It helps that the players provide so much raw material. Led by Allen, who coined the team’s “grit, grind” mantra during a postgame interview in 2011, the Grizzlies are practically catchphrase machines. Consider Randolph, who told reporters, “I don’t bluff,” after a heated exchange in 2012 with Kendrick Perkins, who was then with the Oklahoma City Thunder. It did not take long for the Grizzlies to print several thousand of their ubiquitous Growl Towels that featured the phrase “We Don’t Bluff.” Or for the city’s T-shirt czars to get to work.

“Everybody was making ‘We Don’t Bluff’ T-shirts after that,” said Alec Wilson, a graphic designer and screen printer who runs his business, Memphicity Design, out of his garage.

Wilson, 31, like many in this niche field, has made good use of the word “grind.” One of his more popular T-shirts is a map of Tennessee with Memphis highlighted as “Grindville.” It should be noted that FedEx Forum is known as the Grindhouse, and Allen has embraced his persona as the Grindfather. Still, Wilson said that crisp inspiration was never in short supply.

“Tony Allen says crazy stuff all the time,” he said.

While some designers push the limits with their shirts (and probably run a greater risk of drawing the ire of movie studios with some of their parodies), it seems to take a brazen act for the Grizzlies to raise objections — blatantly lifting the team’s logo, for example, or using a copyrighted image.

Wilson has heard from the Grizzlies only once, he said, after he splashed a photograph of Vince Carter on one of his designs. Wilson usually draws the images himself to showcase his own creativity and to avoid nettlesome licensing issues. This was one instance when he did not, and an official from the Grizzlies called him within 10 minutes of his posting the design online, he said.

“They were friendly about it, but they just said, ‘You can’t sell that,’ ” Wilson said. “It was a no-no. I should have known better.”