It seems that the Memphis Grizzlies are moving towards a new direction, and one of the franchise’s star players may have to do a lot of adjustments.
The player is Zach Randolph, the Grizzlies' double-double machine, who may find himself no longer starting for the ballclub as head coach David Joerger seems to be joining the small ball philosophy made famous by the Golden State Warriors.
Randolph didn’t start against the Miami Heat as earlier reported by reporter Rob Fischer last Sunday. The Grizzlies bowed to the Heat (97-100) but it looks like Joerger sees something from the ploy as he plans to use the same in future games.
"We're [Grizzlies] going to play like this for a while," says Joerger to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal.
With Randolph riding the bench, Matt Barnes was moved to his spot. Courtney Lee was also elevated to the starting lineup to fill up the slack left by an injured Tony Allen (knee).
Though the transition to the small ball philosophy isn’t something new anymore, it has been proven not to be for everyone. The Golden State Warriors were able to succeed with it mainly because it had a lot of players who could shoot the ball and role players who were willing to do the scrappy work.
Barnes and Lee do have good perimeter shooting but the small ball philosophy may not be something they can do for the entirety of their games.
Against the Heat, Randolph played only 26 minutes and made only 12 points and 6 rebounds. The numbers were hardly a dip from his averages so far this season, which are 14.1 points and 8.9 rebounds.
While Randolph is usually the type who would air his dismay, it was the exact opposite this time around.
"Anything I can do to help our team, I'm with it," he said via the Commercial Appeal. "I'm a team-first guy, an organization-first guy. Whatever it takes, I'm with it. Coach said it's a copycat league. Everybody wants to play small. It's what we're doing and I'm on board."
The Grizzlies didn’t exactly start the season on a high note but have managed to climb up to 14-12 as of this writing. They were tagged as one of the favourites in the Western Conference but are apparently far from where critics believe they should be.
For now, it remains to be seen if the “small ball” approach is the solution for Joerger and his boys.
They did rebound emphatically after their loss to the Heat against the Washington Wizards (112-95). However, the real test comes when the Grizzlies face the higher-ranked and tipped favourites like the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.