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. Read more!

NBA Draft Lottery Must Be Legit!!

Wow, what a night last night for the Memphis Grizzlies. They were not treated or bad mouthed like the red headed step child that they are usually treated like. When looking at the results of the draft lottery, it proves that it must be done legitimately. Just look at the draft order.

1. Los Angeles Clippers
2. Memphis Grizzlies
3. Oklahoma City Thunder
4. Sacramento Kings
5. Washington Wizards
6. Minnesota Timberwolves

If the Draft Lottery was rigged as it has appeared to have been several times in the past, then Oklahoma City should have won this draft and gotten their hometown player. Such was the case for the Chicago Bulls with Derrick Rose and the Cleveland Cavaliers with LeBron James.

If the Draft Lottery was rigged to get a certain team back in the spotlight I don't think the team that they would fix the lottery for would be the Los Angeles Clippers. I would think that the fix would have been in for the New York Knicks, or possibly the New Jersey Nets or Washington Wizards or the Phoenix Suns.

Also giving the Memphis Grizzlies the 2'nd pick isn't what you would expect from a "fixed" lottery. I would have expected the Grizzlies to come out with the 8'th or 9'th draft pick. I am very happy and excited to see the Grizzlies picking 2'nd.

My hopes for the 2'nd pick are mixed. I would love to see them make a deal and send Darko Millicic and the 2'nd pick to the Clippers in return for the 1'st pick. We really need Blake Griffin. I would prefer to send Darko with his expiring contract instead of Hakim Warrick but would be willing to send either player.

If we keep the 2'nd pick, then I would prefer that the Grizzlies draft Ricky Rubio instead of Hasheem Thabeet. We already have three 7 foot centers on the team. Hamed Haddadi is a project that showed a little promise at the end of last season. I believe he could be developed into a good backup center to Marc Gasol. The problem on this team isn't at the center position, but at the power forward. This is why I still go back to my first hope for this draft and that is to trade up 1 spot and draft Blake Griffin.

All the excitement of drafting number 2 and the possibilities that come with it makes us sometimes forget that we have 2 other draft picks in the top 36 picks. We need to make sure we use all our picks wisely. That could mean trading multiple picks to move up as well.

Chris Wallace, good luck as you have this opportunity to improve our team. Read more!

Grizzlies Locker Room Pics

I was given a tour of the Grizzlies locker room last night prior to the game. Here are a couple of clips and pics taken during that tour. The quality of the clips aren't that great.

Pictures of me with Quentin Ross and Darko Millicic.

I hope to have a few more interior pictures to post in the next couple of days.

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Grizzlies suffer 2 tough losses

The Grizzlies have suffered 2 straight tough losses. Last night the Grizzlies were the better team, but unfortunately, didn't come away with the win. Portland's coach McMillan said "We got lucky, We got some breaks in this game." Memphis had 15 fouls called on them in the 2'nd half while Portland only had 6. In the last 10+ minutes of the game, the Blazers weren't called for a defensive foul.

Again tonight the Grizzlies played another good playoff bound team and played well, but didn't win. The Grizzlies got into foul trouble early and played through it very well. But when it came to the 4'th quarter, they just ran out of gas. It is encouraging to see the Grizzlies battle 2 playoff bound teams to a one possession game with a chance to win both games at the end. Hopefully this is a glimpse of what we will see next season. Read more!

Grizzlies have been Winning

I have been out of the country on vacation and come back home to find that the Grizzlies are on a 4 game winning streak and have won 5 of their last 6 games. Maybe the Grizzlies should pay for me to go on an extended vacation next season. I went to tonight's game and had a great experience tonight. I will post tomorrow regarding tonight's game, but it included a pre-game locker room tour. I have pictures that I will post tomorrow from the tour. Read more!