There are lot of mental gymnastics involved into justification of a trade or trying to find angle how to elevate Bane , by trashing Grizzlies. One would think Bane is some prime Steph Curry out there playing with bums.
That's not a case really. You can "trash" Memphis as a team or their players just to uplift Bane, but it's such a ugly revision of history. He is integral part of their raise, growth but ultimate fiasco, that includes his production, his salary and his limitations ( just like any core player in salary restricted league , if some player makes 25% of total money)
Grizzlies were EXCELLENT team in 2021-22. 56-26 record isn't something that you achieve with scrubs.
Morant was 22, won MIP, was 7th in MVP voting, all star, all nba selection.
Jackson finished 5th in DPOY voting, age 22. All nba defensive first team.
Bane, 23 at times, had 18,2 ppg, 56,5% eFG season.
Their bench and supporting cast were excellent: Brooks, Clarke, Melton, Kyle Anderson, Jones, Aldama, Merril, Adams... etc
What happened? Nothing. They passed first round of playoffs vs Minny ( that was pre- Gobert Wolves), Bane plays like mad man in first round, leading Grizzlies scorer.
But second round is vs Warriors. Grizzlies have home court advantage. But Warriors steal game 1 and control rest of a series. Series was all over a place, Morant didn't play in last game, Green was ejected in game 1, officiating was garbage. Morant had breakout in playoffs, finishing series with 38 ppg.
But at the end of a day, when it was time to put series away, Klay and Curry > rest of the world's history at Guard slots.
Next year they win 51 games. But:
Morant 61 games played
Bane 58 games played
Jackson 63 games played
Their offensive production fell off cliff (15# offense) compared to previous year ( 5# offense).
First round vs Lakers at home, Lakers went through playin to get to playoffs.
And once again, it is very hard to win playoffs when you face top 5 players. Davis & Lebron > anything Memphis has.
Bane in this version of Grizzlies is way more of combo guard. But that version isn't really best version of him. Reaves pretty much wins their mini "duel", with lower usage, higher efficiency and more assists ( less Tos) ( Reaves 30 assists, 11 TOs, Bane 19 assists, 17 TOs ). Bane scores more raw PPGs (23,5 vs 16,7) but also takes 40 shots more ( 26% usage vs 19% usage).
Next year, gun suspension - Morant 9 games played total
Bane 42 games total
Jackson 66 games
27-55 record. Really nothing to say there. Bane as "point guard" had better stats , team sucked, offense was the worst in nba.
And that brings us to last year.
Grizzlies had some strange offense that excluded pick&roll, at least traditional high screen action. I won't lie. I enjoyed watching regular season teams being confused in fake screens, chasing clouds, some Wizards / Hornets / Jazz - F level players being so easily fooled by decoy screens that are moved without contact into slip. Even good team like Celtics folded and got lost ( especially when their big bums were on floor Queta & Kornet).
Problem with such offense was:
- all 5 men had to be capable of handling ball and making passes
- on ball player has to be able to shake off defender
- pretty much all people need to be able to attack rim
And yea... once Morant got down, it got ugly. You can argue that thing would never work in playoffs as teams focus on poor ball handlers and pressure them ( happened anyway vs OKC ).
But once again:
Morant 50 games
Jackson 74 games
Bane 69 games
And here we are. Grizzlies were " best young core", after Pelicans "best young core ever" also went nowhere. Like everybody can figure, that title means jack s****. Best young core is one that is turned into title. If that means selling them all, so be it. ( Also, OKC is best "young core" of a decade, winning title will be ultimate proof , as Presti now has crown and pile of assets to sit on for next 5 years ).
Bane, Morant and Jackson are great young players. Morant has superstar- flashes, Jackson is elite 2 way big ( all nba second def. team), and Bane is above average guard. But all 3 were hurt almost every year, and all 3 never showed any consistency in production in playoffs.
Morant struggles to create easy shots in playoffs due jump shot being meh.
Bane can't create and shoot , always seems to be limited to 1 of 2.
Jackson's offense is pile of garbage in playoffs + his rebounding is painful. I already complained about Jackson and his inability to turn shoulder and play like big, to a point where he is too scared to post up Caruso for 3 possessions in a row.
In reality, more you watch teams, especially in playoffs, more clear and obvious their problems are. We had 4 (actually 5) series of Memphis to watch to figure it out.
This whole "terrible Grizzlies team", "terrible organization " , "poorly used", " didn't get help " is just echo chamber noice from people that don't really watch much basketball pass own team. And that's fine. But if somebody tells you that there is team with 56 wins with 22 years old superstar, built from nothing but own picks would you consider that team "poorly ran" ? Ofc not. Grizzlies aren't poorly ran organization. They simply made rebuild of what they had. And what they had wasn't good enough. That happens to 99,999% of teams that do rebuild.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon
