Wallace focuses on silver linings
GM proud of team’s effort
There were moments last Saturday in an important regular-season game against the Golden State Warriors when Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace sat in FedExForum in disbelief.
Not only were the shorthanded Griz in position to beat a team chasing NBA history in terms of racking up 70-plus victories, but there was Xavier Munford — not Mike Conley — trying to stop a league MVP in Stephen Curry during crunch time.
The Grizzlies suffered a 100-99 loss to the Warriors, but the game was a performance that epitomized this Memphis campaign: down but never an easy out.
For as much as the coaching staff and players have shown resiliency, the Grizzlies front office was consistently required to bounce back with quality transactions to keep playoff hopes alive. The Griz, having used an NBA-record 28 players in a single season, will advance to the postseason for a sixth straight season.
“When you find out that key players go down, then yeah, there’s some temporary shock,” Wallace said. “You’re pounding the table. But our job is to keep a competitive team going. We quickly get away from that emotion and think about who we’re bringing in here.
“There’s always silver linings. Look at (rookie big man) Jarell Martin for example. Early in the year, it looked like he would strictly be an Iowa Energy player. Now, he’s gotten some very valuable minutes and responded. That’s going to accelerate his growth as an NBA player. It’s been very gratifying to see how the players, coaches and the entire basketball operations staff fought through the adversity. And we ended up in the playoffs for a sixth straight year. That’s a significant achievement
for this franchise.”
In a Q&A with The Commercial Appeal, Wallace reflected on the most challenging season in franchise history:
Q: No matter what happens, how will you look back on this regular season?
A: I’ll look back on this regular season with a great deal of pride in the performance of the organization. I’ll look back on this group of players and remember how everybody gave us something even if they’re no longer here. We banded together. And our older guys should be given a great deal of credit. In many ways, they were an extension of the coaching staff.
Q: Was there any thought about missing the playoffs based on your seemingly slim chances to advance in the postseason and conveying draft picks?
A: We’re all competitors, particularly the players. You want to win every single game. And you also want to maximize every particular season. When you consider where we were just a short time ago, to be in the playoffs for six times in a row is important to us. There’s also a real growth process that these critical games afford us with our younger players. To get our younger guys playoff experience is extremely valuable. And no one knows what’s going to happen in any game and any playoff series. We never subscribed to that theory of let nature take its course — let’s blow this season off. That was never on our radar at all. We want to make the playoffs every year.
Q: How have you adapted as a front office and coped with the adversity of this season?
A: I’ve never been in a situation with a team where we applied for an injury exception. Let alone be granted one. I’ve never had this many callups as we have this year. ... Everybody in the organization, from the first injury to the last one, there was no moping. We just went about the business of getting another guy in here. We had to do an awful lot of things on the fly. But it’s not that difficult because we’re plugged into the in-season freeagent market anyway. We know who is on (Development) League teams, we’re constantly keeping track of what’s going on in China and NBA players who are sitting out and coming back from Europe such as Jordan Farmar.
Q: You’ve mined and may have come up gold with Xavier Munford just as you did with JaMychal Green. How would you evaluate those players given they’ve been put in an unexpected, expanded role?
A: I’m very proud of both of those guys. They were given a golden opportunity to make the case that they’re NBA players . ... JaMychal has proven he’s an NBA rotation player. Xavier came from further off the beaten path than JaMychal. Xavier had never been in an NBA training camp. Xavier had never had a call-up. But he’s got good size and is very long and rangy. He’s got good potential defensively. When he’s out there, it looks like he belongs and he does well. The coaching staff and his teammates are getting more and more confidence in him. You always have to be projective with younger players. He’s a major upward curve that’s very intriguing for us in the future.
Q: What have been the challenges for Coach Dave Joerger in terms of managing the team and frontoffice expectations in this situation?
A: Obviously, we made a couple of trades (involving Jeff Green and Courtney Lee) at the deadline and they had to figure out how to put the team back together at that point. The coaching staff has been able to adapt not just once but numerous times. They also haven’t gotten down when things have gotten bleak. Look at our (regular-season) series with Golden State. We haven’t won yet this season but we went from losing by 50 to 16 to one in the margin of defeat. I’m not one who revels in moral victories but (last Saturday night) was a great performance by our guys. We’re out there playing Golden State without Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Tony Allen, Brandan Wright, and Jeff and Courtney, who were on the team before when we played that team in the recent past.
Q: How has owner Robert Pera dealt with this season?
A: Robert has been great to work for. He gives us support and the resources to maximize our team. With player salaries, we go up to the (luxury) tax. He’s new to this but he’s adapted very quickly. We run everything by Robert . ... We’re explaining who these players are and what the case is. We lay it out. And we’ve skewed these callups toward being young. We were in a fortunate position of playing from ahead during this tumultuous time. We weren’t scrambling to get into the playoffs. We had the luxury of taking a look at younger guys. We’re very cognizant of hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.