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NBA season proving culture can trump talent

Cleveland Cavaliers former superstar LeBron James. (Source: Wiki Commons)
Roar Guru
13th March, 2016
5

On a cold and miserable Monday in Northeast Ohio, the Memphis Grizzlies were preparing for a match-up with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

An NBA TV affair, the Grizzlies were searching for a sense of revenge, after the Cavs embarrassed them by the tune of 30 points in Memphis’ season opener. In that game, Cleveland was shorthanded, missing the services of Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies rolled out their tradition line-up of Mike Conley, Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.

However, there was a major difference between the Grizzlies of opening night and the Grizzlies of the eighth of March.

Not only was their starting line-up completely different, but also none of the starters from that first affair against the Cavs even played in the second meeting, due to injuries and, in the case of Green, a trade. Memphis rolled out a starting five of Mario Chalmers, P.J. Hairston, Tony Allen, JaMychal Green and Ryan Hollins.

On the other hand, the Cavaliers had no such injury issues, with Irving and Shumpert back in uniform.

On paper, it was a blowout waiting to happen. Cleveland, fielding a team with a combined 19 All-Star appearances between them, was coming off three straight victories and seemed to be finally turning a corner on the inconsistent play that has plagued them throughout the season.

Memphis, playing their C-Team, might as well not have even showed up at the Quicken Loans Arena on that night. They had no chance.

Although, as we have seen during this entire NBA season, Memphis came into the game riding a culture of grind it out basketball. Cleveland played the game solely relying on their talent to ride them to victory.

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The Grizzlies won, 106-103, in a game that was made close after a furious fourth quarter rally from the Cavaliers.

“The guys played their hearts out,” Memphis coach David Joerger said, via Tom Withers of the Associated Press. “We had guys cramping, but they left it all out there. It’s a happy locker room. The phones are blowing up from everybody in Memphis. All of our guys that (are) back home like Marc (Gasol) and Birdman (Andersen) are jumping and down in their living room right now.”

If there was ever a season where a game and result like this was appropriate, it’s this one.

Talent is a necessity for winning but culture is paramount.

The Grizzlies have been a prime example of this all season long. Dealing with a plethora of injury problems and suffering a number of bad losses to top ballclubs, it would have been easy for this Memphis squad to pack it in this season and start looking towards the future. With an ageing roster that has already reached their ceiling, no one would have blamed the Grizzlies if they decided to blow up the roster at the trade deadline and started the looming rebuild.

While that might have been the smart thing to do, it simply isn’t in the Grizzlies DNA to give up on a season. There is a culture embedded, not only in the Grizzlies, but the entire city of Memphis, of grit and grind. They don’t call the FedEx Forum the ‘Grindhouse’ and they don’t refer to Allen as the ‘Grindfather’ for no reason.

As a, what some would call tumultuous, regular season for the Grizzlies starts to wrap up, Joerger’s team is currently sitting fifth in the Western Conference with a record of 39-26, as of March the 13th.

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To say talent is having an effect on Memphis’ shocking stay in relevance would be appropriate – if Gasol, Conley and Randolph weren’t injured. Gasol’s season ended on February the eighth in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers and since that time, Memphis is 9-4 without their undisputed best player.

Whereas Memphis is evident of a team that is currently winning on culture over talent, their Southwest division rival the Houston Rockets are the complete opposite.

James Harden and Dwight Howard head up the Rockets, a team that is built for the modern age of basketball. They have enough three-point shooters to win them a ballgame and, on paper anyway, have the defensive personal needed to be an adequate defensive unit.

So, the talent isn’t an issue for the Rockets. It never has been a problem since they traded for Harden back in 2012.

The culture on the other hand, well, isn’t as sparkling.

Houston is a mental counsellors dream. From the internal locker-room dysfunction, the failed Ty Lawsom experiment and the lack of effort on the defensive end of the floor, the Rockets have imploded this season, despite the talent that still exists on the roster.

Jay wrote an excellent column the other day explaining how Harden is still having a tremendous individual season but that hasn’t translated to team chemistry or success.

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For all the talent on the roster, the Rockets sums and parts haven’t been able to equal up to the same success as last season, when they launched into the second seed of the Western Conference.

No one can put their finger on why Houston hasn’t been able to create a winning culture in the locker-room this season. Is it Harden’s isolation heavy offensive attack? Does Howard’s happy-go-lucky attitude rub people the wrong way? Did Lawson’s tainted past have that big of an impact on the rest of the roster? Did firing coach Kevin McHale makes things even worse?

No one has definite answers to these questions and may not until the off-season, when Howard will supposedly leave the Rockets, leaving Harden on his own. Maybe that’s what Harden wants.

Whatever has been infected into the Houston locker-room this season, it has left a damaged culture. Subsequently, the Rockets are currently sitting seventh in the Western Conference, with a 33-32 record, as of March 13th. Don’t be fooled though- if the Rockets have shown anything this season, it’s that they can go on a losing streak at any moment.

Houston and Memphis aren’t the only two examples of how differing cultures has led to differing results, regardless of talent levels.

The Dallas Mavericks, despite an ever-changing roster, are still in the midst of the playoff race. The Portland Trail Blazers lost four starters over the off-season but have taken the league by storm and are sitting comfortably in the Western Conference playoff picture.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls haven’t been able to rebuild the culture that left when Tom Thibodeau was fired and Washington Wizards have failed to yield a winning culture after a successful previous season.

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In an NBA where teams are almost solely focused on acquiring multiple All-Stars, an important ingredient has gone missing in the recipe for winning and that is continuity, which eventually leads to a culture that is build over time, and once created, it has a strength that is unmeasured.

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