Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins needs another week before he has his final answer. He needs to hear the critiques of his players and other coaches before determining how he developed as a coach this season.

The 2023-24 season easily could be called a lost cause for the Memphis Grizzlies, with the number and extent of injuries on the roster. Jaren Jackson Jr. will finish the season playing a team-high 66 games. Last season, five Grizzlies played at least 70 games. The year before that, there were six.

The numbers game reached a climax in Friday's 123-120 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, when 13 Memphis players were declared out. The Grizzlies have long been out of the playoff hunt, and that surely played a role in some of the lineup decisions, but it also shows how banged-up they have been.

"Obviously, there are certain guys for sure, a good number of them, where they have some things that they’re absolutely dealing with, and some guys that are day to day, week to week, and then just the time’s running out right now," Jenkins said before Friday's game. "So, our guys are highly competitive, want to be out there on the floor, and we’ve always talked about prioritizing health and not stretching it too far where we’re putting guys in compromising positions, and sadly it’s gotten to this number of 13 guys."

Maximizing Grizzlies development

Expectations were high for 2023-24 when the Grizzlies entered after back-to-back seasons of 50-plus wins and the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. Now they will not play in the postseason for the first time in Jenkins' five seasons as coach.

But was this indeed a lost cause? That will be answered by how the Grizzlies attack the offseason.

Arguably the biggest emphasis going into the season was how the offense needed to be better in the half court. While Memphis had built one of the best defenses and transition offenses in the NBA, the half-court offense failed in each of the previous two playoff runs.

The Grizzlies hired assistant coach Patrick St. Andrews and re-shaped how the offense was viewed by playing in three gears. Overall, the half court didn't look much better, but the team had point guard Ja Morant for just nine games following his 25-game suspension and before his shoulder surgery. Fellow starters Marcus Smart and Desmond Bane also combined for merely 62 appearances.

Those adjustments have forced Jenkins to view the progress of the Grizzlies offense through a different lens.

"Obviously, we’re watching the film, we’re looking at the analytics, game-to-game, despite personnel changes, the types of shots that we’re creating with the system that we’re trying to put in," Jenkins said. "How we’re getting our guys to adapt and learn that system is a big thing. So, there’s a lot of system evaluation that we’re going to take stock in, knowing the personnel drives that at the end of the day, and how we’re teaching these guys."

Memphis remains in the upper-third of the NBA in defensive rating, so it's safe to say the defensive formula was successful.

Forwards develop with increased playing time

Maybe the biggest area of growth came through the development of young wings. Point guard and the frontcourt were the least of the Grizzlies' worries going into the season, but they needed more wings to battle with some of the best in the Western Conference.

ROSTER DEPTH: The Grizzlies have too many wings. Here's how they can address the logjam in the offseason

Vince Williams Jr. went from a two-way contract to receiving praise from league stars Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant, and GG Jackson has turned in what could be an all-rookie season.

Without the injuries that decimated the roster, neither of the two would have had chances to grow as they did. At least not in the NBA, according to Jackson. He believes he would have developed similarly if he had been playing major minutes with the G League Memphis Hustle, but there are differences.

"It's the little things," Jackson said. "Am I making the correct reads, am I taking the correct shot, different things like that. It feels better to do it on the big stage."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies had to make most of development despite injuries