How much longer before they fire Taylor? I like him but the Front Office must be happy with him?
yep_checks-out
Your reminder that our starting Center and backup Center are still injured after what feels like 10 seasons. Also our second best shooter and the best 3pt shooter in the world has the longest bone bruise injury known to man. Oh and our backup pt guard has chronic injuries.
Blame the FO for drafting Jake and Ziaire. Or at least criticize Jenkins for something viable like his rotations. However I’d make the same argument that injuries have destroyed any semblance of a stable rotation.
scl142
Lack of accountability is annoying. But Taylor is here to stay until the cores contract window ends in a few years.
Now if FO would just get rid of some pieces to stop distracting from creating better lineups that would be nice. But ain’t no one taking these pieces like Z, Laravia at this point for what Memphis has invested in them.
oneoftheguysdownhere
What do you expect him to say that would make you feel better? Like, his team just got blown out by 37. He’s obviously frustrated and doesn’t want to be sitting there talking about every single thing that his team did wrong.
That doesn’t mean he’s not going to be thinking about it and watching film to make adjustments. Like, I don’t get why there’s this expectation for him to write a thesis and pour his heart out during a postgame interview.
Far-Cauliflower-6477
I’m assuming the illness was just load management while ramping Ja back up to game speed. Also, it feels like a matter of picking your fights. We have Nuggets/Clippers back to back. Having a full fit squad for the Clippers is probably more winnable
supportingcreativity
It looks like they need more rebounds and passing which Adams provided. They need everyone who is not Bane to have more efficient shooting. A lot if that matters less if the defense is consantly being pressured by point guard who applies three people’s worth of pressure.
You have a team build around one person, everyone on the team used to having what they provide and then have to adapt without it. The Grizzlies arguably revolve around Ja and Steve rather than JJr, Bane, and Ja. Ja and Steve syngerized in a way that efficently made up for where we lacked (incredible outlet passing + speed in transition, a person who doesn’t need a whole lot a space + a wedge really good at making space at the right time, passing lane interference + size in the paint on defense, efficient offense creation + high amount of offensive rebounding to act as a safety net for the rest of the team). Its almost as if when you have team whose revolved around a certain dynamic and then they no longer have that dynamic, it makes it hard on them.
They need someone else to really take another step forward AND for the FO to trade for another center. Vince is a diamond in the rough find for us right now and Bane has more than done his part.
Three players I think that could take that step.
Jaren isn’t a true center so I don’t expect him to rebound more than he is now as its not his skillset or true position. What he does need though is to be better at passing. Even if he just used his height by working on range and accuracy with overhead passing (worked well enough for Stevo a lot of the time), it would pay off a lot more. They can have a good outlet passer for transition, he can generate reversals to get cleaner looks by passing across the arc, and just force defenders to respect him as a passing threat which will give him a few more oppurtunities to shoot. This is probably the biggest gain for the team for the lowest investment.
Marcus Smart. Smart is at a place where most would consider their output to be what its going to be. I think Smart could hit 20 pts 5 assists per game or 15 pts 10 assists a game. He needs to play more as a forward and a playermaker though. He has the IQ and court vision to find easy 45 cuts/back cuts to the rim, he knows he can bully people at the rim if needed, and he is intelligent enough to know how to use passing threats to trick defenders into giving him space at the midrange. Give-and-go/passing and chasing the pass more would help him make up for his lack of handle so he could make room for himself with Bane/Ja and initiate the offense if needed. He would be a lot more efficient playing closer to the goal at the 4 on offense. Him working on give-n-go/pass-chase would also be the 2nd or 3rd highest return for low investment for the team.
Kennard. Kennard would be more investment, but it might be worth developing him with more point guard skills (mainly a tighter handling and crossover). Maybe just run him using a simple pistol action with a secondary ball handler to just have that as an option when Ja isn’t there. Training him and Bane to initiate those same pistol actions would encourage them to help each other and also create some needed continuity.
p3ndu1um
We need to figure out our center situation and strengthen our bench. It isn’t cutting it and only exacerbating our problems
KIMJONGUNderfed
Yeah, this isn’t rocket science. We have an off the couch big man filling in for us, who has done better than I think any of us would’ve expected, but at the end of the day, elite big men will shred us until either Adams comes back in any semblance close to what he left under, or we trade for a new one.
8 Comments
How much longer before they fire Taylor? I like him but the Front Office must be happy with him?
Your reminder that our starting Center and backup Center are still injured after what feels like 10 seasons. Also our second best shooter and the best 3pt shooter in the world has the longest bone bruise injury known to man. Oh and our backup pt guard has chronic injuries.
Blame the FO for drafting Jake and Ziaire. Or at least criticize Jenkins for something viable like his rotations. However I’d make the same argument that injuries have destroyed any semblance of a stable rotation.
Lack of accountability is annoying. But Taylor is here to stay until the cores contract window ends in a few years.
Now if FO would just get rid of some pieces to stop distracting from creating better lineups that would be nice. But ain’t no one taking these pieces like Z, Laravia at this point for what Memphis has invested in them.
What do you expect him to say that would make you feel better? Like, his team just got blown out by 37. He’s obviously frustrated and doesn’t want to be sitting there talking about every single thing that his team did wrong.
That doesn’t mean he’s not going to be thinking about it and watching film to make adjustments. Like, I don’t get why there’s this expectation for him to write a thesis and pour his heart out during a postgame interview.
I’m assuming the illness was just load management while ramping Ja back up to game speed. Also, it feels like a matter of picking your fights. We have Nuggets/Clippers back to back. Having a full fit squad for the Clippers is probably more winnable
It looks like they need more rebounds and passing which Adams provided. They need everyone who is not Bane to have more efficient shooting. A lot if that matters less if the defense is consantly being pressured by point guard who applies three people’s worth of pressure.
You have a team build around one person, everyone on the team used to having what they provide and then have to adapt without it. The Grizzlies arguably revolve around Ja and Steve rather than JJr, Bane, and Ja. Ja and Steve syngerized in a way that efficently made up for where we lacked (incredible outlet passing + speed in transition, a person who doesn’t need a whole lot a space + a wedge really good at making space at the right time, passing lane interference + size in the paint on defense, efficient offense creation + high amount of offensive rebounding to act as a safety net for the rest of the team). Its almost as if when you have team whose revolved around a certain dynamic and then they no longer have that dynamic, it makes it hard on them.
They need someone else to really take another step forward AND for the FO to trade for another center. Vince is a diamond in the rough find for us right now and Bane has more than done his part.
Three players I think that could take that step.
Jaren isn’t a true center so I don’t expect him to rebound more than he is now as its not his skillset or true position. What he does need though is to be better at passing. Even if he just used his height by working on range and accuracy with overhead passing (worked well enough for Stevo a lot of the time), it would pay off a lot more. They can have a good outlet passer for transition, he can generate reversals to get cleaner looks by passing across the arc, and just force defenders to respect him as a passing threat which will give him a few more oppurtunities to shoot. This is probably the biggest gain for the team for the lowest investment.
Marcus Smart. Smart is at a place where most would consider their output to be what its going to be. I think Smart could hit 20 pts 5 assists per game or 15 pts 10 assists a game. He needs to play more as a forward and a playermaker though. He has the IQ and court vision to find easy 45 cuts/back cuts to the rim, he knows he can bully people at the rim if needed, and he is intelligent enough to know how to use passing threats to trick defenders into giving him space at the midrange. Give-and-go/passing and chasing the pass more would help him make up for his lack of handle so he could make room for himself with Bane/Ja and initiate the offense if needed. He would be a lot more efficient playing closer to the goal at the 4 on offense. Him working on give-n-go/pass-chase would also be the 2nd or 3rd highest return for low investment for the team.
Kennard. Kennard would be more investment, but it might be worth developing him with more point guard skills (mainly a tighter handling and crossover). Maybe just run him using a simple pistol action with a secondary ball handler to just have that as an option when Ja isn’t there. Training him and Bane to initiate those same pistol actions would encourage them to help each other and also create some needed continuity.
We need to figure out our center situation and strengthen our bench. It isn’t cutting it and only exacerbating our problems
Yeah, this isn’t rocket science. We have an off the couch big man filling in for us, who has done better than I think any of us would’ve expected, but at the end of the day, elite big men will shred us until either Adams comes back in any semblance close to what he left under, or we trade for a new one.