Mike Conley has missed 31 out of 43 games, and during that time the Memphis Grizzlies have only won eight games. Despite the absence of Captain Clutch, Memphis has found a way to keep the bulk of these games close, but they always appear to come up short. They have given up 11 fourth-quarter leads thus far this season. No one deserves more blame for that than Marc Gasol.
With Conley, Gasol hasn’t shown the ability to lead this team and close out games. He just appears to be going through the motions until Conley returns. He clearly lacks that “alpha dog” mentality ZBo was known for.