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The year was 2013. The Memphis Grizzlies, a No. 5 seed, beat the defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder to advance to the conference finals. Sure they got swept by the Spurs, but one thing was clear: The Grit 'N Grind era led by Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Tony Allen was upon us, and it was here to stay.

Fast forward five seasons, and the Grizzlies are practically unrecognizable -- both in style and makeup. After two more 50-win seasons, injuries and age took their toll, and for the past two years Memphis has only been able to muster low-40s win totals followed by prompt first-round playoff exits.

Head coach David Fizdale began the transition last season, his first with the team, by playing more through Gasol and Conley (both had career-highs in points per game and usage rate) while bringing Randolph off the bench to anchor the second unit. The results were mixed, and this offseason the team parted with both Randolph and Allen -- "The Grindfather" himself -- to officially put an end to Grit 'N Grind in Memphis.

The new-look Grizzlies may have a clearer direction, but there are still plenty of questions.

Picking up the pace

Part of the reason for allowing Randolph to head to Sacramento and Allen to New Orleans was so the Grizzlies could increase their pace. If Memphis has been known for one thing over the past several seasons, it's taking the air out of the ball. Fizdale appears to be changing that, however, if preseason numbers are any indication.

Grizzlies pace (league rank)

  • 2012-13: 91.15 (29th) 
  • 2013-14: 92.25 (30th) 
  • 2014:15: 94.21 (24th) 
  • 2015-16: 95.65 (27th) 
  • 2016-17: 94.74 (28th) 
  • 2017-18 preseason: 106.54 (4th)

Yes, it's the preseason, but that's a pretty dramatic shift. Fizdale said before last season that he wasn't concerned with pace, per se, but rather how quickly the team gets into its offense.

"Pace is just how fast we can get the ball from one end to the other," Fizdale said in 2016. "It's not necessarily how fast we can shoot. It's just a tempo thing. Can we explore early options to get easy baskets when the defense is maybe lulling back or jogging back? We want to take our chances with getting a quick easy one."

One way to get into offense quicker is to take more 3-pointers, which the Grizzlies certainly did last season.

Bombs away

After ranking no higher than 25th in the league in 3-point attempts over the previous five seasons, Memphis jumped to 14th last season under Fizdale. They made 35 percent of them, about middle of the NBA pack, but with offseason acquisition Ben McLemore (38 percent 3s last season) replacing Allen (28 percent) as the team's starting shooting guard, that number is likely to go up.

Fizdale also unleashed Gasol as a 3-point threat, and the results were pretty phenomenal. After attempting no more than 17 3s in any of his first eight seasons in the league, Gasol launched 268 last season and made an incredible 39 percent of them. It was such a dramatic improvement that some poor soul actually cut every single 3-pointer he made (playoffs included) into a video.

Gasol shot with such confidence last season that it's almost like he's had this in him all along, just waiting for a coach to finally give him the green light. Conley also shattered his career bests in 3-pointers made (171), attempts (419) and percentage (40.8), so it's safe to say that the Grizz will be launching willingly from deep this season.

Another player who could aid in the 3-point barrage also happens to be one of the biggest question marks of the upcoming NBA season.

Is there any hope for Chandler Parsons?

Once one of the most sought-after two-way forwards in the NBA, Chandler Parsons is about one more injury plagued season away from becoming an afterthought -- a "hey, remember how good that guy was when he was healthy?" trivia answer.

The Grizzlies hope that's not the case, as they look to get at least some value out of the four-year, $94 million contract they signed Parsons to before last season. So far the return has been practically non-existent, unless you count his extremely active (and sometimes creepy) Instagram presence.

Parsons, who battled injuries during his two seasons in Dallas prior to joining the Grizz, played just 34 games last season on a minutes restriction and was clearly not the Parsons of old. He averaged 6.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 20 minutes per game, and shot a dreadful 27 percent on 3-pointers after making 41 percent the previous season with the Mavs.

Parsons admitted that he "never felt fully right" last season, but more concerning than his performance was the fact that, for the third straight year, Parsons had his season cut short by knee surgery. This time it was a left knee meniscus repair, after having his previous two surgeries on his right knee.

But hopes are high entering this season, Parsons' second with the Grizzlies and seventh in the league. Parsons has been a full participant in camp but hasn't played more than 18 minutes in four preseason games. He scored 11 total points and was held scoreless in 22 minutes over his final two games -- a less than encouraging sign for Memphis.

Still, Fizdale says he's "not going to use kid gloves with him this year, for sure," so we should learn quickly whether or not Parsons can get back to the playmaking, 3-point-shooting, versatile forward we once knew -- or whether he will simply be an ugly footnote in Grizzlies franchise history.

What's a success?

It's been eight years since the Grizzlies last missed the postseason, so anything short of the eighth seed in the West will surely be considered a failure this season. That being said, there's just not a lot of room in the West. Assuming the top four seeds are the Warriors, Rockets, Spurs and Thunder in some order, that means only four of these teams are going to the playoffs:

Are the Grizzlies in the top four on that list? It's hard to talk yourself into it.

Incorporating McLemore and Tyreke Evans, seeing what they have in Parsons and watching JaMychal Green adjust to a larger role on both sides of the ball are just a few of the challenges facing Memphis this season. The bench, to put it lightly, will be a problem -- a second unit with some combination of Evans, Wade Baldwin IV, Andrew Harrison, Mario Chalmers, Brandan Wright and Jarell Martin hardly strikes fear in the hearts of opposing coaches. But either Gasol or Conley will likely be on the court at all times, and the subs will all play hard to help keep the Grizzlies afloat.

If healthy, we know what we're getting from Gasol and Conley, and in a normal year those two plus Fizdale's coaching would probably be enough to get them back to the playoffs -- but this year, it's not looking good. Plus, if either of their stars are hurt for an extended period of time things could get very ugly, very quickly.

People have talked about breaking up Gasol and Conley if this season goes south, but that's premature. Fizdale deserves at least another season with his 1-A and 1-B to see whether he can usher in a new, championship era of Grizzlies basketball.