What Jackson’s return will mean
They were all finally talking about Jaren Jackson Jr. in the present tense again Monday.
Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins used the phrases “getting close” and “day-by-by” to describe Jackson’s progress. He actually discussed how Jackson might be integrated into the lineup upon returning.
Guard De’anthony Melton declared, “I think he’s ready.” Ja Morant mentioned Jackson in the same breath as Dillon Brooks and Jonas Valanciunas, as teammates who would be coming back “soon.”
The roster Memphis thought it was going to have, the roster fans never expected to take this long to come together, is finally here.
They’ve reached a moment that didn’t seem so far away when executive vice president of basketball operations Zach Kleiman said on NBA Draft night in November that Jackson would be out “a minute” due to the meniscus surgery on his knee caused by an injury in the NBA bubble last summer.
And they reached it in a way few anticipated — playing about as well as they have all season, with a firm grip on a Western Conference
play-in spot and a chance to move up into the top six of the standings, despite a lineup that has missed more games due to injury than all but two other teams in the NBA.
So the implications of this week are large, both because of how Jackson's future is linked to the franchise's future, and because of what Memphis accomplished without him.
A lot rides on what happens next, over the next month and over the next year, but let's not forget to appreciate who got the Grizzlies here, and what it means moving forward now that they're presumably going to be whole again.
“A lot of credit goes to my teammates,” Morant said. “They deserve a lot more respect.”
He said this in the immediate aftermath of that valiant but ultimately excruciating double overtime loss at Denver Monday that exposed why Memphis remains an overachieving but underdeveloped playoff contender.
It's a refrain Morant has sounded more often of late, never more so than when he came to the defense of Grayson Allen on Twitter last week when Allen's missed free throws set up Luka Doncic's game-winning buzzer-beater for Dallas. His statement is also absolutely true. The most stunning part of this Grizzlies season is how they're winning. It's not due to the heroics of Morant as much as you'd think.
It's because Valanciunas, Brooks, Allen, Melton and Kyle Anderson are each in the midst of career-best seasons. It's because an already-deep bench with reliable options like Brandon Clarke and Tyus Jones added reliable rookies Desmond Bane and Xavier Tillman. It's because Memphis went from having one 40-percent 3-point shooter on the roster last year to three this season, even though its most prolific 3-point shooter last year (Jackson) hasn't played.
To that point, eight of Morant's 10 best performances this season have been in Memphis losses, according to Pro Basketball Reference's Game Score, a statistic created by former Grizzlies executive John Hollinger that measures a player's productivity during a game.
So life without Jackson re-emphasized how well this Grizzlies front office rebuilt this roster. Though Memphis might still need another major piece alongside Morant and Jackson to become a Western Conference contender, the way it is navigating through this season suggests many of the ancillary parts needed around the team's two stars might already be in the fold.
It's a significant evolution that nonetheless won't diminish the impact of Jackson's return. Morant can't do this alone. This season is proof, in the way the Grizzlies have won and the way they've lost.
After Monday, they are 4-9 in games decided by five points or less. It includes a 1-6 mark in those situations since March 4 and four of their past five losses overall. As much unexpected joy as this season is producing, there is a certain ceiling on that happiness if Jackson can't return as the player he once was, if he can't form a consistent crunch-time partnership with Morant, and expand his game.
But the Grizzlies have played so well relying on their depth without Jackson that Jenkins faces perhaps his toughest decision to date as coach: Once everyone is healthy, who is out of the rotation to fit Jackson back in?
It's probably Tillman, even though he's coming off his most impressive performances of this season.
It can't be Melton or Allen, given how well they've played of late. Would Bane really be the odd man out, despite shooting 46 percent from 3-point range? Or maybe it's Jones, who was left out of the rotation after halftime on Monday?
Is it Justise Winslow, even though the Grizzlies likely want to evaluate him playing alongside Morant and Jackson before making a decision on whether to exercise his $13 million contract option this offseason?
Jenkins said he's even entertained the idea of an 11-man rotation with how many options he's choosing from.
“We're not going to just throw (Jackson) into the fire and play a heavy load,” he said. “We're going to be smart about his minutes and his integration, obviously trying to find the right combinations for him to be successful, for our team to be successful.”
But at least Jackson's success is finally tethered to this team's success again. At least the team he's coming back to is in better shape than when he left it.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto