Dillon Brooks in there too who’d have been up near the top of the minutes ranks had he been fit.

Not quite the same as what the Thunder did but one thing remains the same: outstanding draft success. The NBA Draft is a lottery, you never quite know how any individual player will develop, but there are definitely teams that do it better than others and the Grizzlies have hit on some superb players in recent years. First and second rounds. Look at teams that have struggled to get out of their rebuilding phases and poor draft hauls are often at the heart of it. No such dramas here.

The other thing about players that you’ve drafted yourself is they’re way cheaper. You’re not overpaying to bring in free agents, you’re getting these lads on rookie scale contracts. This is why Memphis has such a low salary hit this season. That’ll change as JJJ and Morant in particular get into their next contracts and it could be that Steven Adams is a casualty of that, especially if JJJ evolves into a starting centre. But that’s a future yarn. Adams might also take a pay cut to stay and play twenty or less mins a night, who knows. Late-era Andrew Bogut stuff. If the Grizz are challenging for championships then anything’s on the table.

But for now they’ve got a heap of young players on really team-friendly deals and that does give them a heap of flexibility should they want to dip into the trade market. Again though, they already kinda made the move that they needed to make at this phase. And as far as other things go, the one type of player they could really use is a knockdown 3&D wing and they’ve got one of those waiting on ice: Dillon Brooks. Only appeared in 21 games so far this season.

It’s not just that the Grizzlies didn’t do anything at this trade deadline, it’s that this entire roster was built without blockbuster trades or massive free agent signings. Being a small market team sorta demands that they have to prioritise other ways of finding players but even still this is just not what other teams are doing. Steven Adams is the only notable player in the rotation that headlined a trade. Kyle Anderson is the only major free agency signing they’ve made in recent years. In an age of superstar trades and contract opt outs... the Memphis Grizzlies are an absolute textbook case in how to construct a quality roster of basketballers in a sustainable way.

High Praise From Opponents, As Usual

In Case You’re Wondering

Since we’re rehashing/updating a lot of past yarns/stats in this piece, Steven Adams is now 49-16 in jump ball situations this season. Yes, that remains number one in the NBA.

SLAM DUNKS

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