The Memphis Grizzlies’ Unique Camaraderie

As the NBA shifts into an egotistic-centered culture — where basketball players are pampered from their teens and star-studded teams disintegrate as a result of unchecked narcissism — the Memphis Grizzlies have distinguished themselves for their humility and strong sense of camaraderie.

As the cornerstone of the Grizzlies’ cohesive unit, Marc Gasol displayed excellent intuition about his teammates ever since he first came over from Spain in 2008. During his rookie season, Gasol played a key role in deterring the Grizzlies from trading Mike Conley, who was taking much longer than expected to develop.

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As Memphis was on the verge of dealing the scrawny 6’1″ point guard, Gasol reached out to Ron Tillery, who covered the team for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

“I had no idea what I was doing,” recalled Gasol. “I said, ‘Write this down: We cannot trade Mike Conley. He is the one guy who actually cares about the team, that actually is trying to play the right way.’ Well, supposedly a rookie is not supposed to do that. So I got a call from the owner, I got a call from everybody. And rightfully so. Rightfully so.

“But I felt like I had to protect the one guy who I felt actually cared about winning and losing — because a lot of people say, ‘I want to win.’ But are you going to do the right things it takes to win? Do you want to win on your own terms, or do you want to win on the team’s terms?”

Through the recognition of Mike’s quiet humility and drive to succeed, in spite of the dark cloud that permeated his career early on, Gasol conceptually foreshadowed Conley’s potential; the Grizzlies are now reaping the rewards of Gasol’s prognostication.

Not only have Gasol and Conley sat by each other on the team plane since day one, but they’ve also developed a nice rapport on the court.

Conley has assisted on a team-high 111 of Gasol’s field goals, which have come mainly via pick-and-rolls — a play they’ve come to master together. Conley’s career-high 18 points per game to go along with six assists and 42 percent shooting from deep — which are All-Star worthy numbers — exemplify his worth to the team.

The rise of the Grizzlies — from 24 wins in 2008-09, to 46 in 2010-11, to 56 (and a West finals berth) in 2012-13 — coincides with Conley’s own progression. Tony Allen recently delineated why Conley’s impact on the team goes beyond the numbers.

“To be a good leader, you have to be a good listener as well,” Grizzlies guard Tony Allen said of Conley. “So he listens to what we’ve got to say, if we’re complaining, or if we think they should go a different way; and he always brings us back, that we’ve all got to be on the same page to move forward. He needs to continue that. But I think I want him to be a little nastier, though. I need him to be a little more nastier, put a little more of a mean streak in him.”

Conley has responded to Allen’s request to be “a little nastier” by occasionally slapping him upside the head.

“He says there’s another level I need to reach,” said Conley, who went into his Tony Allen rasp: “He wants me being nasty, to put on a different Mike.” He laughed. “He wants me to be in his space, grab his jersey, pound him in his chest, ‘Snap out of it!’ and all that stuff. I can try, but that’s just not me for the most part. I’ll slap him against the back of his head once in a while, because that is the only way to get his attention sometimes: You’ll be talking to him and he’s looking right past you, so you just got to hit him upside the head. Then he’s listening to you again.”

“Yeah,” conceded Allen with a shrug, “he’ll hit me upside my head.” He was grinning as he clapped his hands. “‘Snap out of it! Go onto the next play, we’ve got to make a run!’ He’ll tell me things like that, just keeping me engaged, and I think that’s big. That’s big.”

Among the Grizzlies two-man lineups with at least 200 minutes of on-court time together, the Conley-Allen pairing in the backcourt holds opponents to the fewest points per possession of any two-man group on the team. It isn’t surprising that these two click on the court together, seeing how they trust each other to the point where Conley can slap Allen on the back of the head if he’s drifting during a game.

Though they’re the two best players on Memphis, neither Conley nor Gasol would be able to shine without Zach Randolph‘s sacrifice for the team. The 6-foot-9 power forward is having his best season in five years, yet it isn’t due to an increase in shot attempts or minutes played; it’s been quite the contrary.

He’s embraced going from the first option in seasons past to the third banana, and it’s allowed him to become more effective and efficient as a result.

His field goal percentage has skyrocketed to 51.3 percent as opposed to 46 percent in each of the past three seasons. His Player Efficiency Rating of 21.6 is the highest it’s been since the 2010-11 season, and he’s grabbing a career-high 21 percent of all available rebounds.

No longer the focal point of the Grizzlies’ offense, Randolph has flourished in his new role of bullying defenders inside.

Most teams have a potent duo who are deadly in the pick-and-roll — for the Grizzlies it’s Mike Conley and Marc Gasol; however, most do not get to enjoy the luxury of having a player of Randolph’s caliber who is willing and able to do the dirty work: crashing the boards and bodying up the best defenders with such a running high motor and energy.

Consequently, Randolph’s sacrifice has enabled the Grizzlies’ perennially-poor offense to spike to the top 10 in offensive efficiency this season. Randolph is the catalyst for making his teammates better as they simultaneously return the favor.

On Thursday night, after dismantling the Denver Nuggets in the team’s best defensive performance of the season, 99-69, the Grizzlies threw a surprise 30th birthday for Marc Gasol; although the quiet-natured Marc Gasol requested that the team not sing him happy birthday during the game.

The Grizzlies obliged, but they didn’t let Gasol go the rest of the night uncelebrated.

The very winning culture that Gasol has conducted in Memphis, free from all selfishness and drama, is exactly what the organization is hoping will convince Marc to stay in town when he becomes a free agent this summer.

Randolph selflessly took a hometown discount by agreeing to a three-year contract worth $10 million per season — which is much less than his market value. Tony Allen has been relegated to the bench without complaint, so long as it helps the team.

The Grizzlies winning a championship this year isn’t guaranteed, but the special bond between this tightly-knit group of players is palpable, and it has translated to their synergy on the court.

Next: Marc Gasol is a Better General Manager Than LeBron James

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