Has anyone figured out what Jerry West is doing? It seems like he's investing in alot of guard-forwards and has a very weak front line. Can't imagine him holding on to everyone with the pending Stromile signing and Pau extension. He's probably stockpiling talent for a trade. Which one of the guards/small forwards would you trade for?
This is what I'm thinking...get the Grizzlies into respectability, if the strategy doesn't work in the playoffs start trading these really athletic, good role players for better fits.
The Grizz are basically just amassing as much talent as possible so they can do 2 for 1 and 3 for 1 trades to trade for better talent. It makese sense and they have done a good job of it in terms of getting a lot of talent. However, so far they havent been able to make those trades to 'trade up' for better talent. They have Gasol but they need another star player on that team to take it to the next level. I am sure West has been looking at trades for a while now but teams are probably leary of trading a potentially good talented player to West and see them blossom in Memphis.
maybe bonzi and lorenzen for kidd. then trade jason williams and posey in a three way trade to get carter. pg: kidd sg: carter sf: battier pf: pau c: jake t
Toronto will not trade Carter unless they get a star (put butts in seats) type of player in return. That franchise NEEDs Carter's star power to survive. The only other way I can see them tradeing Carter than that is to be able to unload bad contracts, pick up draft picks and still get a solid serviceable player. I think trading Carter will be very difficult. I think the only TRUE trade suggestion that I think COULD happen would be an Iverson for Carter swap. Iverson is the kind of player Toronto would deal for because he can put butts in seats. I dont think Toronto would even do a Ray Allen for Carter swap because while Allen is a star he doesnt have the STAR POWER in terms of putting butts in seats.
One would have to think that sooner or later it will happen. This is probably a key year for Memphis - does the strategy keep working? do Jason Williams and James Posey continue to play up to their potentials instead of below it? Is Memphis going to be a playoff team for the upcoming years or was it one (or two) and done. The major mistake West has made has to be Drew Gooden (thought he did make a positive of it for the Grizz by getting Mike Miller). Granted a lot of teams made the same mistakes, but if he was insistent on PF, clearly Amare should have been the choice - of course Caron Butler seems like he would have been the best fit though given they already had Pau and Stromile. Hindsight is 20/20 but the thing about Jerry West is that he is usually on top of the draft. All in all, the Grizzlies and Nuggets both have had very successful turn-arounds. The Cavs look to be on that path as well, though the loss of Boozer will hurt. Of course, maybe Drew Gooden will start playing up to his potential for them.
Maybe, West might be a player in the Peja trade demands. The Kings can get someone like Posey and Swift for Peja. I can also see him working something for Ray Allen. But, no one sees a potential deal with the Rockets?
Unless Peja & Webber get things worked out, I could see Sacramento moving Webber. Here's a trade that would benefit both teams. Sacramento sends Webber to Memphis. Memphis sends Gasol/Miller/Wells to Sacramento. Memphis finally gets a dominant PF & resigns Swift to tutor under Webber. Memphis still has Battier/Posey to play the starting 2/3 positions. With Webber & Battier in the starting lineup, their defense & rebounding go up significantly. Sacramento keeps the player that was instrumental in their charge to the playoffs while Webber was injured, & they pick up a replacement PF, an excellent 3pt shooter in Miller, & a solid 2/3 in Wells.
Memphis would be fools to take on Webber's monstrous contract and history of injuries. Especially since Pau looked so good in the Olympics.
Little off the subject but FedEx Forum is nice. I got to see it last night when me and my girlfriend went to the Usher/Kanye West/Christina Milian concert last night.
Yes FedEx Forum is nice. I am also trying to figure out when Jerry is going to pull the trigger on a talent upgrade. Ray Allen? Peja? Vince Carter? Ron Artest? Eddy Curry? I will take any of them.
The griz will never be a GREAT team, they have a bunch of role players and no real STAR leader..In the west this team will have a good seasons, but will ALWAYS fall short in the playoffs...To me they are soon to be the new look Jazz... I think in the west you need to be stong in the first and second round of the playoffs...if they were in the East it could be a diff. story (ALA Pistons)
GM Report: Jerry West by Harlan Schreiber (9/17/04) Overview Bringing Jerry West to Memphis in the summer of 2002 truly was the merger of polar opposites. West was known as the definition of success as a player and perhaps even more so as a GM (you can check out our review of West's Laker tenure here). The Grizzlies franchise was singularly awful franchise. At that point, the Grizz had never won more than 23 games in a season and were fighting a perception that no one wanted to play for them (for some odd reason moving from Vancouver to Memphis helped alleviate this burden. Having spent time in Western Tennessee, I still don't quite understand why that happened). So, it was like worlds colliding with the potential for one of two juicy result: a) West resurrects the franchise and adds to his legend or b) West is consumed by the Grizz's misery. Of course, the results are often never so clear cut and a review of West's record to date illustrates that point. Coaches As will be seen below, West's Memphis player transactions have been a mixed bag. But his best move so far has been his choice of coach. Only eight games into the 2002-03 season, West dumped incumbent Sidney Lowe (who had coached to prior years under old management) and replaced him with Hubie Brown, who hadn't coached since 1987. The decision was successful one two levels. First, Lowe seemed to be as bad a coach as possible and next, Brown was surprisingly effective. I remembered Brown to be a solid strategic coach who grated on his players after all. Well, Brown has been solid strategically and he hasn't yet worn out his welcome (it's possible he's learned to take off his edge during the 15-year coaching hiatus) and has even led the Grizz to unprecedented success (for them) of a 50-win season and the playoffs. West deserves quite a bit of credit for not suffering with the lameduck Lowe too long. He also gets even more credit for making a creative and successful choice in Brown to replace Lowe. The Draft It's an abbreviated history but here it is: 2002 Drew Gooden (4th Pick) 2003 Troy Bell (16th Pick) Dahntay Jones (20th Pick) 2004 None In contrast to Los Angeles where West continually found good players, West's draft record in Memphis is not great. Granted it's still very early but 2002 was a pretty big whiff. West had a high pick and seeking a big man. He chose Gooden over Amare Stoudemire and Nene Hilario. Gooden has been a decent pro but West dumped him relatively quickly because of defense and rebounding concerns that neither Stoudemire or Hilario would've raised. As I said, it's still very early to evaluate this draft choice but it looks like both players may turn out better than Gooden (the book may also still be open on Chris Wilcox). 2003 wasn't a great year for West either. He traded his two choices (Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins) for Bell and Jones. While the really weren't any great choices available on the board, both Jones and Bell were considered barely draftable. The Grizz seemed better served just dumping the picks and keeping the cap room. As we mentioned earlier, it is premature to make any real judgment on drafting but neither of West's drafts have been quite good. But his Laker years indicate that he'll do better in the future. Transactions: Trades/Signings West inherited a bad team but there were some decent players on the roster: Pau Gasol, Jason Williams, Shane Battier, Lorenzen Wright, and Stromile Swift. Not incredible, but certain a core that should do better than the 23 wins they had been doing. Rather looking for that big move that characterized his time with the Lakers in the post-Magic Johnson Era, West's moves were all relatively modest:. -acquiring Gordan Giricek's rights from the Spurs -signing Earl Watson -signing Cezary Trybanski -re-signing Shane Battier to an extension -signing James Posey -trading Gooden and Giricek for Mike Miller -trading Wesley Person for Bonzi Wells -re-signing Mike Miller -signing Brian Cardinal No big wins or losses here. Rather, West has amassed a bunch of solid an unspectacular players. The only real controversial move here was trading Gooden for Miller. Neither player has turned out to be great, though both were high draft choices. The real issue here is that West has been quite generous in re-signing players who seem to be lesser cogs. With long-term commitments already to Posey, Cardinal, Battier, and Mike Miller, in addition to the pre-existing deals to Jason Williams and Michael Dickerson (his deal could come off the cap soon though), the Grizz are too leveraged in solid players without much upside. This doesn't even factor in the need to pay Gasol and possibly Swift. Indeed, Philly's deals given to Eric Snow and Aaron Mckie have shown us that solid players can change to albatrosses in short order. In all, West has made some decent moves to fill the team with more depth but no one who is a huge difference maker, and he may have committed too much contract to get some of these guys and it is possible that the Grizz are locked into a decent but not great team for a long time. Verdict In all, West has been a real positive for the Grizz. The inertia of the franchise went from intensely negative to positive and hopeful. Coming from the depths that the Grizz inhabited, West's turnaround can't be understated. But there are some weaknesses. The 2002 Draft was a missed opportunity and the acquisitions have been tepid. In fact, the heart of the 2003-04 Grizz pre-existed West's tenure. The future also looks precarious, as the team is relying heavily on there solid players to retain their value longer than one would think they could. I think resources have been misallocated into too many slightly above-average swingmen. But West has shown that he can clear salary to acquire stars so we should give him the benefit of the doubt. If, however, the Grizz are struggling again in 2007-08 and still stuck with Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal and their ilk, Grizz fans may think less fondly of the 50-win 2003-04. Thanks Kelly, nice read..
They still need an interior presence. I am not so sure that picking up Carter, or Allen is worth what you would have to give up to get them. They are both soft and haven't exactly led their teams to great success. They may have to roll the dice on Eddy Curry, who is no sure-thing either. The Grizzlies have a nice team and I like how they use their superior depth to keep up the pressure on teams, but they may have peaked with this roster.
Peaked with the roster? They have only played one year together. I find it very funny that people keep saying the Grizzlies system won't work when the Pistons used a very similar system to win the NBA championship. Now all of a sudden the Grizzles are supposed to fall off the map. This will be an interesting season. I think injuries are going to be the deciding factor in the West. Players that will hurt their team if injured: Yao, T Mac, Pau, Andre Miller, Carmelo, Kobe, Tim Duncan, C Webber(no Divac this year), KG, AK47, Brand, Amare, and Dirk. One or two of these players will go down and that will decide the top 8 in the West IMO. The teams are to close to call.
Look at the stats. The Pistons had all of 5 players average more than 15 mpg in the playoffs, their starters. Your Grizzlies had 10 players average that much in their series - that's all but 2 of the active roster. In fact, every single one of the Pistons 5 players, their starters, averaged more than the Grizzlies "star", Pau Gasol, who played 33.5 mpg. There is always time for a first, but history has led one to believe that that strategy will definitely not work in the playoffs. If you're trying to argue the Grizzlie replicate the Pistons cause they play like a team, I don't buy it either - all champions play like a team...the only similarity would be that neither has a true superstar, though I'd wager you'd be a lot more opportunistic about the Grizzlies championship prospects in Pau was a consistent 24/12 superstar than the 18/8 borderline all-star that he is.
