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Memphis Grizzlies
2007-08 Record:
Cool 2007 Stat: Only 19 players had more points in a season, before the age 22, than Rudy Gay. Of those players, 7 are in the Hall of Fame, and 6 likely will be.
Anticipated Starting Five
PG- Mike Conley Jr.
SG- O.J. Mayo
SF- Rudy Gay
PF- Hakim Warrick
C- Marc Gasol
Bench: Kyle Lowry, Marko Jaric, Darrell Arthur, Darko Milicic, Greg Buckner
Biggest Strength – Young talent on the perimeter
Rudy Gay had a coming out party last season. He finally turned all the potential he has into production on the court averaging 20ppg, 6 boards, 1 block, 1 steal while shooting 46% from the field, 35% from three and 79% from the line. He is a star in the making. Memphis then acquired another high-potential perimeter player in O.J. Mayo. Other than Michael Beasley, Mayo was probably the next most NBA-ready player in the draft. He can score in multiple ways, create shots for his teammates and, to the surprise of many, is a very strong defender. These two guys will be fun to watch together for a long time. Throw in not 1, not 2, but THREE good point guards who are all under 23 years old. The future looks good for the Griz.
Biggest Weakness - Inexperience
As good as all the Grizzlies’ young players are they still lack NBA experience. This team only has 3 players over the age of 26 – that’s just ridiculous. It’s always good to have that veteran leadership to help young players along. I certainly wouldn’t consider Antoine Walker a leader or the guy you want young players taking advice from. The bad part is their coach will only be in his second year as a head coach in the league as well. It’s going to be a collective learning experience for this team. How to play together, how to compete for 82 games and hopefully learn how to win.
Key Player in ’08 – Marc Gasol
As Dannie said, the Grizzlies have a lot of good, young players on the perimeter, but they are really lacking a big man presence in the middle since they traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers. In that trade, they got his brother Marc, who has greatly improved his game over in Spain. We got a glimse of Marc in the Olympics, and he showed he could hold his own against the best in the NBA. However, he’s going to have to do a lot more than that for the Grizzlies to be competitive this year.
Their Thaddeus (exciting player 22 or under) – Mike Conley Jr., 21
There are 6 players that fall into this category for the Grizzlies. O.J. Mayo, Kyle Lowry, Javaris Crittenton, Darrell Arthur, Rudy Gay and Conley. I chose Conley because I think he has the chance to be a special player. During his 4 years in High School and 1 year at Ohio State, Conley’s teams had a 138-11 record (92.6% winning percentage, or a 76-6 NBA season). Now, one would be quick to point out that all those teams had Greg Oden on them, but if you watched OSU in the tournament, it was extremely clear that while Oden got the press, this was Conley’s team. He is lightning quick, has fantastic instincts and is a great leader. The Grizz need to give him ball, play him 35 minutes a night, and see what he can do.
Pete’s 2008 Outlook: 5th place, Southwest division / 14th place, Western conference / 27th place, NBA
This will be a fun team to watch, and Memphis fans will just be looking for glimmers of greatness out of Conley, Mayo and Gay. It’s sometimes fun as a fan to have a team with no expectations. You don’t get all upset about losses and can focus on the positives and hope for the future. However, it’s going to be a rough road this year; the key for them will be to not get wrapped up in the wins and losses and just continue to improve as a team. I really like this squad from a fan’s perspective and hope they can mesh together and make a move in the next couple years.
Dannie’s 2008 Outlook: 5th place, Southwest division / 14th place, Western conference / 28th place, NBA
It’s hard not to like this team. They have a lot of young exciting players that I really like. That won’t change their fortune in terms of wins though. The Grizzlies traded (gave away) their two best and most productive players in Pau Gasol and Mike MIller. It’s hard to ask two rookies (Mayo and Marc Gasol) to come in and be better, let alone as good as those guys right away. So Grizzlies fans shouldn’t expect a quick turnaround from NBA obscurity.
Philly Connection: Kyle Lowry
Kyle Lowry is the perfect Philly athlete. 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing. Scrappy, in-your-face defender and absolutely determined to win. Lowry was a 5-star recruit, rated higher than his teammates Randy Foye or Allan Ray, out of Cardinal Dougherty in Philadelphia. He was a sparkplug off the bench and was huge in the success for Villanova the years he was there. They went 52-13 in his two years there and would have loved to see what he could have done as the focal point of the offense his junior year. However, he bolted for the NBA, where he’s struggled with injuries, but played well for the Grizz. For those Nova fans missing Kyle Lowry, Jay Wright has recruited his clone. 5-star PG out of Roman Catholic, 6′1” Maalik Wayns. He’ll be a freshman in 2009.
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Wow, the Memphis Grizzlies! The only thing special that happened to them was that late night draft day trade with the Timberwolves, where they got O.J Mayo. Now that will be something special for the Grizzlies and a NEW OJ!!
Greatest strength(s):
-Youth
-Athleticism
-Fastbreak offense (especially with Iavaroni as the coach!)
-O.J — he’s doing it, he does it, and (yes) he did it (good things for the Grizzlies of course!)
-Some veterans (if they do cooperate and go with the flow!!)
Greatest weakness(es):
-Inexperience
-Lack enough veterans
-Road woes
I wonder what the Grizzlies will be doing with that cap money for next offseason? They tried, but failed in getting Josh Smith!
Anyway, their future is bright and they have quite a “Miracle Whip” in Mayo. Look for these guys to shine in a stadium near you!
Philly connections: Hakim Warrick
Marc Iavaroni (part of the ‘82-’83 76ers!!)
Greg Buckner (Larry’s favorite player!)
(With that said, the Grizzlies will be 5th in the Southwest Division, 13th in the West!)
(On a side note, the Sixers will sweep the Grizzlies (2-0). Even though the game at Memphis will be a close one, like the one last season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNEHqPbt48c&feature=related )
Has a Grizzly ever traversed the Memphis city limits?
Even the ABA’s ill-fated Memphis Pros/Tams (a stylish hat; alluded to theoretical Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi fan base)/Sounds were better named - and included swashbuckling Mississippi Rebel gunner Johnny Neumann, ‘Pistol’-lite, somewhere on their timeline, until his act grew stale and detrimental.
About present, gotta like Grizzlies’ young crop of talent, but where’s the inside beef? I like Warrick as a contributor but he’s a swizzle stick. Darko certainly doesn’t cut it. If Marc is the lesser of Gasols, where’s that leave ‘em? GM collects point guards like they’re goin’ out of style. Rudy, OJ & trio of PGs
show some promise but underdeveloped front line will do them in again.
JJG – I think Marc Gasol provides “inside beef” better than his brother. He certainly isn’t as adept at scoring but he is thicker and tougher which should be good enough on the boards and defensively. If he improves his scoring ability then this team looks really good in a few years.
I do still think they need a big is a flat out scorer. If they end up with the first pick they will have their pick of one by drafting either B.J. Mullens or Blake Griffin.
This team is just bad everywhere except Rudy Gay, who needs to ummm “mature” into caring about wins and losses.
Mayo is likley to be Willie Green with a 3 point shot. Thats not a major insult, but he isn’t special.
Dannie, Interesting take. Haven’t seen Marc play. Agree – if
Grizzlies shore up interior with smart drafting, the team’s got a good future.
Aside to previous post: http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Pros.html
http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Tams.html
http://www.remembertheaba.com/Memphis-Sounds.html
Sites give a taste of legendary, ill-fated league. Includes some good color pictures.
I really like the point Pete made. Similar to the sixers the last year and a half, there isn’t alot of burden of expectation for this squad. I dont know how large the fan base is there but they can just sit back and watch games and not worry about W’s.
I’d love to see the Sixers pick up Lowry if they don’t resign Miller. While only 6′, the kid plays bigger than he really is. He’s a true pass first PG, a fantastic defender, and an under-rated shooter (he was never required to shoot from outside at Nova, just to pass and attack the basket). He should be the starting PG for Memphis, but he’ll have to earn it because of Conley’s name.
After seeing Wayns play quite a few times, I’ll say this – the kid is going to be better than Lowry so long as he doesn’t get injured. The Nova class that he’s heading up will either be the #1 or #2 recruiting class in the nation. Add those kids to transfer Taylor King (formerly of Duke and a McDonald’s All-American) and the two Coreys and Nova will be preseason top ten, if not top five, team next year.
The one great chip that Memphis has: Antoine Walker. As he makes (roughly) $13 million this season in the last year of his contract, there are going to be a firestorm of trade rumors combining Employee #8’s contract with Lowry or Crittenton for some kind of veteran frontcourt player, or 1st round picks, probably after New Year’s.
Someone mentioned that the only reason Lowry isn’t starting is because of Conley Jr’s “big name”…I disagree with that pretty heartily. I’ve always liked Lowry as a player, but I don’t see him as NBA starting PG material. I think he could start, but he’s not an ideal guy you’d want to go to war with long term, IMO. He’s not in any way a true point, and his strenghts are much more taking it to the hole with reckless abandon, his extremely talented pesty individual defense, and he’s a real bucket and pale work horse type. This are great things to have as a 6th man, which is where I see Lowry making a great career.
Conley Jr. is goint to be a great PG given health and minutes. I don’t know how anyone that saw OSU play a few times before Oden rejoined the team can argue that Conley doesn’t have future all star level PG talent. He knows the game, makes those around him better, has a veteran savvy most don’t posess, and is adept at running both half court sets as well as pushing the ball up full tempo.
The Grizz are set at the 1-2-3 spots for half a decade…only thing that’s left is time for them to grow, to wait and see how Gasol II, Milicic and Arthur pan out, and to acquire some Reggie Evan type veterans so someone can police these youngins.
Random prediction (that most people are going to scoff at me for): Rudy Gay is going to be a legit franchise player to build around. He might quite possibly be one of the most overhyped, lazy college players…that actually managed to turn things around with an attitude adjustment, work his tail off and have his game translate excellently to the NBA. I can see him being a 23-25 ppg career scorer, and so far his all around game has already improved leaps and bounds since his UConn days (something you can see by watching him, not particularly statistics). I think Gay and Josh Smith of the Hawks are going to be two of the scariest wing players in the L for this generation, along with Durant.