Turning the Corner?

Like their pair of playoff seasons a few years ago, Memphis Grizzlies fans have to wonder if Tuesday's impressive showing against Sacramento was a glimpse of the positive potential of the organization or a stroke of youthful luck.

The roster contains names of guys who can and will be stars in the league a few years from now.  The question on many fans' minds is, How long will it take this team to get back to where it seemed to be headed only three years ago?  Is this collection of players ready to take the next step this year?

There have been plenty of rookie moments and, honestly, entire games, when we are reminded how young these guys are.  The transition from college basketball to the NBA isn't easy.  With most players beginning that transition at age 19 or 20 instead of 22, it means they have more to learn on the job, which guarantees some lean seasons if a team is rebuilding through the draft.  That is where the Grizzlies find themselves now.

There have been times already this season when it looked like the Grizzlies could be a playoff team come April, and I would have to be stupid to count them out completely with 80 percent of the schedule ahead of them.  They have definitely found their stud in O.J. Mayo.  Now the front office needs to commit to keeping him, along with Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and Darrell Arthur.  But that is talk for the offseason.  Right now the guys just need to keep playing and trying to win every time out.

Whatever the team did in practice before Tuesday's win, that should be the daily routine from now on.  I think the guys are catching on, but they have to lock these good habits into their minds.  They can't afford to revert to making the same mistakes over and over again.  Now that they know what it takes to win, they should make it a priority to do those things every night.

While the extra rest helped the Grizzlies on Tuesday, it would seem to be a disadvantage that they have to sit on that performance until Friday night.  With that kind of positive momentum, I'm sure they would have loved to play last night.

If they played in the Eastern Conference, which would make more sense geographically than the West anyway, the Grizzlies could realistically contend for one of the final playoff spots every year.  As of this moment they are 1.5 games behind the East's No. 8 seed, Miami.  They are one game out of the Western Conference playoff race, but you have to think the Spurs and Mavericks will get going soon.  The West is still deeper than the East, and that hurts teams like the Grizzlies.

For now, all they can do is play their best and hope to come out with more W's than L's at the end of the night.