Talk amongst yourselves. I give you a topic: Does Memphis have a path to title contention or have they pretty much peaked?
They peaked last year. They're on the decline, clearly. Unless Rudy Gay is about to show the world he's on Kevin Durant's level next year.
Last year was their missed opportunity. They were up 37-19 at home in game 4 against OKC (while leading the series 2-1). When they lost that game, the Grizzlies missed their greatest chance to make the NBA Finals. Their window has probably closed since Z-Bo's peak has passed.
You know I really hate being a d******d, but where are Kwame and Leeb? Memphis drew the weakest team in the Western Conference and lost in the first round. Rudy Gay gave them 19 ppg on 17 shots @ 41%, 23% on threes. He added 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 turnovers in 40 minutes. This is a player making 15 million dollars. And who was the elite perimeter defender checking him for LAC? He should of feasted on them. And to borrow thier favorite line about Battier: "What did he do on the road in the playoffs?" The answer is nothing. He was awful on the road in the playoffs. This is a player whose played more minutes than in the regular season, took more shots, hit less effeciently overall, and behind the arc, got less rebounds, got less assists, less steals, fouled more and turned the ball over more.
The grizzlies were not in sync the whole series. It really wasn't our personnel, because we out played the clippers for much of the series. It was more a case of not being in sync down the stretch. We needed better offensive execution.
No way are the Clippers the weakest team in the west. the Jazz were. I think that window has closed though. See what they can get for Z-bo and maybe Gay and build around Gasol mainly.
If somehow they could add a legit 2-way shooting guard, a guy that can get them 20 and play stellar D, they would have a chance. (Josh Howard)
In some ways this series exposed the fact that the grizzlies don't have an electric guard at the 2 spot. I suspect that the grizzlies are going to part ways with Tony Allen. Hollins, for the entire series, favored Pondexter. We could see that go down. I think that the grizzlies might be sorry that they traded Grevis and X this year, because I believe BOTH of those players have the attributes we need in our guard rotation. Finally, Mayo is gone.
Us Rockets fans would be really happy if we had Memphis collection of players vs. what we have right now. They achieved home court in the playoffs and would have won their series if they hadn’t choked away game one. Not a bad season at all for a still fairly young team. To put it into perspective, the fourth seed is probably the absolute best we could have done if Morey’s Gasol/Nene plan had come into fruition. But if WE were the ones that had just lost that long, hard fought playoff series against the Clippers, we would be singing a much different tune than the one we are against the Grizz…We’d be talking about how our future looks great even with Pau being paid $20M and Nene being paid $15M. And what a genius Morey is for making us so much better lol. The Grizzlies will be fine next season. I bet Z-Bo will be playing much better fully healthy, and they'll probably find a way to acquire some good bench shooters. Rockets fans just have sour grapes.
Here, to me is the issue: http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/grizzlies.jsp They really don't have any flexibility salary-wise to go get guys, especially with the new CBA. They also dont have much to trade other than the guys they probably need to keep. So, they need to hit a homer on a lowish pick or hope for internal improvement (likely from Gasol or Conley). Sort of like the situation that NYK and ATL are in. U
What we need is to not lose a 27 point lead at home. Really, now the grizzlies are the NYK and ATL because of 1 series which we came back from a 3-1 deficit. I don't you'll be saying the same thing about the thunder if they don't make it to the finals.
Thing is the Thunder have two superstar players. I don't think they are like the NYK... But the ATL comparison I can see that... A team that falls in the 3-6 seed every year.
