Memphis Grizzlies: 5 goals for Ben McLemore in 2017-18

4. Embrace a defense-first mentality

I’ll admit off the bat that I haven’t seen enough tape on McLemore to have a legitimate handle on his potential as a defender. Available metrics suggest he isn’t particularly effective on that end of the court though, and as a general rule of thumb younger players seem to struggle with defensive concepts, so I’m comfortable saying he hasn’t been a good enough defender to date.

I am not, however, willing to rule out the possibility of him becoming one. McLemore is twitchy and springing in the way that tends to lend itself to playing good defense, and he’ll be in as good a place as any to learn the type of focus and footwork he’ll need to make use of it. The Grizzlies have consistently had one of the best overall defenses in the league for nearly a decade.

If Fizdale, Gasol, and Conley can’t teach McLemore proper positioning and technique, then there probably isn’t a whole lot of hope for him. They’ll be more than willing to try. It will be up to him to embrace their tutelage.

After shooting, that should be all McLemore concerns himself with. Defense will get him minutes, and minutes will get him more opportunities to bang home threes on the other end. It’s a symbiotic relationship. This isn’t to say that McLemore should abandon the rest of his game, but rather that he focus on becoming a positive on the defensive end before concerning himself with development elsewhere.

Once McLemore can help his team get stops, he can worry about becoming a better ball-handler, or facilitator, or whatever aspect of his game he hopes to grow in. Progression is incremental, and for McLemore it should start on defense. We’ll set this specific goal as having a Defensive Real Plus-Minus of -0.25 or better.