2009/10 Review:

If we discount the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Memphis Grizzlies has to be considered the most surprising team in the Western Conference last season. They were supposed to be one of the worst teams in the league, as the oddmakers had them listed to win 28/29 wins, but instead they finished the season with a 40-42 record.

Few may remember but Allen Iverson played for the Grizzlies earlier on the season and surprisingly or not, the Grizzlies had tremendous team chemistry problems and started the season 2-8 in the first 10 games. They also finished the season without center Marc Gasol for the last 15 games, in which they went 5-10, so the young Grizzlies went 33-24 between these two periods of time!

They were one of the most physical teams behind Randolph and Gasol, as they ended up being the second best rebounding team in the league by outrebounding their opponents by 3.78 rebounds per game. They also led the NBA in points in the paint per game by scoring 51.3ppg – the only team that has topped the 50 points mark last season, while their defense was suspicious in the first half of season.

With a strong starting unit core, the Grizzlies lacked depth and quality on their bench and naturally when one of their starters went down due to an injury, the team didn’t have the solutions to make up the bad luck. Their second unit was by far the worst unit in the league by averaging only 20 points per game and not being a factor in the games.

Zach Randolph gained some life in his NBA career and went to the All Star game, while Marc Gasol developed into a solid center in the league. These two good frontcourt surprises helped them to forget the Hasheem Thabeet fiasco - He was the highest draft pick ever to spend time in the D-League!

It was a solid season for a young team searching for a true identity; consistency and development are the key words for the upcoming season.

2009/10 Advanced stats:

Pace 8th 97.5
Offense 13th 105.1
Defense 18th 106.5
Rebounds 2nd +3.78

2010/11 Outlook:

Projected Depth Chart:

PG: Mike Conley, Acie Law, Greivis Vasquez
SG:  O.J. Mayo, Tony Allen, Xavier Henry
SF: Rudy Gay, DeMarre Carroll, Sam Young
PF: Zach Randolph, Darrell Arthur
C: Marc Gasol , Hasheem Thabeet, Hamed Haddadi

Even though the Grizzlies didn’t make any substantial upgrade in the offseason besides their draft picks, it was a busy offseason for GM Chris Wallace. Wallace gave a 5-year $82 million contract to Rudy Gay (the 6th largest of the summer) on the first day of free agency; then he refused to make a $3.7 million qualifying offer to restricted free-agent Ronnie Brewer and watched Brewer sign with the Bulls for nearly the same contract as Tony Allen – his replacement on the roster. Finally he went into a contract dispute with first-round draft pick Xavier Henry over what amounts to be near $350,000 after giving Rudy Gay $80 million.

That was the Grizzlies offseason my friends! With so few changes in the roster, the Grizzlies hopes for the natural development of their youngest players and some consistency of their veteran players led by Zach Randolph.

Randolph put together a solid offensive season like he has been doing in his career, but this time he was healthy enough to start 81 games – career high and his behavior on and off the court was exemplar during the season. Few Power Forwards in the league can say that they averaged 20.8ppg and 11.8rpg, while shooting 48.8% from the field and that was Zach’s numbers. However in the offseason Randolph’s name was mentioned, but for the wrong reasons, as he was accused of being a “major marijuana supplier” in the state of Indiana, a charge he has denied. Let’s see what Randolph’s version we will watch this season, nevertheless his 20 and 10 numbers are almost automatic for him.

He did average a career high 37 minutes a game last season mainly because his natural backup Darrell Arthur played only 32 games and had an injury riddled season. A healthy Darrell Arthur would reduce those minutes somewhat.

By giving Rudy Gay an $80 million contract, the Grizzlies labeled him as their franchise player, but is he worthy of such tag?

He is coming from a season in which he averaged 19.6ppg, 5.9rpg and 1.9apg, while shooting 46.6% from the field. His 1.7 assists per game during his 4-years career in the NBA are a good indicator that Gay will never be a facilitator on the offensive end, but instead a dynamic and athletic scorer that is only 24-years old. His PER production was only 16.30 vs. 21.21 from Zach Randolph, so he needs to raise his level in order to be the uncontested best player in the team. He played for the US team in the FIBA World Cup this season alongside others NBA Superstar players and this might help him to reach a kind of maturity that he’s still lacking on his game.

The Grizzlies backcourt is an inexperienced unit and showed some natural inconsistency last season.

Mike Conley was the Grizzlies’ floor general in 2009-10 by default, but he’s far from being the player the Grizzlies envisioned by drafting him with the fourth pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. True be told here is the Guards class from that draft: Acie Law, Rodney Stuckey, Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton and Aaron Brooks – not that impressive! Nevertheless he did average a career high of 12.0 points, 5.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 32 minutes a game last season.

However his level of play in the second half of season was impressive, as Conley turned more aggressive on both ends of the floor scoring double digits points in the Grizzlies’ final 15 games, while averaging 17.0 points, nearly six assists and 48-percent shooting: He averaged 14.8 points, 5.8 assists and 46-percent shooting in 31 games after All-Star Weekend. If Conley can sustain this kind of level through the entire regular season, then the Grizzlies would be happy with their decision a couple of season ago.

The Grizzlies tried to run O.J. Mayo as Point Guard during the summer league, but the experiment wasn’t good, as Mayo dished 6 assists and 15 turnovers in just two games, so we can expect Mayo to be the premium Shooting Guard of the team. Mayo put almost the same numbers as his rookie season which isn’t a good sign: Using Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating he was the 23th most valuable SG in the league! In a team already stocked with two first scoring minded players in Randolph and Gay, he unselfishly took a lesser role on offense last season. It’s up to him to improve his efficiency and shooting% numbers while playing a more playmaker kind of role for the team.

It’s hard to believe but Marc Gasol somehow saved the disastrous trade that the Grizzlies made a couple of years ago with the Lakers for his older brother Pau Gasol. He had an impressive sophomore season before tearing a neck muscle in mid March. Marc got himself into shape by losing 20+ pounds last summer and finished the season with averages of 14.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks, while shooting 58.1% from the field. He is coming from playing for the Spanish National team this summer in the FIBA’s World Cup, so the Grizzlies must have some cautions regarding his healthy and heavy usage through the season so it would be nice if Hasheem Thabeet shows some signs of life and can slide into the backup center position and give the Grizzlies 15 solid minutes off the bench.

Once again the Grizzlies biggest weakness going for this season is their lack of depth beyond the starting unit. They signed veteran Tony Allen to bring some veteran ship and toughness to the team. Rookie Xavier Henry has the potential of becoming a solid spot-up shooter who has good size and can hit from the long distance and they have also Sam Young who is a poor’s Rudy Gay version coming off the bench.

With basically the same roster of the last season, the Grizzlies are putting some high expectation on the top of the table. They want their young guns to develop into solid players, while Zach Randolph has to be a role model player on and off the court. To count with an injury free season of their best players is always dangerous for any team in the league especially for the team that had the worst bench last season, but that’s the way the Grizzlies were built for this season.