Tuomas Iisalo Reveals How Grizzlies Are Expanding Cameron Boozer’s Role

Cameron Boozer missed 12 of his 14 shots, including all 8 of his 3-point attempts, in the Memphis Grizzlies’ 128-97 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night at FedExForum.

Boozer finished with 8 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists in 31:15. He was 2-of-6 inside the arc and 4-of-4 at the free-throw line.

Before Friday, he had averaged 16.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 5.4 assists in 32.3 minutes through eight games, per Basketball-Reference. He was shooting 36.4% from the field, 36.1% on two-pointers, and 36.7% from 3-point range on 6.1 attempts per game.

Memphis drafted Boozer third overall out of Duke in June. He turned 19 on July 18.

On Oct. 29 at Portland, he recorded his first career triple-double, with 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists in a 124-103 win.

Without Isaiah Stewart, Boozer is playing a lot at center, Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said.

“All the stuff that we are doing,” Iisalo said. “The idea is to put the players in a position to succeed. It’s not like we have a bag of tricks here that’s 17 more things that we want to do. He’s a 19-year-old rookie that’s working extremely hard and absorbing a lot of those things.”

“A lot of it comes down to the matchups,” Iisalo continued. “Who does he have? Does he have the advantage on the outside or on the inside? Without [Isaiah Stewart] in the lineup, he plays a lot at the five. They play the five against him. That five sometimes is waiting at the free-throw line. There are different ways, and we’ll keep adding those. But, yeah, we are featuring him in a lot of different sets.”

Stewart was out with a right knee bone bruise. He had averaged 11.9 points on 66.7% shooting in 18.3 minutes across seven games.

On Thursday, Iisalo said Stewart looked like he “avoided anything major” and was walking around normally, with further evaluation still to come.

Zach Edey went to the bench with 7:32 left in the first quarter. From there until a timeout at 4:34, Boozer was the biggest player on the floor for Memphis, next to Jaylen Wells, Jerami Grant, Javon Small, and Cam Spencer.

The Grizzlies went from ahead 12-8 to behind 21-16 over that stretch. Boozer scored on a cutting layup off a Small pass, assisted on a Wells floater, and missed two 3-pointers.

Quinten Post, the other backup center option, went 0-of-7 in 14:58. Edey played 19:41 and finished with 14 points.

Oklahoma City used Isaiah Hartenstein and Aday Mara at center. Hartenstein had 7 assists and 6 rebounds, and Mara scored 9 points with 7 rebounds.

Boozer had 9 rebounds and 3 assists in the first half. He made 1 of 6 shots in the second half, and all 4 of his second-half 3-point attempts missed.

His last basket came on a putback with 14.2 seconds left in the third quarter.

Two nights earlier, the Indiana Pacers beat Memphis 107-103, and Boozer scored 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting. He committed 5 turnovers.

Facing Pascal Siakam for the first time showed Boozer areas to improve, and cleaning up the turnovers after a film session was his plan.

“I would just say sometimes it’s just playing a little rushed,” Boozer said after Wednesday’s game. “Just got to slow down. But [something] I’m going to clean up, [something] I’m going to look at it and get better.”

He committed 2 turnovers against Oklahoma City.

Against New Orleans on Nov. 2, Boozer had 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists in a 135-134 overtime loss.

Tip-off for Monday’s game against the Raptors in Toronto is 6:30 p.m. CT.