Lionel Hollins chews out Grizzlies after latest loss to the Rox

Hollins calls out Memphis Grizzlies, says team lacks leadership

DENVER — Coach Lionel Hollins wrapped up practice Saturday with stern looks and pointed words directed at what he called a selfish group of Grizzlies.

Hollins still seemed irritated by the Grizzlies’ putrid defensive effort in the 127-111 loss to Houston Friday night and visibly annoyed by his team’s attitude.

The message before leaving for a four-game road trip that starts at Denver tonight? If you don’t care about sacrifice and winning, and want to play for a losing team then there’s another place you can call home.

“We lack cohesiveness. We lack unity. We lack oneness,” Hollins said. “We have a lot of different agendas for whatever reasons there are. We have nobody stepping up and calling anybody out for lackluster effort or for not doing the job they’re supposed to be doing. That is leadership.”

At one point during his animated talk, Hollins challenged the players’ manhood. He questioned the team’s level of maturity, heart and desire. Hollins stopped short of saying the Griz quit against Houston.

Even so, the Griz were certainly outworked and that was hardly the first time that’s happened in 20 games so far.

“We play hard against the (Los Angeles) Lakers. We play hard against Miami. We play hard against Boston,” Hollins said. “And then we don’t play as hard against Cleveland for 48 minutes. We don’t play hard against Washington for 48 minutes. We don’t play together in those particular games. It’s a concern right now. It’s on my mind. But we have 62 games left. Our group has to decide whether we’re going to become one and try to be successful. Or they can stay splintered and be a losing team.”

Memphis owns an 8-12 record –- identical to their mark after 20 games last season when the Griz won 40 games and missed the playoffs.

Griz owner Michael Heisley guaranteed a postseason appearance this season. What he couldn’t foresee is how essentially the same roster that made a 16-game improvement would handle changes in team dynamics this go around.

It’s speculative but some of the issues adversely affecting the Griz may be born out of a shift in the team’s payroll and individual roles. Rudy Gay (five years, $84 million) and Mike Conley (five years, $40 million) received lucrative contracts.

Meanwhile, Zach Randolph is in the last year of his contract and continues to lobby for a contract extension. The Griz can’t negotiate with Marc Gasol until the offseason but he’ll be due a big raise as a restricted free agent.

O.J. Mayo is eligible for a contract extension before the start of next season.

That’s off-the-court stuff.

As for potential wrangling that relates to basketball, Mayo is coping with coming off the bench for the first time in his career. And the Griz have moved away from Randolph as the No. 1 scoring option, relying more on Gay and Conley as playmakers.

“Again,” Hollins said, “you have to be man enough to make a sacrifice if winning is the most important thing to you. I always say that you work on your game for you but when you get to the team, you work on the team’s game for the team. Is everybody willing to do that, and put their egos and own personal agendas aside? It’s been a struggle so far this year. We’ve had glimpses of unity. But we’re had more glaring glimpse of disunity.”

Hollins is starting to lament that the Griz don’t have a strong, dominant personality in the locker room.

“You go out and do your job and you’re leading by example,” Hollins said. “Secondly, you produce. Players tend to follow guys who are helping them win. And the third thing is being mature. There’s a maturity about accepting responsibility, owning up to your mistakes and handling whatever comes your way in a professional manner. Those are all of the areas (of concern). And there’s no one person I’m looking to do this because it’s not just one person’s responsibility. Everybody has to take responsibility.”

Hollins made it a point to remind the Griz the season is far from lost, and challenged them to make a stand on this road trip. After Denver, Memphis will play at Utah, Phoenix and the Los Angeles Clippers.

“I don’t think you’re quitters,” Hollins told the players.

In a development:

Law waived: The Grizzlies’ roster stands at 13 players after they waived point guard Acie Law before boarding a plane for Denver. Law, a free-agent acquisition in the offseason, signed a non-guaranteed deal that allowed the Griz to waive him by Wednesday without any future obligations. Reportedly, Law walked away with $500,000. Before being supplanted by rookie Greivis Vasquez as the backup point guard, Law appeared in 11 games. He struggled through 16-percent shooting and averaged 1.3 assists in 8.5 minutes.

© 2010 Memphis Commercial Appeal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/04/hollins-calls-out-memphis-grizzlies-says-team-lack/

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Click on Lionel Collins most recent post game press conference video and see Collins discuss why the Grizzlies have trouble with the Rockets...

http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/video/originals/

Collins bascially says that Zach Randolph can't guard Luis Scola
OJ Mayo or Xavier Henry can't guard Kevin Martin
Mike Conley can't guard Kyle Lowry

He was reaching for straws....

 

Are the Playoffs Already Out of Reach?

Written by Chip Crain

Sunday, 05 December 2010 09:54

With 59 games remaining on the schedule (out of 82 games for those who don't know) the Memphis Grizzlies hopes for a playoff season may already by over.

I know that sounds ridiculous but it could also be true. The losses to Atlanta and Houston may have sealed the Grizzlies fate.

To guarantee a spot in the Western Conference playoff picture a team has to win 50 games. To reach the 50 win plateau the Grizzlies would have to win just under 75% of their home games (30-11) and win 50% of their road games (20-21). So far the Grizzlies are 6-5 at home. That means the team has to go 25-5 the rest of the season (in the half full FedEx Forum) to reach the home win mark. The team that has lost 5 home games out of 11 this season still has to play San Antonio twice, Dallas once, New Orleans twice, Oklahoma City twice, Denver once, Portland once and Utah twice. That's 11 tough home games and the Grizzlies can only lose 5 of them to reach the 30 win total for home wins.

And that's just the better teams in the Western Conference. We aren't even counting the Eastern Conference teams that are coming to town for those one game showdowns against teams such as Chicago, New York, Charlotte, Washington and Milwaukee. One slip up here or there opn the home court and the chances of making the playoffs get even more remote.

The road schedule to reach 20 wins requires no more bad efforts against teams like Washington and Cleveland also. But it hasn't been the road schedule that has hurt the Grizzlies so far. Sure the team is only 2-7 on the road but the games have, except for the Lakers, been very close and the schedule eases up somewhat. The losses to Cleveland and Atlanta were scheduling losses as much as anything else. Four games in five days with significant travel between each game trips up most teams after all. But the long road trips are over after this next four game jaunt. Shorter road trips and an easier schedule makes reaching 20 wins much more likely than it appears right now.

It's the home schedule that makes 50 wins so difficult to reach. Playoff teams have had one common correlation. A high percentage of home wins. Memphis so far hasn't shown an ability to win a high percentage of home games.

Now it is definitely possible that 50 wins won't be needed to reach the playoffs in the West. Teams are more balanced this season than last season and only twice since 2001 has a team needed at least 50 wins to make the playoffs in the West. However, those two years were last season and the 2007-08 season. In 2009-09 it took 48 wins to make the playoffs in the West.

The good news is that over the last 10 seasons it has only taken on average a little less than 46 wins to make the playoffs in the Western Conference. Since fractional wins don't mean a lot in the real world let's call it 46 wins. Can the Grizzlies reach 46 wins this season? Absolutely! Will it be enough? No one knows. The only thing that can be said with absolute certainty is that winning 50 games has guaranteed a playoff appearance in the past.

And Heisley guaranteed the playoffs this season. Well actually he didn't guarantee the playoffs but he did say he expected the playoffs. When Heisley expects something you better deliver it or someone's head is going to roll. Either way, the people of Memphis took Heisley's comments to be a promise of playoff participation and if Heisley is a tough task master the fans of Memphis could be even worse.

What does it mean for the future of the Grizzlies team if they fail to make the playoffs? Will the team be interested in re-signing Zach Randolph? O J Mayo? Marc Gasol? Will Heisley blow up the team and start over again because the team failed to reach his desired goal? Will attendance fall down to previous season lows if the team is officially eliminated from the playoff hunt early in the new year?

These are troubling questions for a franchise that appeared to be bordering on the brink of respectability and, more importantly, stability. Stay tuned for further developments.


http://3sob.com/archives/61-december-2010/1245-are-the-playoffs-already-out-of-reach-