Which Grizzlies will see time at shooting guard?
For the better part of a decade, the Grizzlies have never really had what most would call a conventional starting shooting guard. You can thank — or blame — Tony Allen for that. The inimitable dervish of defense, the charismatic face of Grit n' Grind, a one-man bringer of chaos, Allen was a great many things. But a conventional shooting guard was definitely not one of them.
Allen's departure last season left a spot open for a more standard shooting guard candidate to emerge, but that spot still remains, even now, very much up in the air. The Grizzlies shooting guard situation isn't the most glamorous position battle in the NBA, but it might be the most wide-open. There are at least five different players who can stake some kind of claim to big minutes at the shooting guard spot.
We'll set aside the first of those. Mike Conley will clearly play, and play a lot, and his position can be called point or shooting guard based on who he happens to be sharing the floor with. That leaves Dillon Brooks, MarShon Brooks, Garrett Temple and Wayne Selden as the other candidates for the starting two-guard spot. Each brings potential for positive contributions and each also brings significant concerns about possible limitations.
Dillon Brooks is the incumbent, having played a lot of shooting guard last year during his rookie campaign. MarShon Brooks is the upstart, taking the team by storm with an unprecedented seven-game offensive run to end last season. Temple is the heady veteran, a leader in the locker room and a guy who can be counted on to do what needs to be done on the floor. Selden is the one about whom there are the most questions because his health has precluded the Grizzlies from getting a consistent look at him over his short career.
In each case, the Grizzlies are dealing with something that will hinder their ability to predict how the player will adjust. For Dillon Brooks, his rookie season saw him play alongside so many different players and often in awkward lineups, not allowing for a clear look at his strengths. He may be best served playing at the small forward spot, though it's unlikely he'll get too many minutes there. He will be asked to improve his 3-point shooting, his passing, and his defense to start consistently on an improved Grizzlies team.
Selden simply hasn't played enough to give a proper evaluation of what he could do. Consider this: Dillon Brooks has played almost three times as many minutes as Selden, though Brooks has only played one season to Selden's two. His longest stretch of games has been 17 straight, a run that started New Year's Eve 2017 and ended right before the All-Star Break. During that consistent run, Selden scored just 9 points per game on 40 percent shooting from the field, hardly numbers to inspire confidence. However, he played better during a late run in the season, bumping up those shooting numbers to over 48 percent. It's always been about the future with Selden, but the future needs to be now.
Temple put up similar numbers over the last three seasons, when he's played consistent rotation minutes in Washington and Sacramento. More of a complementary piece, Temple is much older than either Brooks or Selden, and has earned the confidence of his previous coaches through a diligent work ethic and ability to defend in a team structure. He will not put up massive point totals, nor will he even take many shots. He is, though, a 39 percent 3point shooter, which will be a huge part of the assignment for any Grizzlies shooting guard. The Grizzlies just can't know how he will mesh with his new teammates until they see it on the floor.
Meanwhile, MarShon Brooks, as detailed by the Commercial Appeal earlier this summer, simply has to show if his prodigious late-season numbers are real, or merely a product of a low-pressure situation as a bad season staggered to its conclusion. His role is likely to be one of bench scorer in any event, as the Grizzlies could certainly use a "bucket-getter" coming in when things get stagnant on offense.
Who will start? Who will back up? Who won't play at all? How much will Conley play off the ball, affecting the rotation? Answers to those questions and more will be forthcoming as training camp begins on Tuesday.