Anybody who thought the Grizzlies would be the worst team in the league was sadly mistaken. Chicago can take their rightful place at the bottom, and it shouldn't even be a topic argument at this point. They are a fun team to watch as well. One might call them the anti-Rockets. I was highly critical of Gasol prior to the draft; I was wrong about him. He's a character and one hell of a basketball player, though I haven't seen him shoot many outside shots so his jumper is still suspect. Williams and Knight complement each other nicely as well, and it would appear that Brevin's jumper has improved considerably since his Stanford days. I always thought Lowe was an incompetent head coach, but given the make-up of the current team, he's the right man for the job. Lowe also plays Williams at shooting guard, which is a great move imo. They might be the Clippers of this year (30+ wins). Bold statement: Nobody's faster with the ball in their hands than Jason Williams; Not even Iverson.
Lowe has also started Battier at sg for the last couple of games, a move that has paid off bigtime since Battier plays as well or better there than at sf. Like I said yesterday, the grizzlies wouldn't suprise me if they ended up with a .500 record. They had the best draft this year and all of their trades have help them in some way get better. You may not believe it, but this team has become VERY clutch. In tonight's game alone, there was at least 3 key rebounds that kept the sixers from getting the lead back. The grizzlies won the game by running out the clock with clutch rebounding!
The worst team in the NBA resides in Miami, Florida. With or without Mourning they just stunk the NBA up.
Ok...but with an *. Two starters and the teams best defender and sixth man are missing. I'm pretty disgusted, but holding onto a granule of optimism for post-all-star break play. By then Crawford, Artest and Robinson will all have returned from injury. One could argue Miami also...
I told yall that Memphis was not going to completely suck this year. But, I said I thought Denver was going to trail the WC this year and now it looks like it'll be the Rockets. My mistake.
Being a Detroit fan, I hope they do get around 25 or 30 wins because Detroit takes their pick if it isn't in the top 5. Who would have thunk a high lottery pick for Otis Thorpe? Williams still loses as many games as he wins for his team, but Battier and Gasol are fundamentally sound as can be and Swift and Wright are providing quite a frontcourt.
Ya'll are sure talking about the "impressive" Gizzards a lot considering they have 3 less wins (at 4-13) than anyone else in the West. They will not reach 25 wins, and while they do look solidly better than the Bulls, my hunch is they finish with the 2nd worst record in the league. Though they have more positive things to build on than I thought they did, there is no way they escape bottom 5 status this year.
