Straight Outta Vancouver

Tony Allen Weighs In On the Strange Happenings at the TNT Halftime Show

2012-05-17T13:29:39Z

Tony Allen Weighs In On the Strange Happenings at the TNT Halftime Show

In case you missed the strange, so very strange halftime show on TNT last night, well, here's a fantastic recap from Mike Prada of SB Nation, including a word from our buddy Tony Allen.

[h/t to JA Sherman]

Charlotte Bobcats to Interview Memphis Grizzlies Assistant Dave Joerger for Head Coaching Job

2012-05-16T19:42:07Z

According to ESPN's Chris Broussard, the Charlotte Bobcats are going to interview Grizzlies assistant Dave Joerger on Friday for their head coaching vacancy. Joerger, who has spent 5 seasons with the Grizzlies, has essentially been given a majority of the credit for being our defensive architect, having spent time as our defensive coordinator, prior to being named the head assistant coach. It would certainly be a tough loss for the Grizzlies, but it's a well-deserved opportunity for a talent like Joerger.

Also being interviewed are St. John's assistant Mike Dunlap and, yup, Orlando Magic assistant Patrick Ewing. Something tells me he and Michael Jordan will get along quite well!

Chris Wallace Finishes 9th in 2012 NBA Executive of the Year Voting

2012-05-16T18:32:01Z

I know we've done our best to make the case for Chris Wallace as the 2012 NBA Executive of the Year, but, unfortunately today we learned that he not only didn't win the award, he finished 9th overall in voting. Now, I actually went on record and voted for Larry Bird in our SB Nation end of the season awards piece, and seeing as Bird took home the award I'm not all that shocked in his winning, but really I think it's safe to say that Wallace probably deserved to finish better than 9th, just one vote ahead of David Kahn. I mean, seriously.

Again, congratulations to Larry Bird, who I think deserved the award, but little respect for Wallace who did a fantastic job at making the necessary moves for a Grizzlies team that ultimately turned in its best winning percentage in franchise history.

Voting results>>>


Larry Bird, Indiana	       12	8	4	88
R.C. Buford, San Antonio	8	4	4	56
Neil Olshey, L.A. Clippers	6	7	4	55
Gar Forman, Chicago	        2	2	-	16
Kevin O’Connor, Utah	        -	2	4	10
Glen Grunwald, New York	-	2	2	8
Pat Riley, Miami	                1    	-	2	7
Sam Presti, Oklahoma City	1	-	-	5
Chris Wallace, Memphis	 -	1	2	5
David Kahn, Minnesota	 -	1	1	4
Rod Thorn, Philadelphia	 -       1	-	3
Dell Demps, New Orleans     -       1	-	3
Rick Sund, Atlanta      	-	1	-	3
Danny Ainge, Boston	        -	-	1	1
John Hammond, Milwaukee   -	-	1	1
Lon Babby, Phoenix      	-	-	1	1
Mitch Kupchak, L.A. Lakers	-      -	1	1
Otis Smith, Orlando	        -	-	1	1
Masai Ujiri, Denver	        -	-	1	1

What's Next For the Memphis Grizzlies?

2012-05-16T14:31:25Z

The season is over, the Memphis Grizzlies are off "golfing" somewhere, as the story goes, and we're now left to let the summer drag out with plenty of rationalization, reason and, more importantly, speculation.

It appears as if the Grizzlies are open and willing to make a major move this offseason, as long as it doesn't mean "starting over." You won't find them shipping off both Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay for future pieces. They're going at it over the next 4-5 years (and beyond?), and one, if not both of those players are going to be a part of the equation. Now, is it possible that they move one of them? Absolutely. Is it also possible that they let O.J. Mayo walk? Most definitely. But for now it's going to be a period of deep reflection for Chris Wallace, Lionel Hollins and company.

The Mayo saga will be an interesting one. There was a point where it seemed as if he had played his way out of Memphis, warranting a contract far too rich for our taste. And seeing as the team has done everything in its power to try and move him over the last few seasons, it's not as if they're going to dig deep and pay for him to stay. That said, he didn't do himself any favors during the playoffs. In Games 3-7 he averaged just 5 points per game, shooting 6-of-34 from the floor. That from a scoring guard off the bench, a player who received 6th Man of the Year votes. He did not help his cause. So, should the price be right... but, to be honest, this is the NBA. Meaning, someone is going to dig deep into their pockets (the Brooklyn Nets?) and give him far too much money. I imagine.And Mayo has already indicated that he's looking beyond, with his "I want to play point guard" quote.

Now, as for Rudy Gay...

The case for Gay is simple: come at "us" with an offer we can't refuse, and he's all yours. The key here is money. Matching contracts and talent is a real issue in the NBA. If you were just looking at contract-for-contract, take a look at the 30 highest paid players in the league, to which Gay comes in at No. 24. The list is filled with untouchables and undesirables. Now, that's the simplest, most basic, never-gonna-happen scenario. In most instances you look to add multiple players, multiple teams, trade exceptions, draft picks, and on. The holdup is, though, not that Gay is going to make $16 million next year, but that he's going to make $52 million over the next three years. A bit much, wouldn't you say, for a player who s'd the bed in the first round of the playoffs?

So while there will be, and have already been, calls for the Grizzlies to shop Gay around, there's no simple solution here. Do you want the likes of a (hypothetically speaking) Carlos Boozer or Joe Johnson? Or would something like a Ben Gordon and Austin Daye deal move you enough to get it done? Maybe. But don't think that in moving Rudy Gay we're going to get a Tyreke Evans talent in return. Or, maybe worded better, a young player who needs a change of scenery.

Let me say this, too, it's not that I want them to trade Rudy. I would be perfectly content if they could somehow talk him into a little soul-searching session to where he recognizes his true talents and realizes that he needs to be a leader on this team, not a follower, and play to his strengths, his realized strengths, and not his perceived strengths. If that happened, please, I would welcome him back with open arms. But, do we say that happening? Well...

The offseason is going to be interesting, and there will be some major moves made. One which may include the trading of Rudy Gay and the loss of Mayo. But, I don't see this getting blown up in a way that puts us back at square one.

Even if you just started the team next season with Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Tony Allen and went from there, I think it's safe to say we're in pretty good shape.

Keep your heads up, Grizzlies fans.

Final Thoughts on Game 7 | Beyond the Arc

2012-05-16T14:26:12Z

Final Thoughts on Game 7 | Beyond the Arc

Chris Herrington of the Memphis Flyer takes an in-depth look at what went wrong for the Grizzlies in the fourth quarter of game seven.

The Grizzlies-Clippers 2012 Playoff Series, In a Photo

2012-05-14T21:12:58Z

Yeah, that about sums it up. Clippers-Grizzlies, in a photo.

via SportsGrid

[Update: via @CJzero, here is the color version, via @TBJ]

Grizzlies Fan Poll: Do You Now Root for the Clippers or the Spurs?

2012-05-14T20:34:00Z

With the Grizzlies eliminated from the playoffs yesterday, in what was just an awful Game 7 performance, I'm still not quite ready to come out of hibernation but I am curious. Now that the Clippers have advanced to play the Spurs in the second round, where do most Grizzlies fans turn to? Do you root for the Clippers, as a tip of the cap to the team who took us out, or will you root for the Spurs to get "revenge" on a Clippers team that knocked us out?

Or, do you root for someone else? Or, hell, no one! I can't seem to figure it out. I mean, I'm going to watch at the very least 90 percent of the remaining minutes of the playoffs, I can tell you that, but I'm not quite sure if I need a rooting interest or even if I can stomach having one. Just wanted to see where you guys fell in line.

Poll

Now that the Grizzlies have been eliminated from the playoffs, who are you rooting for?

Disjointed and Disappointed: The 2011-2012 Memphis Grizzlies

2012-05-14T15:22:17Z

Now that the Grizzlies have been eliminated from the playoffs by the LA Clippers – which, let’s face it, we thought might happen the way it did, given how closely matched the teams were before the series even started – we can look back at the entire lockout-condensed slog that was the 2011–12 season and try to find the narrative of the overall season.

After last year’s playoff run ended one 3OT game short of the Western Conference Finals, this year’s team was saddled with expectations of a repeat, and the once-lowly Memphis Grizzlies were expected to do big things. Everyone was coming back: Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, OJ Mayo, Tony Allen, Darrell Arthur, Grievis Vasquez. The whole squad was coming back and they were going to…

…well, they weren’t going to play at all, it appeared for a while. The season was going to be cancelled. We got to see Mike and Zach playing in a charity game in Indianapolis. Rudy Gay hosted a charity game in Memphis where Kevin Durant and LeBron James showed up. But it looked like the season was gone.

Once the season was saved, and Christmas Day was designated as the starting point, we got excited again. Rudy Gay was coming back, and that meant that the same squad that made last year’s miracle run was going to be taking the court; the only major roster change was swapping Shane Battier for Rudy Gay, just like we did with the Rockets on draft night all those years ago.

Then Arthur went down for the season. Vasquez was traded for Quincy Pondexter. Then Zach Randolph went down for months. Xavier Henry was traded for Marreese Speights. Sam Young was traded for a pick just to get him out of town and off the books. Jeremy Pargo and Josh Selby both struggled mightily with turnovers, and Gilbert Arenas was signed.

The team never looked right. They reeled off some wins, fed mostly by the Conley/Gasol P&R offense and Allen and Conley’s hounding, incessant defense. But the offense never really got going, never found a groove.

Rudy Gay played well for a while, and then played like crap for a while, and then started playing well again. Randolph returned and started coming off the bench, and then returned to the starting lineup – but the rotations never recovered. The team went on the road and beat the Lakers, the Thunder, and the Heat, and then they lost at home to the New Orleans Hornets – led, of course, by Grievis Vasquez, having the breakout year Grizzlies fans were all sure he was going to have.

Inconsistencies plagued the team. Down the stretch, they played close games with the Hornets, Bobcats, and a Magic team that had nothing to play for, locked into their playoff seed. As fans, we mostly shrugged it off, saying they were resting, saying they were saving their legs for the playoffs.

Turns out they weren’t. They were still trying to find a way to reintegrate Zach Randolph – who, by his own account, was operating at about 75%, and that was after the playoffs started and he’d been back playing for several weeks – into the offense, and even though they were able to beat a string of the worst teams in the league (including the worst team, by winning percentage, in league history), the offense was still sputtering, still lacking a go-to outside scorer to complement a post game still finding its sea legs.

Rudy Gay played his best basketball in the end of the season, from the wins over the Mavs and Thunder onward – and then pulled a heinous disappearing act in the playoffs, settling for bad jumpers, complaining to the officials, looking more worried about, well, Jesus, what’s Rudy ever look worried about on the court? Plain and simple, his first playoff appearance did not go well. Memphis fans thought he was poised to "make the leap" after the (great) way he was playing last season when he went down with his shoulder injury. Didn’t exactly happen.

We went down swinging, literally in ZBo’s case:

But it just wasn’t enough. There was no chemistry – the team was all energy and effort and no execution, and sometimes the effort wasn’t all that great either. It wasn’t enough. You could tell after Game 1 it was going to be hard, even though Grizz fans may have still expected to win at that point. The Clippers series served as a bitter ending to a positive – if unsteady – season.

Ultimately, the season ends with more questions than answers for the Grizzlies. You’ll see them all detailed here over the coming weeks and months, as we begin the long wait until next season, when it’ll be time to launch another run at an NBA title, no matter how improbable. At least we didn’t get moved to San Jose.

This was my first season writing for Straight Outta Vancouver, and I didn’t get here until late. You guys – the readers, the other writers – are awesome, and we pull for an awesome team in a city that I love. Stick around. We’ll get ’em next year.