Pre-season means nothing, I know...except when it does. Gooden dropped 33 tonight as a follow-up to his great game vs. the Rox. He is going to be incredible, and scoring isn't even his best trait; rebounding is. He is the best instinctive rebounder I have seen coming out of college in years. People who thought that one less than great game against Maryland meant he was overrated forgot about all the bad last games that guys like Duncan and Shaq have had in the past...
I agree 100%. Gooden looks like an excellent pick for the Grizzlies. With Dickerson and Gasol, the Grizzlies have a nice young foundation for the future.
I wonder how often the Griz will play a Gasol, Gooden, Battier, frontline... but as long as Williams is running the point, no one has to take them seriously
circa 1999, preseason: "Cato is a stud!" "This guy is blocking like 10 shots a game and is a rebounding machine! What a steal! The successor to Hakeem has been found!"
Gooden is good, but I'm still wondering how they're going to go about dividing the time and ball among all those guys. Gooden's been putting up those numbers with no Gasol, too. But no doubt, he may end up being the ROY.
When you use 3 consecutive top 4 picks on PFs, you'll end up with a couple of good ones. I think our resident Grizz fans said Pau will be converted to a center, but that remains to be seen.
Remember the Rocket's own Chevious... He was suppose to be huge. Look at Cato. Preseason can't be taken too seriously. Gooden does show signs of being good though.Lets see how he does in the season.
Yeah, but Cato wasn't considered a stud in College and he only had one good game. Gooden has 2 under his belt as a rookie. My only problem with the Grizz is how they plan to play Gasol, Battier, and Gooden at the same time with consistency. Gasol is too skinny to be a center, Gooden is a tweener, and Battier is better suited at SF than SG. "The Logo" knows what he's doing, so it should be an interesting season. With all the problem the Clips are having, the Grizz may finish better than them for a change.
I wonder how Chris Duhon would look on the griz next year? Duhon Dickerson Battier Gooden Gasol That is a pretty solid squad in a couple of years......
I know this has been mentioned, but Dickerson may get a lot of pine time this year. The Grizz look to be excited about this Giricek guy (24 points in their last game).
I've been following this where to play them closely and here is what I gather. Number one, Gasol has already stated publicly that he does not want to play center under any circumstances. So he will be our power forward. Swift doesn't care where he plays; he is just concentrating on playing well in the game, so the grizz have been putting him at center when they can get away with it defensively. Battier hasn't stated whether or not he'd be willing to play the 2, but rumors seem to indicate that he doesn't want to play there. The other option for him is to lead the second team while allowing gooden to start at the three, which battier seems fine with. The problem is that gooden is a prototypical four. The question then is can a team play two power forwards instead of the traditional pf/c or pf/sf combo. Will it work? My personal opinion is the grizz have a real problem on their hands. I have begun to think Jerry West will use gooden and swift as trade bait. He just decided that he was going to take who he thought the best player was and then later make a deal when the value of them are highest or when he really wants a certain player.
Well, color me stupid. Just after I post, I find an article on this very subject. It seems that despite Gasol's statement he may very well end up at center if lowe thinks gooden needs to be in the starting lineup. I'm not sure how this would effect Gasol as he has stated he don't want to play there. Also, battier's job has been challenged not by gooden but by Giricek. Here is the article: http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/grizzlies/article/0,1426,MCA_475_1480105,00.html
I have been saying all along Gooden was underrated and MD2 was overrated. I have seen nothing to change my mind. I'll bet Jerry West did a little dance when GS passed on Gooden.
If Giricek beats out Battier, I'd be interested in picking him up, but I doubt West would let Battier go for anyone we'd be willing to give up. Of course Steve and TMo would hate that, TMo especially since I'd essentially be giving his Duke rival his job.
