Throughout the outset of the first three months of the season, Marc Gasol had placed himself in the MVP discussion — but his value has seemingly debased in recent weeks.
The Spaniard came out of the gates in attack mode; he hit running hooks, drove to the rim, posted up, and nailed set shots from the elbow. Gasol was scoring 20-plus points consistently and he sprinkled in a few 30-point games as well.
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Nonetheless, Gasol’s aggressiveness didn’t come at the expense of his teammates, who were given more room to operate as Gasol drew the attention of the defense.
Courtney Lee could hardly miss from beyond the arc earlier in the season, and the Memphis Grizzlies‘ offensive rating was in the top 10 — which is an unprecedented mark for the Grizz. The team’s offense ran like a well-oiled machine, and Gasol was the engine that made it percolate; however, the Grizzlies’ big man is no longer a top-five MVP candidate by many accounts.
The once pulverizing Gasol who had emerged at the start of the season has diverted back to his customary passive ways, and the Grizzlies’ slump has coincided with Gasol’s individual regression. After boasting a top-10 offense in the early stages of the season, the Grizzlies’ offensive efficiency has plummeted to 23rd since the All-Star break.
Meanwhile, Gasol’s usage rate dropped from more than 26 percent to 23.4 percent since the start of February, and he’s averaged just 15.9 points per game in that span.
It’s no secret that Gasol possesses empathetic intuition for his teammates; he’s very conscientious about making the right basketball play to a fault at times. The Spaniard doesn’t arrogantly assert himself as the alpha male like the typical egotistical American. In fact, he complies with being subtly great while his team flourishes.
Because of his incredible dexterity, however, the team benefits the most when Gasol is looking to score and make plays. Gasol averages 18.1 points and 4.1 assists when the Grizzlies win, and just 16.9 and 3.2 assists when they lose.
To have a legitimate shot at winning the title this year — which they do — the Grizzlies need Gasol to play like he did in the first three months of the season.
All-time greats like LeBron James are capable of consistently dominating on both ends of the floor, and the question becomes whether or not being the fulcrum both offensively and defensively en route to a championship is too much to ask of Gasol.
In 2013, Gasol led the Grizzlies to the Western Conference Finals as the main man. Of course, they were eventually swept by the San Antonio Spurs, but it was the same Spurs team that annihilated LeBron’s Miami Heat during last year’s Finals in a historic fashion.
This season’s Grizzlies, however, have become an improved bunch since their loss to San Antonio in the postseason (and the Spurs look much more fallible this season).
Additionally, it isn’t outlandish to believe that Gasol is coasting and preserving his energy for when the Grizzlies need it most: in the playoffs. With his fierce and relentless competitive edge, Gasol has a knack for elevating his play when it matters most.
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In clutch situations (when the game is within five points in the final five minutes), the defense locks down and the average player shoots just 40 percent from the floor. The foreign big man, however, has shot 45.7 percent in such situations this season, scoring a total of 100 points.
According to Inpredictable.com — a groundbreaking sports analytics website that tracks how much an NBA player’s play-ending actions move the needle of his team’s chances of winning — Gasol has the sixth-highest win probability added in the clutch with 1.96 wins.
In case that isn’t enough to convince the typical incredulous NBA fan, Tom Haberstroh of ESPN recently compiled a list of players with the highest PER in clutch situations, where Gasol claims the seventh-highest PER of 24.2
Given his spiked numbers all across the board in each of the last four postseasons, Grizzlies fans can expect a rejuvenated Gasol in this upcoming postseason. Right now during the dog days of the NBA season — the slog after the All-Star break, when seedings are set — Gasol is playing the way that comes the most naturally to him: deliberately accommodating to the needs of his teammates.
Still, the Grizzlies need their best player to awake from his slumber if they wish to accomplish anything of significance in the postseason. Gasol has shown fans the various aspects of his game and his versatility allows fans to appreciate his artful nature; but they’re counting on the aggressive component of his disposition to show up in the playoffs.
Next: Jeff Green's Bench Role Has Allowed Memphis To Thrive
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