Tyreke “Reke of Putrefaction” Evans can officially be considered the Grizzlies’ best player, or at the very least their best scorer. Marc Gasol proved that he can’t sustain his historical efficiency while shouldering a heavier offensive load (he wanted the whole load, not just a taste), but Evans has shown that he can maintain a career-high TS% while also having a career-high usage rate. He also doesn’t get his coaches fired. Just saying. Kindly ignore the fact that Gasol had an efficient 27 points in this game when you’re evaluating my opinions for correctness.
I’m sort of wondering how Evans will deal with the return of Mike Conley in a few weeks. Evans is clearly thriving with the ball in his hands, but Conley’s not really an off-ball player, so Evans might regress. Remember in his Pelicans days when he had to share the ball with Jrue Holiday, Anthony Davis, and Eric Gordon? It didn’t really work as well as it could have. With Conley returning, I’m afraid that the “not enough ball” issue will rear its head. I didn’t think it would be possible for that particular issue to appear on a team with so little in the way of offensive firepower, but weirder things have happened. Like me microwaving my Pop Tart this morning and opening the microwave door to find that it had turned into a Hot Pocket.