In a perfect world, the Memphis Grizzlies look like a terrific team going into this season. After all, they have three young players with all star potential in Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo and Mike Conley and they have added to their roster a Hall of Famer guard in Allen Iverson.  They have also a Power Forward that will get 20 points and 10 rebounds each night and they drafted a 7-3 center, with insane defensive skills in Hasheem Thabeet, so the Grizzles can make a lot of damage in this season, right? Not so fast...

It is not easy to understand the direction of this franchise. If you remember GM Chris Wallace and owner Michael Heisley shocked the world by trading their only Superstar player Pau Gasol for the Lakers in exchange of basically nothing a couple of seasons ago - they said that the franchise was in rebuilding mode (I remember that the Grizzlies lost 58, 60 and 60 games in the last 3 seasons). Since then, they drafted some talented players, but going for this season, Chris Wallace decided to add two veteran plays who will "steal" some precious minutes for the young guys to develop.

The first real question in here is to know how the hell all these players will get their touches in the ball. Last season the Grizzlies were by far the worst NBA team in passing the ball by averaging just 17.4 assists per game. They didn't have a single player that dished at least 5 assists per contest and suddenly ,they add two veteran players with shot-first mentality into their roster, so head coach Lionel Hollins will have a lot of work to do during the preseason.

Rudy Gay can be considered the best player of this franchise, but in my opinion he is coming from an average-at-best season last year. He had a superb sophomore season a couple of years ago, but last season he regressed in every single stat. He had less points per game (18.9 ppg vs. 20.1 in 07-08), less rebounds (5.6 rpg vs. 6.1 in 07-08), less assists (1.7 apg vs. 2.0 in 07-08), he also shot worse (45.3 % FG vs. 46.1% in 07-08) and he committed more turnovers (2.6 vs. 2.3 in 07-08). We can say that with the addition of top rookie O.J. Mayo, Gay couldn't adapt to him on the court, but the fact is that he needs to bounce back and turn his development into the right direction. With Allen Iverson and Zack Randolph, he won't have the onus of being the best offensive player of the team and this could remove some of the pressure from him, but at the same time I doubt that he will receive the same touches in the ball that he used to receive in the past.

Meanwhile, O.J. Mayo enjoyed a terrific rookie season last year. He started the season on a strong mode, averaging 23.1 ppg, while shooting 48 % from the field in December and showed with his perfect release that he can be a terrific offensive shooter. He ended the season averaging 18.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game, while shooting 44% from the field, 38% from three and 88% from the free throw line. Going now onto his sophomore season, it will be absolutely vital for the franchise that Mayo can develop smoothly, but I doubt that he will get 38 minutes of action per game like he had last season.

The Grizzlies had high expectations when they drafted Mike Conley as their fourth overall pick in 2007, right behind Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Al Horford, but Conley was a bit disappointing on his first two seasons until the Grizzlies traded Kyle Lowry and Conley started being the "only" man to run the show for the Grizzlies. With more 10 minutes per game on his belt, Conley was terrific in the second half of the season by averaging 14.5 points, 5.6 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.7 3-pointers after the All-Star break. He showed some flashes that he can be a good playmaker for this team and he will have the huge challenge of getting the ball to the innumerous offensive talents that the team has and this won't be easy at all.

To complete the backcourt, the Grizzlies have...Allen Iverson. We all know the disaster that was the experience of him in Detroit last season, as he was accused to ruin the team chemistry of the Pistons, but honestly he wasn't the only culprit of that and the media unfairly hyped such image of him. Now with the Grizzlies, Iverson will apparently come off the bench and he will be able to provide solid scoring, assists, steals and nothing more than that. He is the most veteran player of this team and it will be interesting to watch his supposedly leadership of the team. The biggest challenge for the team is to see how the minutes will be distributed in the backcourt and how well the players will react to that distribution.

For the frontcourt, the Grizzlies acquired Zack Randolph from the Clippers for basically nothing, besides his 2-year remaining huge contract and so, this was a "gambling" move. Randolph is an enigmatic player who finds always a way to have great statistics (offensive numbers). Over the last 6 seasons, he was a double-double machine, having averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in three of his past six seasons. The problem was his questionable attitude inside and outside the court and how he doesn't do much in the defensive end. Nevertheless, he is the only frontcourt reliable offensive threat of the Grizzlies and if they can somehow polish his defensive deficiencies, Randolph may be a good piece for the team. However, undoubtedly this was a gambling movement from Memphis and hopefully for them Randolph will prove that he can be a good asset in a place where he was warmly welcomed.

The only good consequence of the Pau Gasol's trade is that his brother Marc Gasol is also a decent player. I doubt that the Grizzlies knew that Marc would become a decent player, but the fact is that he had a solid rookie season last year with 11.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. Note that he will never have the same offensive talent that Pau possesses, but he has the ability to score, defend in the paint and rebound the ball and we must not forget that last season it was his first experience in the NBA coming from overseas and so, we can expect Marc to improve his overall game and develop into a serviceable center in this league.

To compete with Marc Gasol, the Grizzlies selected Hasheem Thabeet as the 2nd overall draft pick. Thabeet is well known for his defense and propensity to block shots at UCONN last season, but he looked awful in the summer league and he may need some time to develop and adapt to the NBA. Luckily for the Grizzlies, he won't have the pressure of being a starter, as the Grizzlies have Gasol in their roster, so Thabeet can develop smoothly without any pressure and this might help him and the organization in the future.

The young talent of Memphis doesn't end with Thabeet, as they have also Darrell Arthur, DeMarre Carroll and Sam Young in the frontcourt. These three young players have all the potential to be good players in the future and the challenge for Hollins will be to provide these guys the proper minutes for their maturation.

The Grizzlies are one of the dark horses of this season, as no one knows how good will they be or not. Head coach Lionel Hollins has already said that he wants to push up the pace of his team and this is a good decision for a team who has so many offensive talents. The challenge for him is to make everyone happy with their roles and granted this won't be an easy task for him. Being inserted in a division that has the Spurs, the Hornets, the Mavericks and the Rockets won't make their life easier.