The Glaring Hole on the Memphis Grizzlies roster

The general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies, Zach Kleiman, has a lot on his plate this upcoming offseason. The two biggest things for him to take care of are who to select with the third overall pick in this upcoming draft and how to trade franchise superstar Ja Morant eventually. 

Once he takes care of these two roster moves, the direction of the team and the franchise will be much clearer. However, there’s still work to be done to build a better overall roster going into next season. Regardless of how these moves play out, the Grizzlies have a glaring hole they need to fix: their lack of shooting.

The pace-and-space era has ruled the NBA for the better part of a decade. Teams are playing faster and shooting more threes at an historic rate that increases each year. Unfortunately for Memphis, historically, they haven’t been able to fully catch up with the elites of this era who play this style. At the beginning of this era, Memphis was defiant with its Grit & Grind style, led by Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. The Grizzlies would famously slow the game down to the half-court and feed their two-star big men down low, while taking a limited number of three-pointers.

In the present day, head coach Tuomas Iisalo welcomes this style of play as he adopted the “speed kills” moniker to describe the Grizzlies’ offense. The Grizzlies ranked eighth in pace, with a rating of 101.69. They also ranked eighth in the league in three-point attempts with 39.5 per game.

The problem lies in their efficiency from the three-point range. Memphis ranked near the bottom of the league in three-point percentage, 22nd at 35.3%. They're taking a lot of 3s, but not making enough at a high enough clip to be a truly productive offense. 

There is a clear correlation between three-point success and overall team success. All teams that ranked in the top 15 in three-point percentage were either play-in or playoff teams this year. Because the Grizzlies wish to reach the postseason as quickly as possible, they have to turn this weakness into a strength. 

Help the frontcourt players