NBA teams
J.A. Adande, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Grizzlies are all grit and no quit

NBA, Memphis Grizzlies

The reason I've come to like the Memphis Grizzlies is not so much for what they are but for what they aren't. They're not a franchise that's more intrigued by lottery luck than on-court achievement. They're not a team that clears out cap space to sell fans on the hope of luring a marquee free agent.

They're not a political campaign filled with promises that will go unfulfilled. They don't make bold proclamations. They don't harbor grandiose intentions.

They're not afraid to live in the zone every NBA team wants to avoid: that realm of just good enough. The Grizzlies won't get high draft picks, but they won't get a championship either. No one dreams of a career that tops out at middle management, but the Grizzlies keep working away, fully aware that they will probably never get promoted to executive status.

They have made the playoffs four consecutive years but never put together a run of more than eight of the 16 victories it takes to get a championship.

Deep down, the Grizzlies have to know they have limits. They don't have the superstar to provide the foundation for a championship team, and nobody is going to announce that he is taking his talents to Beale Street. In an increasingly offensive-oriented league, they don't have the firepower to keep up.

And that's where their most admirable quality kicks in. They're not going to give up, and they aren't going to roll over and make life easy for the teams that are better equipped.

"We can't," Marc Gasol said. "It's in our nature. We can't quit."

They're the toughest of outs. Three of these past four playoff defeats came in Game 7. And even when they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 Western Conference finals, they lost two of the games in overtime.

"We might not be the most talented team, but we're going to make you prove that you're better than us," Gasol said. "We're going to force you to beat us, because we're just not going to go away without a fight."

It feels like this is the players' decision, not a mandate from up above.

They say the NBA is a players' league, but within each team the culture usually filters from the front office down to the court. It's a sign that there is a player-driven ethos in Memphis that the mentality hasn't wavered through the sale of the team from Michael Heisley to Robert Pera or the coaching change from Lionel Hollins to Dave Joerger.

It even survived the "Game of Thrones"-like machinations in the front office over the summer, when CEO Jason Levien and assistant general manager Stu Lash were ousted and Joerger seemed on the verge of following them out the door. Joerger is back as if nothing ever happened -- summing up the tumultuous offseason with a single word: "interesting." The players appear unfazed.

More important, the checks kept coming. The administration has held up its end by not skimping on the payroll. This goes back to Heisley re-signing Rudy Gay for $82 million in 2010 and continued with the Grizzlies locking up Mike Conley with a four-year extension off his rookie contract, signing Gasol for $57 million almost as soon as the new collective bargaining agreement was finalized in 2011 and signing Zach Randolph to a $20 million extension.

That's given them continuity. Gasol, Randolph, Conley and Tony Allen have been together through the playoff streak that started in 2011. There's trust, understanding and cohesiveness.

"It's a knack thing," Randolph said.

"They have a nice chemistry and ability to push each other," Joerger said. "They rely on each other, and they help each other. Their leadership as a group pulls everybody through."

This summer, while everyone else assumed Vince Carter would return to the Dallas Mavericks, the Grizzlies swooped in and signed him for $12 million over three years.

"It caught me off guard too," Carter said.

But Dallas pursued restricted free agent Chandler Parsons, eventually landing him for $46 million over three years.

"They didn't have anything left. Chandler took it all!" Carter said with a laugh. "What was left there, to what was offered [in Memphis] with this type of team.

"It wasn't just the money. I had an opportunity to play with a very good basketball team."

They might not have superstars, but they have good enough players that free agents don't believe they are dropping into an abyss. And there's a side benefit to joining the Grizzlies.

"Now I don't have to get hit by these boys anymore," Carter said, as Randolph rumbled by.

Playing against the Grizzlies means extra time soaking in ice after the game. Maybe it's because the court is their place to take out the frustrations.

"Everybody's got a chip on their shoulder," Randolph said.

From?

"Just everything," Randolph said. "No recognition, still. People still doubting us. One game on national TV."

Well, actually, it's two games on ESPN. But none on ABC or TNT.

"I thought they're supposed to show the small markets love," Randolph said. "I thought that was the collective bargaining agreement."

So power forwards all around the league will pay for the schedule-maker's decisions. And the Grizzlies will win their share of games from the glamour squads. Randolph calls this "our best team we've had since I've been here."

The Grizzlies were thrilled at Gasol's condition when he reported to training camp. Injuries limited Gasol to 59 games in 2013-14. Quincy Pondexter, a key reserve the previous season, played in only 15 games.

Talk to Joerger and you get the sense that 2013-14 shouldn't even count as injuries and a 10-15 start had the Grizzlies scrambling all season. Then Randolph had to miss their Game 7 loss to Oklahoma City while he served a suspension for throwing a half-punch in Game 6. June in the NBA arrived without them, the way it always seems to. But they're also a team that no one wants to play in April or May.

Carter has been around the Grizzlies less than a month and already seems to know what it is to be one.

"We're not being talked about," he said. "I don't see it as a bad thing, because it's no pressure. We just have to prove it. This is a team that plays that way, that believes in grinding it out."

You can count on it. They're the anti-tankers.

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