Victorious (without Ja Morant, injured in the ankle) over the Bulls (124-121) last night, for their third preseason game, the Grizzlies focused on rhythm. After the first match won against the Mavericks, Desmond Bane took many minutes to catch his breath in the locker room.
“We all felt it today” he explained to The Athletic. “And you're going to see it from day one, we're going to play very, very fast. »
Obviously, it is the return of Ja Morant which allows Memphis to step back on the accelerator. In 2021/22 then 2022/23, the team was in the Top 5 franchises that played the fastest in the NBA. Enough to allow him to exceed the 50 victory mark twice in the regular season…
A leader to recruit?
Without its dragster, the club fell to 16th place in terms of pace last season, but that will change.
“The question is how we convert all of that, whether it’s stops, rebounds, turnovers, even made baskets.”explains Taylor Jenkins. “It’s our ability to get the ball up more quickly whereas, last year, we tried a style of attack where the positions were less fixed. We will still try to do it, but there are things that we have studied and practiced, to move from defense to attack. Pace is a question of numbers, but above all it is a question of mentality.
The trio Ja Morant – Marcus Smart – Desmond Bane will thus be responsible for constantly restarting, and will therefore have to be in good shape to last the entire regular season. Especially since a rotation is undoubtedly missing since the surprise retirement of Derrick Rose, Yuki Kawamura And Scotty Pippen Jr. still being a little “green”.
