Identities are changing.

One team has transformed its offense and bolted to the top of the standings. Another is bombing 3s into the abyss. And a former stretch big man has become a go-to lob finisher.

Let’s open up the notebook to run through three NBA trends that have caught my eye over the past week:

Movement in Memphis

The Memphis Grizzlies lost in Ja Morant’s return from a shoulder injury Thursday, but even the defeat at the hands of the rival Houston Rockets was typical Grizzlies basketball, which has never before looked like this.

This offense does not run like the grind-it-out ones that could fly in transition but would struggle getting into their half-court sets. And amid injuries, the Grizzlies continue to win.

Morant has missed 17 games this season. Marcus Smart has been either injured or hasn’t looked like the best version of himself. Zach Edey has missed time. The Grizzlies are starting two rookies and have rotated undrafted guys like Scotty Pippen Jr. into the first unit. And yet, Memphis sits at 24-14, third in the Western Conference and 1 1/2 games behind Houston. This new system, which looks unlike any other in the NBA, is succeeding.

Memphis exhausts its players less than any other team. No one averages 30 minutes a game, yet, no one fails to get steps in. The Grizzlies cut as if they’re a team full of JJ Redicks. They cover the most ground in the NBA per game on both offense and defense, according to Second Spectrum. Their average speed is faster than anyone’s on both sides of the ball, too.

The Grizzlies are the only squad in the top five in both points per possession and points allowed per possession. But for now, let’s focus on the extra cuts, because no one moves away from the basketball like the Grizzlies do.

Check out the below play from Thursday’s loss, when Rookie of the Year candidate Jaylen Wells gets the assist and Desmond Bane records the bucket even though the possession’s greatest playmaker is Morant.

Both Morant and Bane detect Bane’s defender, Dillon Brooks, focusing on the dribbler. Bane slides from the wing to the corner, and Morant takes off simultaneously, dragging his man, Fred VanVleet, out of the play and leaving Bane wide open for a corner 3 as Brooks heads to disrupt Wells.

This is called a “spacing cut” from Morant. No team slices more of those than the Grizzlies. And no longer is the half-court offense a problem.

Memphis used to hold up its attack with fast breaks, offensive rebounds and a low turnover rate. It still gobbles up its own misses, in part because the dizzying cuts pull defenders out of rebounding position. It still feasts on floaters, as it always has with Morant running the group. But because the Grizzlies have put such a premium on movement, the biggest issue is no longer stagnancy. It’s the turnovers that come with extra passes or darts to the hoop.

Alas, they will live with that problem — because what’s causing it is often the same trait that is leading to success.

The Grizzlies are now in the top half of the league in half-court offense for the first time in a decade, according to Cleaning the Glass. A season after losing most of the roster to injury and diving to the bottom of the standings, they are dangerous once again. And they’re hurting teams in a way they have not before.

Goga Bitadze’s alley-oop reactions

No epic Vince Carter dunk ever elicited the reaction that Goga Bitadze provides whenever he throws down an alley-oop.

The Orlando Magic big man, who has morphed into one of the league’s toughest centers over the past couple of seasons, isn’t just protecting the rim like few others. He’s also become one of the sport’s pre-eminent lob finishers. And after he receives his favorite kind of pass, he goes all out.

Bitadze’s best celebration of the year came a month ago, during an NBA Cup matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, after fellow big man Wendell Carter Jr. tossed him a lob for a two-handed slam not even seven minutes into the game. Bitadze smiled like an innocent child who had just received a puppy on Christmas, pumped his fist, flexed and galloped up the court, pointing at Carter all the way. Then came the kicker: He bent his arm, propped his hand next to his head and rubbed his index and middle fingers against his thumb, as if he had made some extra cash.

Maybe this was a reference to the NBA Cup’s six-figure prize. Maybe he was dubbing the Magic’s big-to-big connections money. Or maybe he was referencing a modest reward that’s become an inside joke among Magic players.

Orlando’s coaching staff uses “silly” fines to discipline players who don’t follow a game’s scouting report, claiming guys have to put $100 into the pot every time they fail to know the opposing personnel (i.e. biting on a pump fake they should know is coming, allowing a left-handed dribbler to drive left, etc.). Of course, they don’t actually fine the players, which would not even be allowed under league rules.

There’s another side to this, too. Magic players can receive fake bonuses. One of them: $100 for every big-to-big lob, which the players now refer to as “Nacho Libre.”

“They owe me a lot of money,” Bitadze told me with a smile. “I’m gonna ask for it. Trust me.”

He won’t receive it, but that hasn’t stopped his teammates from looking for him however they can.

Bitadze has finished 24 alley-oops this season, 12th-most in the NBA, according to Second Spectrum. The players ahead of him are mostly ones to be expected, well-known 7-foot dunkers like Daniel Gafford, Rudy Gobert and Clint Capela, or high-flyers like Derrick Jones Jr.

But Bitadze does it differently. Maybe part of the reason the celebration is so intense after even a routine two-handed slam is because his alley-oops so often don’t include a dunk at all.

Bitadze, not blessed with the jumping ability of, say, Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton, who is second in the league in lob finishes, has his own way of putting off-target passes into the hole. More of his alley-oops turn into layups than any other center’s — and he’s become particularly crafty at them.

Check out this one-hander he rolled into the basket, as if he were playing keep-away from Indiana Pacers shot-blocker Myles Turner:

Bitadze shoots just 71 percent on lob finishes, second-worst in the league among the 36 players who have completed at least 10 alley-oops this season. But that makes sense. Instead of receiving a pass, landing and attempting to go up against a gathered, high-level defender like Turner, he’s reaching from quirky angles to create easier shots.

Now he just needs to get that money.

The same old, completely different Bulls

The Chicago Bulls are in a familiar place, but they’ve arrived in a new way. After the DeMar DeRozan-led teams pounded defenses with non-paint 2s, these Bulls avoid those shots like they’re toxic. Yes, the Bulls sit at 17-20, 10th in the East. Another appearance in the low end of the Play-In Tournament seems destined. On its face, this is deja Vu(čević).

But these same old Bulls are not the same old Bulls.

No team is more reliant on the 3 ball than the Bulls, who don’t shoot well around the basket and average the second-fewest midrange attempts in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass. Getting to the middle is less about forcing their way to the hoop and more about drawing in help to open up the outside. A couple of weeks ago, they became just the second team this season to chuck 60 3-pointers in a game. They’ve already hit at least 20 in a game eight times this season, second most in the league.

Forty-seven percent of Chicago’s shots are coming from beyond the arc, the NBA’s second-highest rate, behind only the Boston Celtics, who famously drive and kick until their steering wheel unwinds. Last season, the Bulls were second to last in that stat.

Cleaning the Glass has a metric that measures the efficiency of a team’s shot profile. After three straight seasons wallowing in the bottom 10 in that stat, the Bulls lead the league.

Zach LaVine, amid public discourse about his future as trade season heats up, is putting up one of the best shooting seasons in the NBA. Nikola Vučević is draining 3s like never before, as is Patrick Williams. Coby White never hesitates.

Most teams that play this way tend to go as their jumpers do. But that decades-old expression — live by the 3; die by the 3 — needs an amendment: “Unless it’s the Bulls.”

The rest of the NBA is 59-16 when it nails 20-plus 3s in a game. The Bulls are 4-4. They’re just 6-5 when they shoot better than 40 percent from deep. Normally, if a team takes this many 3s and shoots them that efficiently, it leads to victories. And sometimes, that’s just what happens in Chicago, such as in their comeback earlier this week against the San Antonio Spurs or in the 139-point performance they dropped on the New York Knicks before that.

But on other nights, such as a couple of weeks ago in what might be a Play-In preview against the Atlanta Hawks, they’ll shoot 22 of 43 and lose.

The Bulls are still meandering to the middle, but now they’re doing it farther away from the basket.

(Top photo of Ja Morant and Gabe Vincent: Justin Ford / Getty Images)