Grizzlies’ all-time assist leaders

There’s an entire generation of basketball fans now that do not remember the Grizzlies franchise beginning life in Vancouver. It remains one of the NBA’s youngest teams, having only existed for three decades. Also, career Grizzlies have been few and far between. That makes for a top five in career assists that may pale in comparison to most franchises, but it is still an interesting collection of names.
Conley was selected fourth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, and he was able to establish himself as one of the faces of the franchise’s history. Conley averaged 5.7 assists per game over a dozen seasons with the Grizzlies. Of course, due to the sheer number of games he played, the most in franchise history, he remains comfortably the top assist man.
Clearly, calling Conley “comfortably” the top assist man in Grizzlies history didn’t overstate it. He’s almost 2,000 dimes ahead of the guy in second, who may be a surprising name. While Gasol was an excellent player, especially defensively, he was also a center. A big, hulking behemoth guarding the paint. Gasol is second in games, and first in minutes played, for the franchise, though, and that allowed him enough opportunity to tally up assists slowly but surely.
“Flashy” would be the operative word with Williams. He was a human highlight reel, seemingly always looking to put a little extra sauce on every pass. The man used his elbows in ways few NBA players would dream of. Then again, there’s a reason for that. There was sizzle to Williams’ game. He averaged 10.5 points per game in the NBA and never made an All-Star Game. In his four seasons with Memphis, though, he did average over 8.0 assists per contest twice, which helped him quite a bit here.
Morant is fourth on the list, despite only being able to play in nine games in the 2023-24 season. He’s a great player, already a winner of Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player. If he can stay on the court, he will shoot up this list quickly, and could possibly someday even best Conley.
Here’s a nice throwback. Bibby is the only player in the top five who played for the Vancouver Grizzlies. In fact, he never played for the team in Memphis. Also, he only played three seasons with the Grizzlies. Bibby was drafted onto a Vancouver team still in the early stages of life as a franchise, so he was allowed to learn on the fly and play a ton of minutes as a young point guard. He averaged 7.8 assists per game with the Grizzlies.
Pau Gasol – 1,473 assists
Mike Miller – 1,351 assists
Tyus Jones – 1,285 assists
Zach Randolph – 1,085 assists
Shareef Abdur-Rahim 1,081 assists