The Grizzlies came into the 2016-17 season with renewed hope after an injury ravaged 2015-16 season led to many believing the Grit and Grind era could be over and it was time for a rebuild. Then the Grizzlies briefly made Mike Conley the highest played player in NBA history and gave $24 million per season to Chandler Parsons and it looked as though they were gearing up to enter the western conference’s upper echelon again.
Despite a good start, the injury bug began to affect the team again. Chandler Parsons’ knee issues have continued, Mike Conley fractured a vertebrae in his back, James Ennis has been on the shelf, Zach Randolph missed seven games after losing his mother and Vince Carter has missed time after a looking surprisingly spry at the beginning of the season.
How have the Grizzlies responded? By winning five of six since Conley went down, including five games in a row. There is one big reason the Grizzlies are more than staying afloat at the moment and his name is Marc Gasol.
Gasol is averaging 25.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists in the past six games while shooting 50-50-80 from the field including some extremely clutch play at the end of close games.
The schedule will stiffen in the coming weeks with games against the Warriors, Cavaliers (x2), Jazz and Celtics, but if the Grizzlies can play .500 ball for the rest of the month and stay eight games above .500 like they are at the moment with a 16-8 record, there is no reason Marc Gasol shouldn’t win Western Conference Player of the Month for the first time in his career.
Gasol’s leadership, moxie, ability to have an offense run through him at the elbow and protect the rim effectively, along with this newfound ability to stretch the floor and be an elite three-point shooter, make him one of the most valuable and overlooked players in the entire league.
His Player Efficiency Rating is currently 21.4, which is .3 off of his career best in 2014-15, and in the past month his PER rating has sky rocketed over 25.
The Grizzlies are +9.5 points with Gasol on the floor in the past few weeks with the highest usage rate in his career at 30.2%.
The Grizzlies are still playing above their heads with their lack of depth and talent at the moment and will regress to the mean a little, but as long as they have Marc Gasol playing like this, there is no reason not to believe they will be in the thick of western conference playoff picture and fighting for home court once Mike Conley and hopefully Chandler Parsons return.
