They just got embarrassed on their home court by the Raptors tonight. This team looks terrible...anemic offensively and now they can't even stop anybody defensively. I told everybody last season that their playoff run was fool's gold. It was the result of injuries to key players on the teams they were facing. So far it looks like the new ownership, Hollinger, and the new head coach are failing. Poor front office decisions have sealed their fate to one of mediocrity. They have Tony Allen shooting threes, the carcass of Tayshaun Prince still starting, they extended Quincy "one-trick pony" Pondexter, and brought in injury prone Mike Miller. Another interesting development is that players let go by the Griz have been contributing and playing well in other places. Lowry, Gay, Wroten, Vasquez, Mayo, and Speights are some of the ones that come to mind. It looks like they could use some of the more offensively minded players, especially those on the perimeter, that they decided not to keep. It also looks like they could use their old coach, Lionel Hollins, back as well. It's unfortunate for the Grizzlies fanbase, because they had a legitimate chance to be a title contender, but their new ownership cares more about money than winning. Edit: Here is a post I made earlier during the year that shows how the Grizzlies would have been legitimate candidates to win an NBA champhionship. Conley/Vasquez Allen/Mayo Gay/Wroten Z-Bo/Arthur Gasol/Speights That team has no real weaknesses or flaws. It's a team with great wing play, two extremely talented bigs down low, two serviceable backup bigs who can hit mid-range jumpers, two really good pgs, and an excellent 6th man in Mayo. It would be a team that combines good offense and defense...dynamic wing play with punishing post play...a team that would control the glass, have a lock-down wing defender, and a bonafide closer. That team would create matchup problems for anybody it faced and that's a team that could compete with a healthy OKC, the Spurs, Indiana, and Miami for a title. Over half of those players, however, are gone and with Hollins not part of the organization anymore, the window has been slammed shut.
The power of coaching. Hollins got this team to play their best ball. They're getting exposed without him
Not surprised. They looked terrible during preseason. However, I don't think their playoff race was fools gold b/c they were very well coached. They underrated Lionel Hollins and now they are paying for it.
I remember people saying that they would be fine without Gay, that they would be fine with Tayshaun Prince, that Mayo, Vasquez, and Wroten were irrelevant, Mike Miller was the answer, and that they would be fine without Lionel Hollins and that new coach Dave Joerger would pick up right where Hollins left off. It looks like they were all wrong so far. Maybe...I guess they thought their moneyball approach would allow them to just plug in another coach and things would be the same. But man does that roster have some flaws thanks to guys like Hollinger and the rest of the ownership and front office.
Losing Rudy Gay hasn't hurt the Grizzlies. He represents something that teams need but he doesn't deliver. He is a mirage. Looking at Wroten now makes me smh. I have no idea why he's suddenly productive now on another team. In summer league he embarrassed himself and didn't look ready to play in the NBA. Letting Hollins go has clearly hurt them. That isn't debatable IMO. Management felt the team had topped out and needed a makeover, including the coach. It may take a couple of years to judge.
Sure it has, teams collapse on their bigs with no dynamic wings on the team, which negates their advantage inside. Also, Gay delivered tonight against his former team. When your team has given Tony Allen the green light to shoot 3s you know you have poor perimeter offense. You can't look at 2013 the post-season and say that the Griz didn't need Gay. When they needed a perimeter bucket down the stretch, they went to Bayless, smh. Management has made poor decision after poor decision. Letting go of Lowry, Gay, Mayo, Vasquez, Wroten, Speights and replacing them with Bayless, Prince, Pondexter, Miller, Davis, and Leur is a big net loss in terms of talent. At some point management is going to need a makeover. There is a history of poor decision-making on their part, which shouldn't surprise anyone because Chris Wallace and Hollinger are both terrible.
the grizzlies are done as long as this front office has anything to say about it. They've done everything they could possibly do to ruin this team. the grizzlies absolutely have no identity under joerger.
It was perplexing to see them bring back Mike Miller. One of the silliest offseason moves. Not up there with letting go of Lionel. But bad none the less.
Odd. I thought you stopped following the team after they destroyed themselves trading away Rudy Gay. Would you trade Conley and a 10 1st round picks for Gay right now? I think Toronto may bite.
I thought they could kept gay until they bumped the lt. Once they got there,they were gonna have to trade him. I thought they should've gotten more than prince for him in any world but they didn't. Losing Hollins was the killer tho. He maximized what they were doing and now they don't have an identity. I've heard many on this board downplay coaching as if it doesn't matter. Those same people are complaining about mchale,but thought it was a good move to basically kick adelman to the curb. Well,I'm sure everyone can see the difference in the two. Coaching will win you an extra 4 or 5 games a year and that could be huge.
yeah i love when people downplay a head coach's role and say "oh it's because of this top assistant who is running the defense/offense impeccably." they ****ted on hollins and had people believing it was really joerger that was responsible for the team's success. typical.
I'm not going to down any assistants or even coordinators, because some of them are *Fantastic* . . . but there's typically a reason why the head coach is in the position that he or she is in versus most assistants or coordinators. RIP for the Memphis Grizzlies is a little extreme ... they are really one go-to player away from being a true contender...the void left by Rudy Gay who actually had superstar talent, but lacked a certain BB acumen to be a efficient and dominant player.
You heard right . . . I don't think they quite understand the matter of small ball, except that they only need to improve their overall talent on the perimeter. The only player who is threatening offensively ... is Conley. Everyone else is more or less average. You have to remember that their backcourt once featured Gay, Mayo, and Conley or Mayo and Conley that's near heavyweight talent in the NBA. Prince, Allen, Poindexter, and Bayless... um not quite, readying itself for an extended playoff run.
Easy to see that coming. They had a terrible offseason, fired a talented coach, and are still employing a fraud in John hollinger
Ah, the Rudy Gay masochistic b**** gamesmaster is back. Yeah he's a stretch the floor perimeter spot up shooter who helped Gasol and Randolph - who magically got better after he left somehow. Meanwhile he's setting records in Toronto.
