Here we go again?

Or maybe not?

The Memphis Grizzlies’ injured list is crowded. But after the in triplicate season-ending Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke and Ja Morant injuries that spurred an era of ill fortune, the rat-a-tat-tat flow of injuries this season feel more like bullets dodged.

Grizzlies overwhelm Portland in massive road win

If there are few phrases more frightening than “Memphis Grizzlies Medical Update,” this has so far been a season of “Oh, well, it could have been worse” injury reports. 

The latest, most significant and perhaps most serious is Ja Morant, who hit the floor hard against the Lakers last week, undercut in the air on a play that somehow drew no whistles. 

The diagnosis: a “posterior hip subluxation (without dislocation)” along with “multiple associated Grade 1 pelvic muscle strains.”

In layman’s terms: ouch!

The Grizzlies have labeled Morant “week-to-week,” a purgatory where he joins backcourt mate Desmond Bane, dealing with an oblique strain. 

Grizzlies issue Ja Morant injury update

For Morant, “without dislocation” and “Grade 1” are somewhat calming information, but this seems to be a pretty rare situation. 

Public sports-injury analyst Jeff Stotts wrote on the Morant situation over the weekend, in conjunction with that of New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson, who was announced out with a hamstring strain.

Stotts characterizes both situations as “indefinite,” though only the Pelicans used that language in their medical update. I think Stotts is right to see that “week-to-week” is essentially an optimist’s rewrite of “indefinite,” a distinction without a clear difference. 

On Morant, Stotts describes it as “a more significant and considerably less common injury,” calling it the first injury of its kind in his NBA injury database. 

Stotts writes: 

“Looking at football provides better examples of injuries more comparable to Morant. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a hip dislocation while at Alabama and former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick sustained a hip subluxation in 2021. Fitzpatrick attempted to rehab the area but ultimately underwent surgery to address the issue.

“Morant is currently considered week-to-week, but the Grizzlies will likely continue to evaluate his injury in the coming days. Hopefully the amount of associated soft tissue damage is minimal, and Morant will be able to return following rehab and non-surgical treatment.”

Grizzlies Insider: How will Memphis fare in national TV showcase?

But if “week-to-week” is technically open-ended, I do think there’s more than public relations at work in the wording. Marcus Smart was also given a “week-to-week” designation, with a sprained ankle, at the same time as Bane, and now seems on the verge of returning. 

Bane will not be back as quickly as Smart, and it seems very likely that Morant won’t either. But this is the kind of designation you make if you expect a player’s absence to be measured in weeks, not months. The Grizzlies know more about the situation than an outside analyst with only the team’s medical report and game footage to go on. They seem to be signaling that they do not expect the worst-case scenario here. 

But “week-to-week” still comes embedded in uncertainty. Morant could be back in a few weeks. Or he could not. His situation, like Bane’s, is dependent on how the healing process goes, and no one can precisely predict that. 

As is, it’s a too familiar situation:

Before the season, I suggested that the single biggest concern for the Grizzlies was the durability of its three stars, with Bane and Morant having the more recent pattern of injury issues than Jaren Jackson Jr. 

For Bane, who totaled 100 games throughout the past two seasons, the oblique strain is the kind of wear-and-tear injury that’s been mounting. 

Grizzlies podcast: Memphis’ surprising quartet

And Morant’s now sidelined with just the kind of event injury most feared as a result of his high-impact playing style and sleight frame.

It’s been noted that Morant’s played differently this season. He’s attempted exactly two dunks all season (both misses), and that reduction doesn’t seem to have been an accident, something Morant alluded to after the Lakers game, when complaining about a lack of foul calls. 

“I might as well try to dunk and s---. I was getting more foul calls with that,” he said.

Morant’s probably been better than ever this season, even if a lower-scoring average and the absence of break-the-internet dunks have obscured it. That’s been balanced out by more abundant playmaking and more attentive defense. And he suffered a major injury anyway. Will this lead to even more adjustment in playing style when Morant returns? Let’s hope it’s a choice he can still make. 

But if Morant can be great even while operating more on the ground, a Morant that no longer goes airborne would still be a lesser Morant, both for the Grizzlies and for the whole NBA. 

Grizzlies update status of injured Bane, Smart

As it happens, the Grizzlies just notched their biggest win of the season without Morant or Bane or Smart, blasting the Trail Blazers by 45 points in Portland on Sunday night. It was the team’s fifth double-digit win in their past six games, all without Bane and Smart and the past two without Morant. 

This has been a real tribute to full-roster depth, system and coaching. 

As we explored in this space last week, the Grizzlies have given even more minutes to players even deeper on the depth chart early this season than they did early last season, and with far different results. 

That was after eight games. Now after 11, the minutes-played pecking order has not changed, with Santi Aldami, Jake LaRavia, Jaylen Wells and Scotty Pippen Jr. leading the team in minutes. 

That old saw about Grizzlies teams starting slow under head coach Taylor Jenkins? This time, it lasted all of five games. But can the team’s recent success, or anything close to it, continue without Morant and Bane against what’s now going to be a more difficult schedule?

Let’s spin it forward. How do the Grizzlies get by for what seems to be at least a few weeks without Bane and Morant?