MikeCheck: Grizzlies Keep Roster Intact for Stretch Run

MEMPHIS – When the doors to the Grizzlies’ practice facility opened for Thursday’s media availability, it almost seemed as if coach David Fizdale and his players were in an alternate reality.

As the final hour of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline frantically ticked away, Chandler Parsons and Vince Carter took turns launching three-point shots on a basket at the opposite end of the facility. JaMychal Green and James Ennis were pushing through a competitive drill at one court, while Mike Conley and Tony Allen wrapped up a post-practice workout at another.

Drenched in sweat-soaked shirts, both Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph quickly headed for the exit to the locker room, and then on to the airport for the team flight for Friday’s game in Indiana. In other words, it was business as usual for the Grizzlies as business deals elsewhere in the NBA raced to the finish line.

“We went along like it was a normal day,” Fizdale said. “You always want to listen to what other teams say about (potential trades), but overall … I’m really happy with this team. I like these guys, and I think we’ve shown we can compete with the best. With what we have, if we keep building chemistry and finish these last 24 games out, I’d like to see where we end up.”

The Grizzlies (34-24) have emerged from the All-Star break and will head into the season’s stretch run with their roster intact. The one move Memphis made Thursday came almost an hour after the trade deadline when veteran guard Toney Douglas agreed to a two-year deal that keeps him on the roster the rest of this season and includes a team option for next season.

Douglas had played in 14 games over three separate 10-day contracts this season with the Grizzlies, which included a stint in December when the team was granted a league roster injury exemption. Douglas then returned on Jan. 30 for the first of two consecutive 10-day deals. NBA rules limit a player to two 10-day contracts with a specific team before he must be signed for the rest of the season.

Memphis entered Thursday with a stash of future second-round draft picks and four rotation players on expiring contracts. But Fizdale and general manager Chris Wallace ultimately decided to stand pat and move forward with confidence in a roster that, in many ways, was just starting to gel before the break. The Grizzlies sit sixth in the West standings and are two games behind the fourth-place Clippers. Memphis’ goal over the final seven weeks of the regular season is to secure a top-four seed that would secure home-court advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs.

Although the Grizzlies were quiet at the deadline, several other playoff contenders made significant moves in attempt to bolster their rosters in recent days. That list includes three fellow Southwest Division rivals that made bold deals, with the Rockets acquiring Memphis native Lou Williams from the Lakers, the Pelicans landing All-Star DeMarcus Cousins from the Kings and the Mavericks picking up former lottery pick Nerlens Noel from the Sixers.

Gasol, the Grizzlies’ franchise center, believes in the direction Memphis is headed as currently constructed. Gasol said he also didn't spend time last weekend in New Orleans during his third appearance at All-Star Weekend recruiting potential trade targets or pending free agents to Memphis.

“I always only look at my team in terms of what we’re doing and how we’re feeling – that should be the only thing important to us,” Gasol said Thursday. “You don’t look at other teams and think, ‘We should be doing this or we should be doing that.’ You have to feel confident in the things that you do and in the guys you have in that locker room, because those are the guys you’re battling with right now.”

The Grizzlies are counting on continuity to be a strength for the playoff push. By bypassing the trade deadline, Memphis kept the league’s longest tenured four-man core in Conley, Gasol, Randolph and Allen together for what’s on course to be a seventh straight postseason trip.

But as Fizdale reiterated Thursday, how far the team goes in his first season as coach will hinge largely on the Core Four’s supporting cast. Both Conley and Gasol are having the most productive offensive seasons of their career, Allen still rates as one of the top defenders at his position in the league and Randolph is a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year after leading all NBA reserves in double-doubles.

The hope now for the Grizzlies is that Chandler Parsons gets healthy and settles into more of a rhythm, that Douglas and energetic big man Brandan Wright continue to provide their midseason spark and that the team avoids a recurrence of the injuries that derailed last year’s playoff push.

“It’s got to play out,” Fizdale said of the transactions elsewhere as his team stood firm. “We’ll see how the chemistry works; how long it takes those other teams to get their chemistry. But again, I like our chances. I feel like Toney Douglas was a trade. I feel like a healthier Chandler is a trade for us. I feel like getting Brandan back (healthy) is like trading for a big. Our team improved in some areas, too.”

The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Michael Wallace are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.