Memphis Grizzlies: How Dave Joerger Can Become An Elite Coach
By Tom Firme
Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger has fared well through two years leading an NBA team, but needs work on a couple of the finer points to join become one of the league’s top coaches.
He’s 105-59 (.640) in the regular season and 9-9 in the playoffs.
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By winning one playoff series in two years, Joerger enjoyed some success without getting the Grizzlies to exceed expectations in a crowded Western Conference.
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Granted, Joerger’s Grizzlies have endured injury struggles. Marc Gasol missed 23 games in Joerger’s first season due to a knee sprain. The Grizzlies managed to stay afloat, going 10-13 without “Big Spain” before finishing 33-13 after his return and jumping from 12th to seventh in the West.
That comeback represents one example of the Grizzlies’ toughness under Joerger.
Their ability to fight the Golden State Warriors to six games despite Mike Conley missing Game 1 due to a facial fracture also showed their resolve.
But even though Memphis improved offensively, going from 15th in offensive rating in 2013-14 and last in pace to 13th and 26th last season, it wasn’t enough of a jump to go deep in the playoffs and ward off critics who believed they need a style change.
Previously, I discussed how the Grizzlies can improve on closing teams out so that Joerger can manage minutes better. That would make it easier for him to produce a high-ranking squad fresh enough to pose a bigger postseason threat.
Three factors figure highly in Joerger’s growth as a head coach.
Further the Offensive Evolution
The Grizzlies made incremental steps to become a better scoring team during Joerger’s second season. Mainly, they raised the pace by getting the ball into the halfcourt more quickly.
Also, the Grizzlies were much improved during the first couple months as a three-point shooting team, largely thanks to Mike Conley and Courtney Lee. Memphis hit 36 percent from downtown through 32 games. But the team regressed as Conley and Lee fought through injuries before finishing 22nd in three-point shooting at 33.9 percent.
They have a decent number of three-point shooters besides the aforementioned pair, including Vince Carter, Matt Barnes, Jordan Adams and Jeff Green.
However, as the Memphis Flyer’s Kevin Lipe tweeted of Carter, Joerger didn’t showcase the long-range shooting of an evolved gunman who shoots 37.4 percent from deep for his career.
That dovetailed from a Grantland piece by Kirk Goldsberry mentioning how the Grizzlies’ offense doesn’t create the three-point shooting opportunities like the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks.
Hence, the next step in Joerger’s growth in coaching offense is creating better looks for three-point shooters. One would stop short of saying he must change the team’s style to promote the high-volume perimeter game that has become popular in today’s NBA because the Grizzlies’ personnel doesn’t fit that.
The pressing tasks include making Green fit better in the offense so that he isn’t sucking shots away from others and damaging the team’s offensive efficiency, incorporate him into a scheme that promotes better spacing and create passing windows for outside shooters like Lee, Carter and Barnes.
This involves screens that enable Conley to get Carter open on the wing and drive-and-kick plays where Beno Udrih can find Barnes in the corner, where he thrives.
Joerger may allow Green to create his own three-point shots, but the goal this year is ensuring he doesn’t overrun more important offensive players.
Also, Joerger should encourage Conley to make three-point shooting a bigger part of his game. Conley, a career 37.5 percent long-range shooter, took a step in that direction last season. He took a career-high 31.4 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Going further on that path would both protect Conley’s body and help him score more.
Push Marc Gasol
For Joerger, getting the most from players means getting all the scoring potential from Marc Gasol.
Gasol came out of his shell last season after spending his first six years as a pass-first center. The 30-year-old scored a team-leading 17.4 points per game, 2.8 more than his previous career high. His 24.6 percent usage rate was his highest by 2.9 percent.
However, the Spaniard only broke out for the first couple months before receding. He poured on 20 per game through the first 33 contests, and then dipped to 15.7 per game the rest of the way.
Joerger wasn’t quiet about Gasol’s lack of punch in the second half of the season. When questions arose about Green diminishing offensive efficiency, Joerger rejected the notion and implied the problem was Gasol’s quiet play, according to The Commercial Appeal’s Ron Tillery. Tillery added that coaches and teammates had to beg Gasol to shoot more.
Gasol may need Joerger to keep prodding him. CBSSports.com’s Matt Moore asserted “it’s not in his DNA” to take over a game as a scorer.
Regardless, it’s Gasol’s responsibility to carry a bigger scoring burden. Memphis is far better when he’s drilling buckets. They went 21-6 last season when he had 20 or more points.
The difference between Memphis as an NBA Finals team will be Gasol’s urge to drop big point totals.
Joerger should demand aggression from Gasol week after week and prod him if he appears meek.
Gasol is the best all-around center, and scoring is the only aspect of his game that hasn’t been a constant. If Joerger can’t squeeze it out of him, it will reflect on the 41-year-old head coach.
Commit to Player Development
In the near future, the Grizzlies’ core will reach the point when certain players will recede from their current roles. Randolph, who will eclipse 30,000 career minutes early this season, likely won’t remain a regular starter beyond 2016-17. Tony Allen, who is 33 and has missed 46 games the past two seasons, might not be the same player after this year.
As Lipe said, “If they’re going to stay good and not go through a rebuilding cycle, guys like Jordan Adams, Russ Smith, Jarnell Stokes, and even this year’s draft pick Jarell Martin … have to step up and have to be allowed to step up.”
The last phrase is key. Young Grizzlies need a chance to help move the franchise forward, but Joerger hasn’t given them the chance yet. Adams and Stokes received only 8.3 and 6.6 minutes per game, respectively, last season as rookies.
To this point, Nick Calathes has been the only one to receive significant minutes as a rookie. However, Calathes had played two years in Europe and was a EuroCup MVP before signing with Memphis.
Both Adams and Stokes deserve opportunities to advance in their respective roles. Stokes will at least be the fourth big man in the rotation, unless Ryan Hollins makes the roster and cracks the rotation because of his size and ability to work the post. Stokes is a terrific rebounder, tough defender and can make inside shots. He had 9.7 rebounds per 36 minutes last season.
Adams is a promising playmaker and possesses the three-point shooting Memphis lacks. He made four of 10 three-point attempts in 2014-15 and hit 35.6 percent in his last year at UCLA. Also, his ball-hawking defense makes him a great candidate to move up in the rotation. With Carter advanced in age at 38, Adams should pick up some of his minutes so that he can grow.
A major factor of the Spurs’ long-running success has been Gregg Popovich’s willingness to bring along young players like Danny Green and Patty Mills.
In order that the Grizzlies don’t need to bank on general manager Chris Wallace’s knack for acquiring undervalued players as building blocks, as he did with Gasol and Randolph, Joerger must devote time to developing draftees.
Conclusion
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The odds aren’t great for Joerger becoming one of the top coaches. The Grind Era Grizzlies have been a defense-minded squad that always fell short in the scoring department. In the past few months, the wagons have circled as commentators write the team off as playing an interior-focused style that’s out of place in an era of three-point brigades.
Writing for NBA.com, Shaun Powell wondered in reference to the Grizzlies’ reliance on Gasol and Randolph in the paint, “How much longer can the Grizzlies live on the layup?”
Regarding the wing, Joerger and the Grizzlies look at it in terms of augmentation, not style. As he enters his third year, Joerger sees another tool that thrives in this era, one that remains constant and allows Conley, Gasol and Randolph to thrive, the pick-and-roll.
While explaining to Tillery how the Grizzlies would be “nasty,” Joerger recalled the Jerry Sloan-coached Utah Jazz teams “screened hard and they cut hard and they just kept coming at you.”
Aspiring to reflect Sloan and the Jazz sounds great. But unlike Gasol, Karl Malone was never afraid to be incredible. If Joerger wishes to match or exceed Sloan’s heights, he must extract the scoring from Gasol that has yet to come.
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