{"id":113420,"date":"2024-12-20T18:24:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T23:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=113420"},"modified":"2024-12-20T18:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T23:24:48","slug":"grizzlies-vince-williams-jr-return-injury-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/20\/grizzlies-vince-williams-jr-return-injury-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Stud Cub Inching Towards Return From Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies have given an injury update on third-year wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willivi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vince Williams Jr.<\/a>, who has been out with a Grade 3 right ankle sprain since Nov. 19. The 24-year-old was given an approximate four week timeline for reevaluation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/memgrizz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@memgrizz<\/a> today announced the following medical update for Vince Williams Jr. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LrUnTYYt9B\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/LrUnTYYt9B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grizzlies PR (@GrizzliesPR) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrizzliesPR\/status\/1870212712384319596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Now, the Grizzlies expect him to \u201creturn to play within 3-6 weeks.\u201d That would mean that Williams will be suiting up sometime between Jan. 10\u201331. With the NBA\u2019s All-Star Break <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/key-dates\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">beginning on Feb. 14<\/a>, that should give Williams up to five weeks to re-establish his rhythm once he returns.<\/p>\n<h3>A New Role, An Old One<\/h3>\n<p>Known more for his defense, Williams once looked like the team\u2019s future starter at small forward.<\/p>\n<p>However, 2024 No. 39 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wellsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Wells<\/a> has been superb since being promoted to the first unit. That being said, Williams\u2019s understated versatility could help him be even more impactful off the bench. To that point, he averaged 14.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per contest in his final 24 games of 2023-24.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vince Williams Jr 18 pts 12 rebs 7 asts vs Bucks 23\/24 season\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SsixjCt2xWM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The primary question is how Memphis plans to manage their depth. There\u2019s strength in numbers but they have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/14\/do-grizzlies-need-trade-clear-logjam\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">more rotation-caliber players than is ideal<\/a> in terms of team chemistry.<\/p>\n<h3>Luke Kennard\u2019s Replacement?<\/h3>\n<p>The Grizzlies were likely hoping that they moved past the injury bug after their 2023-24 campaign was all but lost to it. However, that experience may be one reason why they\u2019ve started the 2024-25 season at 18-9, the second-best record in the West. Though Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins has at times been criticized for his decisions, he clearly entered the 2024 offseason wanting to make his team less reliant on star talent.<\/p>\n<p>The result has been an offensive system that relies on pace, space, and ball-movement.<\/p>\n<p>Jenkins didn\u2019t invent those pillars. In fact, they\u2019re commonplace. Nonetheless, he and his team have bought into the new system, breathing life into it. This has led to the Grizzlies ranking first in pace (104.9), first in points per game (122.9), fifth in offensive rating (117.2), and second in assists per game (30.5).<\/p>\n<p>Their biggest issue is defense, as they rank 14th in opponent\u2019s points per game (113.0), 28th in opponent\u2019s three-point attempts (40.2), 28th in opponent\u2019s free-throw attempts (25.8), and 27th in personal fouls (21.7). Some of this is a natural byproduct of the pace they play. Teams that get up shots in a hurry tend to allow a lot of attempts as well.<\/p>\n<p>However, Memphis also has a couple of players who are weak links at that end. As it relates to Williams, fellow wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kennalu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Kennard<\/a> may be one of the best shooters in NBA history, but doesn\u2019t offer much defensively. Replacing Kennard \u2014who averages 19.9 minutes per game this season \u2014with Williams could do wonders for them.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean Kennard won\u2019t make it through the season with the Grizzlies. If Williams\u2019s three-ball continues to fall though, it\u2019s definitely a possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies have given an injury update on third-year wing Vince Williams Jr., who has been out with a Grade 3 right ankle sprain since Nov. 19. The 24-year-old was given an approximate four week timeline for reevaluation. The @memgrizz today announced the following medical update for Vince Williams Jr. pic.twitter.com\/LrUnTYYt9B \u2014 Grizzlies PR [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":113423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62,3],"tags":[769,4745,49812],"class_list":["post-113420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-luke-kennard","tag-nba-injuries","tag-vince-williams-jr"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113424,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113420\/revisions\/113424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}