By: Scott Levine

Tyreke Evans’ performance against Phoenix on Thursday night was an accurate snapshot of his season as the lone creator with Mike Conley sidelined. He scored 21 points on 8-20 shooting, propped up the team on offense, had a plus/minus of +9, and his team lost by two. He took the last shot: a contested three that bricked off the far side of the rim. His shot was not falling tonight.

Despite his team’s abysmal record, he is having his best season to date. He is averaging 22.1 points per 36 minutes, the highest mark of his career, is shooting 46.8% from the field, and 41.2% from three. He is shooting a career best five attempts from three a game. His efficiency has taken a hit without Conley. According to Basketball Reference, without Conley in the lineup, he has shot a humdrum 43.7% from the field, but has hit 39.3% of his threes.

The Grizzlies have harnessed his skill set better than any team in the past, which isn’t saying much, but is encouraging. While many of Evans’ teammates don’t provide optimal spacing for him on the perimeter, Tyreke has enjoyed something he has never had before: a big man who is proficient from 20 feet and out in Marc Gasol. This has helped him find more driving lanes than on past teams. Here, Melo is hesitant to crash in on Tyreke because of the threat of Gasol’s jumper.

Adding to this, Tyreke has been able to punish teams for going under, which they do often given his reputation as a non-shooter. This gives him enough time to get into his relatively slow release.

He takes a second to get into rhythm first, usually with a dribble. Then he leans back and appears to gather too much strength from his back and arms and not enough from his legs. It’s not the type of shooting form that screams 40% from three. But so far that has been the case.

Tyreke is shooting 45.7% on 2.9 attempts off the dribble from three. This is absurd. Per Second Spectrum, of all 99 players who attempt at least one off the dribble three per game, Tyreke ranks sixth in efficiency behind Nik Stauskas, Troy Daniels, Joe Ingles, Tobias Harris, and Malcolm Brogdon. All five take less than half the number of attempts off the dribble per game as Tyreke. He is first among players who take at least two threes. Second is Austin Rivers (!!!), who is shooting 3.5 pull-up threes at 41.9%.

He will almost certainly not maintain this shooting stretch, partially because doing so would be unprecedented, but also because defenders will leave him open less if his reputation catches up to his statistics this season. Fortunately, this will allow him to have more opportunities driving to the rim. We’re already seeing this happen.

He fails to get an angle on Bender here, but usually is vicious when he makes his man go over the screen, forces a switch, and gets a one on one with a big man who has to respect his three-pointer. In these situations, he is fast enough to get a step on most, and strong enough to finish through them, as he does here against John Collins.

Tyreke will be a free agent this season. The Grizzlies may not be interested in keeping him around, through no fault of his own. They are 10-23 and might have no reason to keep the ball in Tyreke’s hands if they look to rebuild through their high draft pick in 2018.

This begs the question: “Who will sign Tyreke next season?” I don’t think he can be a primary creator on a good team. While his ability to create for himself is undeniable, he struggles to provide the creation for others requisite for a high-powered offense. He will be able to find the roll man for buckets, and hit a shooter who is one pass away, but rarely breaks out the cross court passes we’re used to seeing from LeBron and James Harden.

Here he is drawing three defenders and not using the opportunity to find one of his teammates an open three.

What makes this more frustrating is that he does occasionally break out these cross court passes. He clearly has the size to see to see these passes, and passing accuracy to hit guys across court on target. Here he notices Patrick Beverley cheating in and whips it to Mario Chalmers.

It makes you wonder if he could do this routinely if he had good coaching and a stable environment earlier in his career. But unfortunately, some players have to be drafted to Sacramento.

If he can be an effective off-ball player, he could start for many teams. His overall three point percentage suggests that he could thrive in a secondary ball handling role, but he has been not as good shooting off the catch. According to Second Spectrum, he is shooting 35.6% on catch-and-shoot threes and taking 2.3 per game. His aforementioned slow form does not lend itself to shooting off the catch, as he dips downward before releasing, adding a precious second.

He does not move much when he doesn’t have the ball. Without Conley, this is out of necessity, so that Chalmers or Andrew Harrison will have someone to reset the ball to when their actions lead them nowhere. But it’s inexplicable why he rarely moved off ball when Conley was healthy.

Another problem with playing Tyreke as an off-ball wing it means he has to guard the opposing wing. Any team that expects him to guard small forwards and larger shooting guards will be disappointed. Not only does he not have the size to deal with the larger wings in the league, but he will also be caught napping off-ball.

While he looks to rack up deflections as a help defender, he is not disciplined when it comes to defensive positioning when helping. Here, he pretends to rotate over to stop a Rivers drive, but doesn’t really do anything except give Rivers the and-one.

Tyreke has been the nominal starting point guard while Conley is out, and it’s clear he is better as an on-ball defender. He is able to bother smaller players with his length and has active hands that allow him to get a decent 1.8 deflections per game.

He also can handle larger players on switches in the pick and roll because of his strength. James Harden’s defense is a good analogue for Tyreke’s strengths and weaknesses as a defender. Harden has recovered from his reputation as a defensive ball-watching liability by using his physicality against smaller players and being able to fight for position when switched onto roll men.

I think Tyreke will be best on his new team as a sixth man who plays backup point guard and often closes games next to the starting point guard. This was exactly his role on Memphis when Conley was healthy, and it’s probably a reason for his hot start this season.

It’s hard to pick out an obvious landing spot for Tyreke. Barely any teams will have cap space, and some that do don’t really need him. The two teams with cap space that I could see being interested are Dallas and the Lakers. Both have a rookie point guards who could use assistance with creation (Lonzo especially), and both Dennis Smith and Lonzo project to be effective off-ball as well.

Teams such as Denver, Washington, and Charlotte could use Tyreke off the bench to bolster their second units and give their closing lineups an added dimension. Except these teams don’t have any cap space, and it’s hard to imagine Memphis trading away their only healthy NBA-level creator on the perimeter this season while Conley remains a question mark. Marc Gasol would be sad.

The fact that Tyreke would not start on most teams shows how good you have to be to be a starting creator, especially if you are suspect off-ball. Monta Ellis is not in the NBA. Ellis is certainly one of the 450 most skilled basketball players in the world, but his skill set requires him to be one of the best 200, which he is no longer.

I am hopeful that Tyreke can eventually fine tune his off-ball instincts and shooting mechanics off the catch. He has never been in an environment that rewarded him consistently for good cuts or good help defense, so it’s understandable that these instincts haven’t been beaten into him.

Regardless of fit in the modern NBA and future salaries, I have enjoyed watching Tyreke this season. I have followed him closely and always felt his teams were not utilizing him well in the past. It’s been nice to watch him show everyone how good he is.