Memphis Grizzlies: 3 players who disappointed this season
To begin with, the Memphis Grizzlies had another forgettable season both on and off the court. After finishing 14th on the West leaderboard last season, Memphis ended their 2018-19 campaign out of the playoff picture yet again. Their regular season record of 33-49 (win-loss) ended up being a tie for the 12th position (with the Pelicans and Mavericks).
The most recent jolt to the Grizzlies' landscape came when the management decided to fire coach Bickerstaff right after the regular season wrapped up. Bickerstaff was named the interim coach back in November 2017 following the abrupt firing of the-then coach David Fizdale.
"In order to put our team on the path to sustainable success, it was necessary to change our approach to basketball operations," controlling owner Robert Pera had said in a statement.
When the franchise decides to put their two biggest names (in Mike Conley and Marc Gasol) on the open market midway through the season, you know they are looking for a drastic rebuild. Moreover, in what was another chaotic year for them, the players on the roster did not prove to be of much help either. The team did make some splashes on the Western Conference standings early on in the season but eventually, their inconsistency got the better of them.
Let's talk about the three most underwhelming individual performances in a Grizzlies uniform during this past season.
#1 Garrett Temple
Temple was brought in this past summer as a veteran to aid the offensive end alongside Conley and Gasol, but things didn't quite turn out well. He kicked off the season with eye-popping (45% from the field and 56% from deep) shooting numbers but cooled off eventually, to a point of no return.
Before being traded to the Clippers on February 7th, Temple had started all 49 games for Memphis and averaged 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. During his time with the Grizzlies, his shooting spiral ended at 42% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc.
Being an ordinary defender with inconsistent shooting performances, Temple couldn't really deliver as expected. His role with the Clippers has severely diminished, coming off the bench in 20 of his 26 games so far.