Thabeet rolls on in Memphis

Last night the Grizzlies ended up keeping the 2'nd pick and drafted Hasheem Thabeet. I kept wondering if they were then going to trade him later in the night like the Grizzlies did last season with Kevin Love. When it was announced that the Grizzlies instead traded Darko Millicic to the New York Knicks, that told me they intend to keep Thabeet. So we now have another international 7 footer on the roster.

It will be interesting to see how they are going to use Thabeet. You know he will get playing time ahead of Hamed Haddadi, but will he start over Marc Gasol. I can't believe that would be the case because you can't afford to take the offensive game of Gasol and put that on the bench with the lack of offense of Thabeet. So with that in mind, does that mean Gasol will play about 31 minutes like he did last season and Thabeet back him up and play the other 17 minutes. That seems like not enough minutes for the 2'nd pick that you drafted to make a defensive difference. However the playing time works out for these 2 players, I am sure that this will put Hamed Haddadi back on the bench or perhaps back in the NBDL.

I have heard an option mentioned is to move Gasol to the 4 spot and play him along side Thabeet at the 5. The problem I see with this is that you drafter Arthur last season and then you drafted DeMarre Carroll with the 27'th pick. He averaged 16.6 ppg and just over 7 rebounds per game. If you play Gasol at the 4 with Carroll coming off the bench, then what do you do with Arthur and Warrick if you resign him.

I believe the Grizzlies did well in the 2'nd round drafting Sam Young. I believe he will be a great backup for Rudy Gay. He averaged 19 ppg and just over 6 rebounds as well. Hopefully he will be able to score well off the bench. He could be possibly be a great 6'th man for the Grizzlies. Hopefully, Young along with the newly acquired Richardson and Warrick will be able to provide some consistent scoring from the bench. Richardson in 26 minutes was averaging just over 10 ppg. Warrick averaged 11.6 in 24.7 minutes off the bench. I think the bench with these 3 guys leading need to average 25 to 30 points on a nightly basis.

What do you do with Arthur, Jaric, and Buckner? As it stands now, Jaric would be again the backup for Conley at the point. But I think now might be the opportunity to play O.J. at the point some in relief of Conley and give a few of Jaric's minutes to Richardson. That would allow the Grizzlies to maintain more scoring threat on the floor. To many times last season when the 2'nd unit came in, the scoring died. The only somewhat consistent scorer was Warrick. As far as Arthur and Buckner, I think they won't see much playing time this season. If I was Chris Wallace, I would try to see if I could trade any of the three, Jaric, Arthur, or Buckner and try to obtain a backup point guard.