After injuries spoiled the 2023-24 season in Memphis, the Grizzlies are back on track in 2024-25.
One of the most dramatic moments of NBA action this season went for naught, a play mistakenly whistled dead that sent Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins into furious sideline theatrics.
Trailing by one point in the dwindling seconds against the rival Houston Rockets, Memphis’ rookie wing Jaylen Wells seemingly had an end-to-end finish, rebound to layup, wiped away when an official assumed Jenkins was calling a timeout to set up something more intentional.
The refs mistakenly charged Grizzlies HC Taylor Jenkins with a timeout while Jaylen Wells was on a fastbreak as Memphis trailed by a point with less than 15 seconds to play.
Memphis would go on to beat Houston 120-119. pic.twitter.com/W1pNLxQCc5
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 31, 2025
But that’s not the way the Grizzlies roll, not this season for sure, and that’s not how they have achieved the NBA’s biggest turnaround. From 18-34 through 52 games a year ago, they are 35-17, sporting the league’s highest octane offense.
They are 26-6 in games decided by at least 10 points, and Memphis is the lone team that hasn’t been held below 100 points even once. The Grizzlies rank fifth offensively, seven defensively and fourth in net rating (7.3), one of just four teams in the Top 10 in all three (Oklahoma City, Boston and Cleveland are the others).
That Houston game? The Grizzlies survived, 120-119, keeping alive a stretch of 10 victories in 12 games. And fueling optimism from the likes of Hall of Famers Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in their recent podcast.
“I’ll take Memphis in a seven-game series over anybody in the West,” Pierce said. “Except for OKC.”
Here are four reasons the Grizzlies have soared back into the thick of the West’s race in 2024-25 – and an area they need to address to put Pierce’s theory to the test:
1. Memphis keeps it moving
They push it after takeaways. They push it after opponents’ misses. They push it after opponents’ makes. If it all seems a little frenetic, that’s good … because it’s by design.
Memphis scores more points (123.5) and takes more shots (93.2) than any other team. They lead the NBA in fastbreak points (16.8), which explains why Jenkins went apoplectic to have one thwarted erroneously.
Last season, the Grizzlies ranked last in points (105.8) and offensive rating. Their net rating was a dismal -6.9 and they were mediocre in pace (17th).
How did that change? By moving. More and more quickly. The league tracks this sort of stuff and it turns out Grizzlies players log more miles and do so at a faster clip than the other 29 teams. While they’re not hurrying up their attack at a Mike D’Antoni, “seven seconds or less” level, they are quickest to get up shots whether the ball comes off the rim or goes through the net.
That’s why Jenkins’ offense stands out in analytics and in the eye test. The Grizzlies run fewer dribble handoffs or pick-and-rolls than the other guys, getting fewer than half the number of points Cleveland or OKC create with those plays.
2. Jaren Jackson Jr. has taken another step
It still might be too soon to call this Jackson’s “prime” since he’s only 25. But he’s scoring more (23.3 ppg) and fouling less (3.4), boosting his impact even as his minutes are held to 29.7 per night. Opponents are shooting 7.6% worse against him as a primary defender, second-best in the NBA among those who have played at least 35 games and a couple of spots higher than Defensive Player of the Year favorite Victor Wembanyama (-6.5%).
In his seventh season, the 6-foot-10 big continues to thrive while splitting his time between power forward and center. When his streaks of nine straight games with 20+ points and three with 30+ were snapped against the Thunder, Jackson still had 19 and chipped in three steals and three blocks.
Jaren Jackson Jr. talks about what he learned after being a focal point for Memphis last season.
3. Few teams are more resilient
Memphis has lost 240 “man games” to injuries or illness this season. Fifteen players have dealt with 40 ailments of one sort or another, from GG Jackson’s fifth metatarsal repair (40 games) and Vince Williams Jr.’s ankle sprain (35) to Ja Morant’s nine maladies costing him 21 games.
The layoffs haven’t been hiccups in the Grizzlies’ plow through the schedule. They were 25-15 minus GG Jackson, 26-9 without Williams and are 14-7 so far in games Morant has missed. Memphis’ 2-2 mark when Brandon Clarke is out makes him the only guy without whom it hasn’t posted a winning record.
That’s a far cry from the 25-51 record during Clarke’s 76-game absence (torn Achilles tendon) last season. The Grizzlies were 21-52 playing without Morant a year ago. But over his other five seasons, their record is 51-31 when the spectacular point guard is sidelined.
Memphis has gotten good at plugging holes because it has dealt with lots of them. Last season, Jenkins played Whack-A-Mole, sorting through 33 different players. So far this season, he has had to use 19. When the Grizzlies beat the Suns in Phoenix on New Year’s Eve, they led from start to finish despite having nine players on the injury report.
4. Youth making an impact
Of the league’s top four teams by record, none is getting more mileage out of its rookies than Memphis. Boston’s newbies have logged a total of 69 minutes while Cleveland’s are at 372. OKC has used rookies for 1,039 minutes, though Ajay Mitchell had more than half of that (561) before his season-ending toe surgery.
Memphis has two rookies in its starting lineup — center Zach Edey and wing Jaylen Wells — and trusted five with a total of 2,313 minutes. The 7-foot-4 Edey, off consecutive NCAA Player of the Year honors at Purdue, has made a solid transition to the NBA game. He is averaging 9.7 points, 7.t rebounds and 1.2 blocks, with seven double-doubles so far.
Wells, unheralded out of Washington State, has been arguably the steal of the 2024 Draft, picked 39th overall. Not only does the 6-foot-7 wing lead all rookies in victories (35) and 3-pointers made (95), but he is second on the Grizzlies in minutes and field goals made. Plus he regularly gets assigned to opponents’ toughest covers.
Jenkins has never been skittish about letting young players earn quality minutes over the years, from Santi Aldama, John Konchar, David Roddy and Jake LaRavia to Scotty Pippen Jr., Williams, GG Jackson and the rookies now. Memphis leads the NBA with 46.4 bench points per game, and its reserves rank second and first, respectively, in overall field goal percentage (47.9) and on 3-pointers (39.7).
Area for improvement: Memphis, surprisingly, has sputtered when facing the very competition it is most likely to see in the postseason. The Grizzlies are 8-13 against the nine other teams with winning records in the West (as of Tuesday). That includes 0-2 against OKC by a combined 37 points.
Their 27-4 mark against the league’s 20 other teams — 16-4 vs. the East — is nice, but that won’t matter through the first three rounds of playoffs. Memphis has the Clippers in L.A. Wednesday as its All-Star getaway game, then waits until March 5 for another Thunder clash.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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