NEW YORK – Through an erratic opening month of the NBA season, progress has been a matter of perspective for first-year Grizzlies’ coach Tuomas Iisalo.
This first stretch of games has produced essentially two outcomes.
“We’re either winning, or we’re learning,” Iisalo surmised. “A lot of times, when you’re going through tough times and you’re picking up losses, that makes you more critical. At least in my case, it makes me more solutions-oriented. Some of those losses can be as painful as they are in the moment, but they also drive a lot of development.”
Those comments from Iisalo actually came just hours before what proved to be the most painful lesson the Grizzlies have learned during this young season.
Hence, there was a keen level of prophesy in the coach’s prognosis.
As the Grizzlies (4-7) get set for their first extended road trip of the season, the ledger currently reflects a handful of victories and almost twice as many valuable lessons through defeats.
The latest learning opportunity reflected both the promising potential Memphis holds as well as the problematic pitfalls preventing the team from sustaining successful stretches. The Grizzlies spent Monday traveling to New York and preparing for a three-game swing to face the Knicks on Tuesday, Celtics on Wednesday and Cavaliers on Saturday.
They will be regrouping from a four-game homestand that culminated with Sunday’s 114-100 loss to defending NBA champion Oklahoma City. That setback revealed some of the Grizzlies’ best and worst traits so far this season in the span of one 48-minute game.
The high-paced, ball-movement system Iisalo has worked diligently through key injuries and growing pains to establish since training camp executed to its most pristine point early. The first quarter struggles that hindered Memphis in previous games were nixed against the Thunder.
The Grizzlies’ first 13 field goals came on 13 assists to take a 33-25 lead at the end of the first quarter that would balloon to a 19-point advantage in the first half. A blistering first 24 minutes set the pace for Memphis to register season highs for made 3-pointers (17) and rebounds (50).
As the Grizzlies try to build chemistry and continuity during the early stages of this season, they need to look no further than at the film of what worked for them in Sunday’s first half.
There was balance, with three double-figure scorers and six players having made at least one 3-pointer as the team collectively shot 45.8-percent from beyond the arc.
There was ball-movement, with 23 first-half field goals set up by 21 assists.
And there was bounce, with the Grizzlies getting out in transition largely by controlling the glass with a 33-21 rebounding advantage that included eight offensive boards.
Then came the second half, which was a microcosm of what ails the Grizzlies as they sort through the early-season challenges. The better teams adjust – OKC being the absolute best in the league – and Memphis struggles to adapt, execute and match the increased intensity.
“We knew what we had to do to come out in the second half to continue to run the score up with our pace,” Grizzlies veteran guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope assessed. “Then, they put the pressure on us. It was just one pass, one shot. We weren’t playing how we were in the first half.”
The Grizzlies continue to search for that full, 48-minute game. So far, they’ve consistently been one team in one half and another in the other. Against the Lakers and Thunder, they raced out to lead by 14 and 19 points, respectively, with a flowing offense and connected defense before faltering on both ends down the stretch.
Against the Suns and Pistons, the opposite sequence panned out, as the Grizzlies overcame sluggish starts to find rhythm in the second halves. It worked out in Phoenix, where point guard Ja Morant’s floater in the final seconds secured the win. It didn’t work out against the Pistons, who responded to deliver the Grizzlies a lesson on closing late in games.
The adjustment process hasn’t necessarily been comfortable. Iisalo has acknowledged his playing rotations, intricate offensive system and defensive demands are being installed for long-term benefits that could generate rocky results in the interim.
“I know this whole thing is like, ‘What have you done for me lately?’” Iisalo said of a bigger-picture mindset. “In every game, we repeat the same questions, and I repeat the same answers. But I sometimes feel there’s a different timeline or different perspective. The timelines we’re talking about are much longer. They take weeks. They take months. Sometimes, they take years to build something together. You make small improvements day by day. You keep believing.”
Team leaders such as Morant and power forward Jaren Jackson Jr. have endured inconsistent stretches as they’ve worked to get acclimated to the system. Both Morant and Jackson are performing below standards from each of their two previous All-Star seasons in the league.
In Friday’s 118-104 home win over Dallas that snapped a four-game losing streak, Morant and Jackson combined for 38 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds in a game Memphis led by as many as 35 points. On Sunday, albeit against significantly stiffer competition from OKC, the tandem stumbled through the second half and combined to shoot 9-for-34 with four turnovers.
There’s incremental progress, but patience is also being tested.
“We’ve got 11 returners; I wouldn’t consider us a new team at all,” Morant responded when asked whether it will simply take time for the Grizzlies to learn how to win together. “Right now, it’s just about continuing to play aggressive and being unselfish and work from there.”
Morant also addressed his own struggles from the field this season, in which he is shooting just 35.8-percent overall and 14.8-percent on 3-pointers while averaging 19.2 points and 7.9 assists.
He’s confident he’ll eventually find a rhythm and trusts the work he’s putting in between games.
“I haven’t made shots, and if I had made them, we’d be having a different convo,” Morant said. “These are my shots. I’m not (forcing) anything the defense wants me to take at all. That’s why I don’t get too frustrated because I’m in this arena (and) I’m in the practice gym doing the same thing. Right now, it’s just continue to shoot it with confidence and wait for it to translate over.”
That sentiment applies on multiple fronts for the Grizzlies.
Iisalo trusts the system will eventually translate over to sustainable success.
The team is confident one half’s breakthrough will translate over to the other half’s execution.
And, ultimately, the learning opportunities from losses will translate over to lessons on winning.