By Michael Wallace
Grind City Media
NEW ORLEANS – David Fizdale wasn’t budging on this one.
From the moment he accepted his first NBA head coaching job last summer after nearly two decades as an assistant, Fizdale insisted the Memphis Grizzlies would emerge from the relative dark age and stretch their potential by becoming a three-point shooting team.
“This is an adapt-or-die league,” Fizdale declared. “There are certain things you have to adjust in order to win in this league right now, or you’re going to get left behind. We weren’t going to get left behind.”
By no means or metrics are the Grizzlies a Warriors-like juggernaut from beyond the arc these days. And yes, Memphis will always be far more modest than Houston when it comes to launching daggers from distance. But if there’s one area in the game where the Grizzlies have evolved more than any other in Fizdale’s first season on the bench, it’s been their proficiency and progress from three-point range.
The Grizzlies entered their late March road trip having already set franchise records for three-point attempts and makes. Now, they have a chance to absolutely shatter the previous mark of 620 threes made on 1,779 attempts set by the 2007-08 team that was led in shooting by Rudy Gay, Mike Miller, Juan Carlos Navarro and Kyle Lowry. Heading into Tuesday’s game in New Orleans to open a four-game trip that includes stops in San Antonio, Golden State and Sacramento, Memphis was 650-for-1,837 as a team from the three-point line this season.
You may feel you have an OK shot, but if somebody has a great shot, you have to get rid of it and move the ball. It gives the team confidence, it organizes the team and it gives you better trust among your teammates.
— Marc Gasol
The current Grizzlies have reached their breakthrough largely because center Marc Gasol is now making more threes in an average week than the 12 he drilled in total over his first eight NBA seasons. They’ve emerged because Mike Conley has transformed his long-distance shooting from an overwhelming weakness in his game when he arrived as a lottery pick a decade ago into his most lethal weapon today.
The front office has spent several seasons searching for the manpower to boost Memphis’ production from three-point range. But it also took a significant adjustment in mindset for it to all come together. No player embodies that metamorphosis than Gasol, who entered the final month of the season having recorded 29 games with multiple made threes, including 14 contests with at least three threes, six games with four or more threes and two games with at least five makes from distance.
“You have to understand how important the three-pointer has become around the league in terms of what it takes to execute as a team,” Gasol said of embracing the concept of becoming one of the NBA’s most prolific three-point shooting centers this season. “It’s become a solution to many problems. It’s just about taking the good shots. You may feel you have an OK shot, but if somebody has a great shot, you have to get rid of it and move the ball. It gives the team confidence, it organizes the team and it gives you better trust among your teammates. It shows that, ‘Hey, I’m trusting you to make this shot.’ And that’s going to be important for us as we go into this last part of the season and into the playoffs.”
Gasol has grown so comfortable and confident in his shooting stroke from distance that he often backpedals towards halfcourt in defensive transition the moment he releases the shot. When factoring in Gasol is on pace to become the first center in NBA history to finish a season with at least 100 made threes, 100 blocks and 200 assists, he should be garnering far more consideration for the league’s most improved player award. For some, that may be hard to fathom with a 32-year-old veteran who is already a three-time All-Star and also owns a NBA defensive player of the year award.
“Obviously, teams are playing me different and are trying to take that shot away from me now from the get-go,” Gasol said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re going to find ways. And even if we don’t find ways for me to get the shot off, it opens up (Conley’s) drives and makes (defenders) change their game plans and makes them a little uncomfortable, at least.”
Discomfort is a feeling that no longer applies to the Grizzlies when it comes to shooting threes. There have been multiple games this season when at least seven players have made at least one three-pointer, including Saturday’s huge home win over San Antonio. After that game, Memphis improved to 15-1 on the season when it made at least 12 treys. The Grizzlies are shooting 37.4 percent on threes, which is on pace to be the second-highest rate in franchise history on 1,500 or more attempts.
By league standards, this represents incremental progress. From that prism, Memphis has improved from awful to average at shooting threes. After ranking 25th or worst among the NBA’s 30 teams in three-point shooting the past eight seasons, the Grizzlies have remained around No. 15 this season.
By the playoffs, Memphis is almost certain to have three players with at least 100 makes and seven with more than 140 attempts for the first time in team history. Along with Gasol and Conley, the Grizzlies have gotten career three-point seasons – or are pace for them in either makes, attempts or percentage – from Andrew Harrison, James Ennis, Troy Daniels and JaMychal Green.
“It was about believing in Coach, and with the way he comes across, he puts a lot of confidence in you,” Conley said. “So when he told us we would shoot more threes, and our bigs would shoot more threes and create space, we had to just jump all in and hope for the best. Thankfully, it’s worked out and hopefully we’ll keep shooting them and making them. I’m happy with the transition.”
Conley then joked the team really didn’t have a choice. Fizdale came on board demanding the change in three-point shooting by any means necessary. Maintaining total buy-in remains a work in progress.
“There was a time when I went off on our team because I heard a guy behind me say, ‘Hey, we got two bigs. Beat them up down low.’ And I said, ‘No. (Defend) the three-point line. Trading twos for threes is not going to work out.’ That’s the whole mindset of, ‘Yeah, we’ll just beat you up.’ That doesn’t work anymore. We may not outshoot people from three, but if we can just keep it close, that gives us a chance. Shooting less threes and not guarding the three-point line is not a recipe for success in today’s NBA. I’m never going to budge on that.”
The Grizzlies have committed to Fizdale’s three-point recipe.
Now, they have the franchise records to prove it.