With their season drifting in the wrong direction and the Western Conference standings tightening by the day, Tuomas Iisalo's Memphis Grizzlies are increasingly looking for relief valves. That's why Ty Jerome's return was so important. After missing the first 46 games of the season with a high-grade right calf strain, the veteran guard finally made a Beale Street debut on January 31 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
While the Grizzlies lost a sixth consecutive game, Jerome provided a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak campaign. In just 20 minutes of action on a strict minutes restriction, Iisalo saw the light.
“Pretty impressive stat line, 20 points in 20 minutes, six assists. (Ty Jerome) did all the things that we expected him to do for us this season. Create out of the pick and roll, also be a threat off the ball and opening up space for other guys,” Iisalo noted. “Especially against this kind of team that plays in a lot of these, call them conservative coverages where the big is back, and you need the handler and the screener to have enough creation that they don't need to rely on team reactions, but they create a two-on-one situation, they create good enough looks. And Ty is definitely that guy, and he's been that guy throughout his career.”
Those “conservative coverages” have been a recurring problem for the Grizzlies. Opponents have sagged their bigs, daring the Grizzlies to beat them with precision rather than pace. Jerome’s comfort manipulating the pick-and-roll, snaking dribbles, dragging defenders into no-man’s land, then finding the screener or weak-side shooter, can manufacture efficient shots without the offense having to grind through multiple actions. When defenses tilt toward him, the spacing he creates has unlocked cleaner looks for shooters and dump-offs for rollers.
However, the reality, of course, is that one player, especially a guard coming off a three-month injury absence on a minutes restriction, cannot single-handedly rescue a season spiraling toward disaster. The Grizzlies are 18-29 with the NBA Trade Deadline looming and a difficult schedule ahead. Even if Jerome stays healthy and returns to his Cleveland form, significant questions remain about Ja Morant's future with the franchise, Zach Edey's availability, and whether Iisalo's coaching style can succeed in the NBA.
As the All-Star break approaches, all eyes are on Jerome. In a league where superstars dominate headlines, it's the unsung contributors like him who often write the redemption stories. For Tuomas Iisalo's Grizzlies, Ty Jerome could be a season-saving lifeline.
