Summer league round-up: Memphis Grizzlies

This roster is heaving with talent, and will be particularly special if you're a fan of the Connecticut Huskies. Remember, this list doesn't include Rudy Gay.

View the Grizzlies summer league roster.

- Jeff Adrien: If Adrien was 6'9, he would have been drafted. He's a consistent double double player, a strong rebounder, aggressive defender and solid post-up scorer, with good post-up defense, a hook shot, and more energy than a coked-up Jerome Williams. However, he can't shoot or face up at all, and nor does he have any periemeter defense. He's an out and out power forward, generously listed at 6'7. And therefore, he's an undersized hustle player who'll always be on the outside, fighting to get in.

- Darrell Arthur: Arthur's rookie season consisted of 44% shooting, a raging foul problem, and an embarassing incident involving marijuana and "women" at the rookie initiation. Despite being the only power forward on the team's roster, and the opportunity of 64 starts last year, Arthur did little with it, and the team often found itself going with the unsuitable Hakim Warrick or Darko Milicic in his place. So big was the power forward hole that the Grizzlies have agreed to trade to Zach Randolph as a last ditch resort (a deal which still hasn't been officially consummated for whatever reason). Arthur still could bounce back and be a solid contributor, especially since it's far from certain that Warrick is going to return. But dispensing with the apathy might help, as might some defensive intensity.

- DeMarre Carroll: In my eyes, Carroll was not a first round round talent, yet he was picked 27th anyway, giving Memphis a cheap backup combo forward that means they won't have to pay Hakim Warrick. Carroll is an example of the classic college power forward trying to reinvent himself as a small forward, but he's done quite well at it, enough to get into the first round at least. But I still would have picked Wayne Ellington instead, especially considering the Sam Young pick at #36. Anyway.

- Erik Daniels: Daniels played all of last year as a centre, despite being a small forward by trade. He did well at it, too, averaging 21.0 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game for the expansion Erie BayHawks. However, considering the above two entries, is Memphis really the ideal NBA franchise of choice for a combo forward looking for an end-of-the-bench spot?

- Daniel Ewing: Ewing played for Prokom Sopot in Poland last year, a team also int he Euroleague. In the Euroleague, Ewing scored 12.9 points per game and shot 38% from downtown, starting at point guard (he also averaged 2.7 assists) on a team laden with ex-fringe NBA players. It was a decent season for him, but it didn't really change his stock any; he's still a fringe NBA player, caught between two positions, with a decent jumpshot but no extraordinary skills. And so it's probably back to Europe for him.

- Trey Gilder: Gilder was eligible for the draft last month (I think) despite being in the D-League last year. He averaged 13.6 points and 5.4 rebounds, fairly pedestrian numbers, although they looked more impressive when you consider that they came in only 23 minutes a game. Gilder is an athletic but very thin forward, who (like everyone else ont his list) has a bit of a position crisis. He projects best as a small forward, but his shot is not great (only 33% from three point range last year) and he doesn't dribble well. He is best when using his athleticism to flail wildly around the hoop and finish, and he's a decent if inconsistent rebounder. But you can't be an NBA power forward when you weigh less than 200lbs, so Gilder's best served using another season in the Developmental League, and doing what the name suggests it's there for. (That is, to help players develop their game. Not to help them go mental.)

Something tells me that the Grizzlies are looking for forward help. Considering that the spectacularly overrated Rudy Gay is going to need paying at some point in the next twelve months, and the aforementioned problems that they've had with the power forward spot lately, I'm not overly surprised.

- Hamed Haddadi: Haddadi is a project centre who had a weird season last year. He spent some time in the D-League, and sucked, but he also played 19 games in the NBA, and did pretty well in them, averaging 2.5 and 2.5 in only 6 minutes per game, and even managing to boast a PER of 19.7. That's pretty much the most you can do with 6 minutes per game. Haddadi is more foul and turnover prone than you would like to see from a 24 year old, but given that he's gone from Iranian Superleague basketball to the NBA with nothing in between, perhaps that's to be expected. He is under contract for two more years at a salary roughly equal to the 16th pick in the draft, so taper your expectations accordingly.

- Kenny Hasbrouck: Hasbrouck is a late addition to the Grizzlies summer league roster. I watched him play for Siena last year, and while it didn't help that he didn't play well in either game that I saw him in, he also didn't really show anything. Hasbrouck averaged 14.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.0 steals, worse numbers than the season before. His percentages were poor, too; 40.7% FG, 34.8% 3pt FG and 65.7% FT, all down from the previous season. Being an undersized 6'3 scoring guard with poor efficiency isn't the way to land an NBA contract. So he's not making the team.

- Longar Longar: Like many of the players on this list, Longar Longar attended a Grizzlies free agent camp (which had a heavy D-League focus) before the draft. Clearly he did something right, because he's back in summer league, hoping to improve on his effort with the Timberwolves last year that saw him average 3 points and 1 rebound per game. Last season was Longar's first as a professional, and he spent it in the D-League with the L.A. D-Fenders, averaging 7.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He didn't turn it over nearly as much as he did at Oklahoma, which is a plus, but nor was he used as much on offense as he was there. It's also about bloody time he cut out the rookie mistakes, because despite his lack of basketball experience, he's also now 26 years old, and the window's going to be shut if he doesn't pull his finger out. It might not ever be open.

- Brion Rush: Rush is a small shooting guard who averaged 25.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and more turnovers than assists in his senior season. That was three years ago. Since then, he's spent a year in the Italian second division and now the last two years in France, where he was second in the league in scoring with a 20.7ppg average. He also averaged 5.1 points and 3.3 assists per game; however, the turnovers were there as ever (3.1 per game), and those 20.7 points per game came on 17.8 shots per game. He managed to shoot only 43% from the field, and shot only 3.3 free throws per game. His problems with making the NBA seem to be the same as Hasbrouck's; he's a undersized scorer with efficiency problems. And even though his resumé is a lot stronger than that of Hasbrouck, he's also even smaller, measuring in at only 6'1. Still, I'm sure France will take him back.

- Donta Smith: Smith was most recently one of the compelling protagonists in the annual Puerto Rican pilgrimage that entices many American players every year, when he signed for Gigantes de Carolina. However, he was kicked off the team after only 8 games for smoking pot, something which I think I mentioned somewhere before. Donta has actually down the full "flatter your stats" world tour this year, playing in both Australia and China before the Puerto Rico gig. In Australia, Smith averaged 15.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists as the sixth man on the NBL Championship winning team, the Melbourne South Dragons, and in China before that he had averaged 22.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists for Shanxi. His jumpshot has also made some progress, although he's still not a catch and shoot player, and so he's still gotten back into the NBA. But his offensive talent is all still there.

- Greg Stiemsma: Stiemsma was also a participant in the free agent camp, although God knows why. He spent three years at Wisconsin, never averaging more than 3.5 ppg and 3.1 rpg, before going to the Turkish league. There, he actually did something, averaging 7.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game (3rd best in the league). He then left and went to the basketball dream land of dreams, South Korea, where he upped those numbers further to 14.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. None of that is really impressive, though, when looked at in an NBA context. But here's a picture of him with Alando Tucker and some bit of skirt.


(Note: Stiemsma is the one on the left.

- Hasheem Thabeet: Goodbye, Marc Gasol. You had a pretty good run in Memphis, and you've served well as a much underappreciated part of the infamous trade your brother was in. But apparently that's it for you now. It would be nice to see you in Chicago, by the way.

- Marcus Williams: It's been three biblically crap years for Williams, but at the very least, he finally had a good spell recently. Like Smith, Williams became a Puerto Rican ex-pat last months, but unlike Smith, it went very well for him. Williams was possibly the best player in Puerto Rico, averaging 16.8 points, 9.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds, with two triple doubles in 34 games. On the downside, the 572 points that he scored came on a huge 538 shots - Williams took over 7 three pointers a game, but shot only 31% from there, shot an overall field goal percentage of a poor 36%, and only 69% from the line. He's a passer, but is increasingly forgetful about that.

He has a chance, though. Currently, Memphis's point guard rotation features the underwhelming Mike Conley, the unsuitable Marko Jaric, and starting shooting guard O.J. Mayo. There's room here for at least one or two more, and Williams has a good chance to at least break camp if he plays well. Although if the completely bizarre Allen Iverson signing goes through, he might lose out anyway.

- Sam Young: Sam Young's great, and getting him at 36 is a good pick-up for the Grizzlies. He's a good all around player - a decent athlete, a decent shooter, a decent slasher, a decent defensive player, and he has the Pump Fake Of Doom which will forever make him memorable. He also doesn't pass much, which should help him blend in on the current Grizzlies roster.

(By the way, I would have taken Dejuan Blair.)

Grizzlies sign Darius Miles

Grizzlies sign Darius Miles

Free agent forward Darius Miles arrived in Memphis early Saturday morning and signed a nonguaranteed contract with the Grizzlies following a physical examination.

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I'm hungry. Anybody in the position I'm in, and has been through what I've been through the past two years, if he's not hungry he shouldn't waste anybody's time," Miles said. "I'm hungry. I ain't quitting. I feel like I can still do this. I wouldn't even waste the Grizzlies' time if I felt like my career was over."

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"We got very good reports from Boston that he was really getting close to what he used to be," Griz coach Marc Iavaroni said.

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"We're taking a shot to see if he's a guy who can resurrect his career and help us," Griz general manager Chris Wallace said. "We need to find more veterans not just so much for leadership but for production on the court. We need guys who have been there a little bit."

Everyone's saying the right things, at least. And the Grizzlies do indeed need veterans, as well as just more talent. But the cynical side of me thinks they might have an ulterior motive.

The point of that whole draft day deal with Minnesota was not just to trade up to get O.J. Mayo, but also to create some cap space. With the contracts of Antoine Walker and G-Buck not guaranteed past this season, Memphis took on the extra year of Marko Jaric's salary in order to open up $6 million in cap space next summer, a saving afforded by moving the salaries of Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal for the two aforementioned unguaranteed deals. Mike Miller isn't the kind of player you gift away, but when doing so gets you a valuable trade-up and $6 million more in your already decent caproom, it's worth it. Memphis, along with Oklahoma City, will now have oodles of cap room to work with next summer, and even if free agents aren't big on the idea of signing there, Memphis will at least be able to pursue whoever they want.

The thing is, though, that Portland also figures to have cap room. Quite a bit of it, in fact. Even after Martell Webster's extension, it only takes the renouncements of insignificant players such as Ike Diogu, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz, plus the waivings of decent backups Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw (note: they're decent backups in an ideal world, if not currently), and Portland suddenly has 8 figures of cap room. General Manager Kevin Pritchard has spoken about how he's trying to trade LaFrentz's salary, which would scupper any cap room chances, but Outlaw and Blake signed deals with unguaranteed final seasons for this very reason: Portland has 2009 cap room aspirations, and always has.

Those cap room aspirations will be roundly buggered, though, if Darius Miles plays ten games with somebody else. If this happens, Miles's significant salary ($9 million each of the next two seasons) is put back on Portland's books, after it had initially been taken off due to Miles's medical retirement. However, playing ten games invalidates that medical retirement, and the salary would be on Portland's cap figure once again, making cap space an almost impossible (and entirely unworthwhile) aim.

(Reader's note: the ten games thing is not quite that simple, as I understand it, but that's the gist of it. Truth be told, I don't understand it especially well. There's something about an appeals process or something.)

Since they traded Javaris Crittenton to Washington, the Grizzlies have only 13 players under contract, and Hamed Haddadi is in the D-League. This leaves Antoine Walker on the active list, despite him having not played a minute all year, being out of shape (for a change) and being out of the team's plans. Therefore, the Grizzlies can easily leave Miles on the active list even for the ten games of his drug-related suspension. After that, he just needs ten games as a 10th man, and suddenly Memphis loses one of its few competitors in next year's free agency market. All for the $500,000-or-so cost of having Darius Miles around for 6 months.

And that's just a bargain.

Of course, maybe Im being overly cynical. It's happened before, many a time. Maybe they have only the best of intentions, and really think that Miles will provide a lot both on and off (HA!) the court for them. But somehow I doubt it.

Perhaps they should just admit it.

Dude. It's Zach Randolph.

ESPN: Knicks suggest dealing Randolph to Memphis

The Knicks have a trade proposal on the table with the Memphis Grizzlies that would see Darko Milicic and Marko Jaric dealt to New York in exchange for Zach Randolph.

OK, I get it. I do. I really do.

"Here, take Zach Randolph! Take this extremely talented player who just so happens to play at your weakest position! Nooooooo, we don't want anything back! You just take him!"

I get that. When your job is to improve your team, and you are offered a highly talented basketball player for essentially free, it's a tough one to turn down. And Zach Randolph really is highly talented.

But he's also Zach Randolph. And therein lies the problem.

For all of Zach's talents, his play has never been efficient, sensible, or highly profitable. Just by playing him, you lose an untold amount on defense, something which Randolph simply cannot do. And for all his versatility and skill as an offensive player, Zach has never had the sense or awareness to fit into an offense efficiently - Randolph is a career .465 shooter starting his offense from increasingly near the three point line, and with an intense aversion to passing. Bear in mind, this is a man once berated for selfishness by former teammate, Nick Van Exel. And Nick Van Exel knows a thing or two about selfishness.

The problem is exacerbated when looking at Memphis's other big men. Out of Hamed Haddadi, Hakim Warrick, Darrell Arthur, Marc Gasol and Antoine Walker, who represents a good pairing for Zach? Who is the weakside shotblocker to counteract Zach's complete failure in that area? There's a bit there, mainly coming from Gasol, but there's not much. Additionally, if Marc Gasol is to start at centre - and it looks like he has to - then how do you pair him and Randolph on offense? Pairing Randolph with a man who plays within 3 feet of the rim at all times (Eddy Curry) went painfully badly last season, so how much different will it be with Gasol? How does Zach fit?

Take a wider look at the roster, and the same applies. The Memphis roster is a symposium of good young talent and veterans that they're stuck with. In Rudy Gay and Orange Juice Mayonnaise (readers note: that joke wasn't funny, nor mine), the Grizzlies have two talented young scorers, and a roster rounded out with complimentary athleticism, defensive versatility and scoring talent. However, outside shooting remains a concern, and there remains a big hole at power forward. There's also a big rebounding hole on a team that was outrebounded by 2.9 boards a game last year, good for only 25th in the league.

Now Zach Randolph is a power forward all right, and he's constantly armed with a good rebounding rate. But if anyone expects him to come in and be primarily a rebounder, in the role that David Lee refused to fill, then they're either eternally optimistic, or privy to some blackmail that the rest of us aren't. No one has been able to convince Zach Randolph that his future lies in the post for a while now, and a year under the stewardship of Isiah Thomas is not good news for any player who struggles to understand their limitations.

The current reported trade talk sees Memphis giving New York nothing more than Marko Jaric and Darko Milicic. That is something, at least. Milicic is a player who has failed to pan out for three teams, and Marko is someone Memphis didn't want in the first place. The two players combine to earn $35,860,000 over the next three years, and they represent the two worst contracts that the Grizzlies have. (Readers note: Antoine Walker's contract is longer and bigger, but it's also fully unguaranteed beyond this year. And that's why Memphis wanted it in the first place. Same with Greg Buckner, sort of.) The next three years of Zach Randolph will pay him $48 million, and the cap hold for the first two years will be only a minor increase over what Darko and Marko currently take up. The only significant cap hit comes in the 2010/11 season, where Randolph will earn $17,333,333 to Jaric's $7,625,000, with Milicic already expired. But, as the Grizzlies have only 5 players under contract at that time, that isn't relevant of right now. The cost of obtaining Randolph is as low as it can be: two mostly insignificant bench players, who also have the franchise's two largest contracts.

But is that minimal price still too much for Zach Randolph?

It's a high risk move, clearly. But it's only a high reward move if the Zach Randolph of 2006/07 turns up, the one who put up a flawed but sexy 24 points and 10 rebounds a game. The one who wasn't as bad as usual on defense. The one who stayed largely in the post. The one who didn't complain too much. The one who was in the best shape of his life. The one who produced. To make this trade worthwhile, Memphis needs that Randolph back. But even after such a career best season, Portland were willing to trade him for nothing. Portland would rather pay Steve Francis $30 million to not turn up,rather than have even the good version of Randolph back. Warning sirens aplenty. If they get this Zach Randolph back, then they will be trading for the highest paid non-All Star of all time, and making a $48 million investment in a painful player with a painful contract and a temperamental history.

Risky. Too risky.

Will we ever see the better Randolph again? I don't know the answer, and I don't know about this trade. I get it, but......dude.

It's Zach Randolph.

Summer signings, round 21

This edition of our fun and voluptuous Summer Signings is highlighted by the fact that there's almost no one in it that you've ever heard of. If all the players in this list get into 80 NBA games combined next season, I will be shocked. In fact, I'll be justifiably flummoxed if even three of them make a roster. It's a sparse'un this time. Onward.

- Casey Jacobsen has signed with ALBA Berlin in Germany. In a previous blog post, I asked semi-mockingly for someone to do some research into which players have been to the German league and still been able to come back to the NBA. Two people mentioned Jacobsen, who was the German league finals NBA in 2007 before spending last season on the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies. This move completes the Grizzly German sandwich (giggidy), but it doesn't really undermine my insinuation that the German league is a bit shit, does it? Casey Jacobsen is all right, but a fringe NBA player. In between these two German stints, he scored 107 points on 115 shots in the NBA, as his jumpshot decided to take the year off. And now he's gone back to Germany where he'll probably star once again and become a champion of the serfs. What does this say about the German league? Basically nothing more than what I've already implied - it's a bit weak.

By the way, one of the two people who told me about C-Jake was an agent, who shall remain nameless. In Googling to see whether this nameless man is, or has even been, Casey Jacsobsen's agent, I found this search result:

"casey jacobsen girlfriend ipmessage lolita masturbation free pregnant women having sex"

So, something for everyone there.


- In a bizarre move, the likes of which have never previously been seen as interesting, the Suns and the Rockets swapped young guards D.J. Strawberry and Sean Singletary. This move is interesting (if you're a nerd) because it's a move that could save both teams money. The Rockets are trying to save money to be able to re-sign Carl Landry and Dikembe Mutombo without paying the lxury tax too much, if at all, and the Suns are trying to save money because they're the Suns. So in this deal, they may have both found what they were looking for. With the minimum of 13 players under contract once Goran Dragic officially signs his deal, the Suns depth chart is pretty much done, and Strawberry figured to be the last man on it again. However, as a second year player, he was to earn the minimum of $711,517, whereas a rookie on the minumum would earn only $442,114. Therefore, swapping Strawberry and Singletary saves the Suns the difference between those two sums ($269,403), doubled for tax ($538,806), and yet they lose nothing on the court, because neither player is going to take it. (Note: Singletary's salary is only partially guaranteed, contrary to what it says elsewhere on this webshite, but he'll make the team anyway, because if he doesn't, they'll have to pay someone else as well.) The Rockets meanwhile take on the more expensive player, but Strawberry's contract is not guaranteed, and so they save the whole of Singletary's salary, while also losing nothing on the court. It's all very interesting stuff if you're the kind of person that will forego a social life and regular sex in order to reinvest that time into calculating Greg Buckner's trade kicker.

(Note: If the Rockets keep Strawberry, then forget I said anything.)


- Joe Crawford has signed with the Lakers for training camp where he can once again do what he did in summer league and outplay Coby Karl. While challenging Tim Duncan to a fight.

- Kaniel Dickens has signed with Napoli, in Italy. See how obsure the list is this time around? Kaniel Dickens represents one of the bigger name players on it. At least he actually played in the NBA last year. That's more than what this next fella did.

- Mario Kasun and Barcelona have mutually agreed to terminate his contract. I don't know why, but we can speculate wildly. Maybe he doesn't think he was being paid enough. Maybe he wasn't getting enough minutes, in his own opinion. Or maybe he had a fight with Andre Barrett. Actually, yeah, it's that.

- Orien Greene has signed for MyGuide Amsterdam. And, if anyone out there should need a guide to Amsterdam....start with the cafes, follow the stench of sex, and work backwards. Soon enough you'll find a 70 year old woman seated in a shop's front window dressed in nothing but stockings and a suspender belt, knitting. As national identities go, it certainly pisses our one of fish and chips, Amy Winehouse, an arbitrary powerless monarchy and drizzle.

- Rod Benson has signed with SLUC Nancy in France. I don't know what the SLUC stands for, but if you change the last letter slightly and put it all in lower case while still suffixed with "Nancy", then it makes for quite a realistic soubriquet for the aforementioned 70 year old woman seated in a shop's front window dressed in nothing but stockings and a suspender belt, knitting.

- Sean Marks has signed for the New Orleans Hornets. How the hell does he do it? He's not a bad player by any means, but...well, he's never really done anything, has he? And yet he's now about to start the ninth year of his NBA career. 8 years, 127 games, 391 points, and still more offers of work. Just doesn't make sense. But fair play to him nonetheless.

- Memphis signed Hamed Haddadi, the only player in the Olympics to average a double double. Another fine move by a fine organisation.

- The trail blazing Portland Trail Blazers signed their 15th, 16th and 17th men in Luke Jackson, Steven Hill and Jamaal Tatum, albeit not necessarily in that order. I have already rambled about Jackson, and have nothing to say about the other two, so that's the end of that torrent of NBA insight. Quick! We're near the end!

- And finally, former Clippers guard and ABA journeyman Fred Vinson has returned to the Clippers as an assistant coach. After reading about this news, I faffed about for a while, and then went to bed. Yet clearly the news had a lasting effect on me, because I then proceeded to dream about Fred Vinson. I dreamt that me, Fred Vinson and Fred Vinson's wife, Mrs Fred Vinson (I don't even know if she exists) were out to dinner in a restaurant. The three of us were huddled around a table designed only for two. I had a steak diane, Mrs Fred Vinson had soup, and Fred Vinson had a largely undistinguished plate of brown. There was laughter, merriment, and much guffawery. I can't remember a single topic of conversation, but dammit, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I dreamt that I was out to dinner with Fred Vinson.

You don't want to be like me when you grow up.