What do NBA players do in the offseason? Some might get in touch with their banana boat buddies and make a trip to Cancun to enjoy some of the summer vibes by rewarding themselves for a long, arduous season. To some extent, everyone in the league needs to unwind before getting back to the grind. However, those who are serious about improving their game always dedicate countless offseason hours to studying tape and analyzing their fellow players.
In this “Offseason Study Guide” series, we will work our way through the Memphis Grizzlies roster and assign them current and former players to research and scrutinize in an attempt to improve their game for the upcoming season and beyond. I’ve broken down the game into multiple components and then provided two players per category for the Grizzlies to study.
The first man to enter our film room is none other than Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. The sophomore is one of the shining stars of the Grizzlies and a key component in their young core. Let’s take him through our study session and show him a few players he can learn from to help take his game to the next level.
Defense
Though more of a traditional center who makes his living inside the paint, Hassan Whiteside is one big man that Jaren could learn from. Whiteside has great timing as a defender, especially from the weak side. He is a lethal shot blocker and led the league with 2.9 blocks per game. Whiteside consistently exhibits supreme timing on the defensive side of the ball. He does have a three-inch wingspan advantage over Jackson, but Jackson is more spry than Whiteside, being over a decade younger than him.
JJJ could emulate the posture that Whiteside keeps while on defense. Whiteside stays much straighter than Jaren and doesn’t lean into the offensive player as blatantly. He opts to use his height and length to alter shots and is a potent shot blocker from the weak side. The Trail Blazers center only averages 2.9 fouls per game in thirty minutes of playing time. Please, someone, teach Jaren how to stay on the floor like this.
Though he doesn’t have the most gaudy stats, Jarrett Allen is another good player for Jaren to study on the defensive end. Allen just completed his third season in the league and is only a few years Jaren’s senior, but already owns a highlight-reel of blocks on some of the league’s biggest stars. The Brooklyn Nets are 3.29 points per 100 possessions better on the defensive end, shoot 5% worse at the rim, and increases Brooklyn’s blocked shots at the rim by greater than 2% with Allen on the court. He is only 24 years old but has showcased his skills in an impressive way.
Offense
The strength of Jackson’s game is his offense.
Though most analysts and blog boys want Jackson to shift his game to be more like a modern center, I liken his physical tools to more of a Kevin Durant-style player. They both have similar builds at around 7-feet tall, are lean and athletic. Neither of those guys are physically suited to guard the traditional bruisers down low that you may run into in a playoff series against a team like Philly or the Lakers.
Similar to Durant, Jackson is a career 38% three-point shooter. Obviously Durant’s stats come with a much greater sample size, but it’s still noteworthy. With some further development of his offensive tools, Jackson could become an elite scorer and average 25+ points per game.
Of course, his game is not a mirror image of Durant’s. The Nets forward thrives in situations where he can create his own shot. In his last full season, Durant only took 18% of his shots in catch-and-shoot. Jackson took 45% of his shots without putting the ball on the floor, shooting a 59% eFG% on catch-and-shoot attempts.
The Grizzlies forward has shown flashes of his ball-handling potential and has taken a fancy to downhill spin moves. He still has a long way to go on that front, but observing Durant and taking notes on his success could be the first step to scoring stardom.
Clint Capela may seem like a weird addition to Jaren’s study guide, but hear me out. We discussed Jaren’s ability to shoot the three and how that is his strength. He plays with one of the most electrifying passers in the game in Ja Morant. One thing Jaren doesn’t consistently do well is run the court. He forgoes some easy opportunities at the rim. Morant and fellow youngster Brandon Clarke already have great chemistry together. This is the kind of chemistry that Jackson and Morant need to develop.
Capela excels in having the foresight to make open dashes to the rim. He is great at anticipating passes from his teammates that result in easy buckets. Eighty-one percent of Capela’s shots at the rim this season were assisted, compared to only sixty-five percent of Jackson’s. Inside the Grizzlies’ offense, Jaren often seeks a station on the perimeter during either fast breaks or set pieces. If he could add a little Capela to his game, however, that would make him a tougher cover and increase the respect that defenses have to give him.
Rebounding
For a rebounding mentor, Jaren needs to dive into the past to learn from one of the original stretch big men who still got it done on the inside. Kevin Garnett is a legendary player, NBA champion, MVP, and has already taken a liking to Jaren. Garnett has spent some time with the young player in hopes of sharing some of his tenacity and dedication to the game with the sophomore big man. KG led the NBA in rebounds for four seasons in a row from 2003-2007, averaging 13.3 rebounds per game during the span. For his career, he averaged 10 rebounds per game in a variety of roles. Honestly, Jaren could stand to take notes on all aspects of Garnett’s game, but I wanted to diversify his guide.
We have given Jaren an older statesman to model his rebounding game after. I figured we should also assign him a fellow up-and-comer to learn from. Bam Adebayo is in the midst of a playoff run in his third season in the league. The first-time all-star has made a solid impact on the court in south Florida. This season, the Heat center pulled in 10.2 boards per game. In each of his three seasons, he has averaged over 10 rebounds per 36 minutes. In 72 games this year, Bam recorded 44 double-doubles.
Like Jaren, Adebayo doesn’t have the traditional center physical build. He is a few inches shorter than Jaren and uses his nose for the ball to snag boards. If Jaren could glean some of that intuition and combine it with his length, he could make a significant impact on the glass.
Passing
If you want to teach a clinic on how impactful a passing-adept big man can be, then queue up the Nikola Jokic tape. The Denver Nuggets center is the best passing big in the league and it’s not really close. This season, Jokic averaged 7.0 assists per game. This was good for 14th in the league among all players and first among centers. This passing prowess is a far cry from Jackson, who averaged 1.4 assists per game this year. Passing is really not in Jaren’s vocabulary at this point in his young career, but if that is an area of his game that he wants to improve, then there isn’t a better active player to study than Jokic.
Jaren doesn’t have to look far to find another good role model in the passing category. Former Grizzly and current Raptor Marc Gasol has been in the 90th percentile or better among passing big men since 2011. In Memphis, he was an incredibly important cog in their offense during their playoff runs of the twenty-teens. From 2012-2019, Gasol was in the 95th percentile or better in AST% for big men. In multiple years, he assisted on 22% or more of his teammates’ points while on the floor.
For many seasons, the Memphis offense ran through him at the high post where he routinely faced the basket and searched for diving teammates. When he was a Grizzly, it was certainly a pleasure to watch him carve up defenses with his pinpoint passing.
With two full seasons now under JJJ’s belt, he’ll look to build on his 17.4 points (47% FG, 39% 3PT, 75% FT), 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.6 blocks per game to take his game to another level.
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