Im live at FedExForum for the preseason game between the Grizzlies and Rockets. Tiger Hero Joey Dorsey is laying bricks in shootaround while Marc Gasol is working on his jump hook.
As is apparent, Im still having keyboard issues, so this will be an apostrophe and quotation-mark free night. I will have a new computer before the next game, so this problem will not carry over into the regular season.
As always, Ill pop in here as seems warranted and will respond to any comments that show up through the night. Look for a full post-game report later tonight.
1. O.J. Mayo Breaks Out: Through the first three pre-season games, rookie O.J. Mayo struggled a little with his shot, going 14-41 from the floor and 2-14 from three-point line, a string of performances that didn’t look much like the deadly shooter seen in summer league and again in practice. But he found his stroke tonight.
Mayo scored 26 points in 30 minutes on 10-17 shooting and 6-8 from downtown. Not only was every make a jumper, only one of the 17 attempts was from within seven feet of the basket, and it was technically a jumper.
Mayo got in such a groove tonight, raining so many jumpers from all over the court, that it hit me with a bit of nostalgia for this beloved sneaker commercial from my childhood:
At some point this season, I’m certain, fans are going to start yelling “layup!” when Mayo, in the flow, rises up for a 25-footer.
Mayo didn’t just shred the Pacers with jumpers tonight, he also played staunch on-ball defense and used his quickness to nab 5 steals, at least a couple of them leading to fastbreak conversions at the other end.
But, while tonight showed Mayo’s strengths, it also showed his weaknesses. Mayo didn’t convert a single basket in the paint and didn’t attempt a single free throw. When he has gone to the hole this preseason, his relative lack of explosiveness has been apparent. He’ll need to diversify his game over time, but for this season I suspect Mayo’s offense may revolve around his jump shot, leading to a rookie season that, on the offensive end, may look a lot like Ben Gordon’s a couple of years ago. (On the defensive end, Mayo will be much better.) This means we’ll see a lot of games like tonight from Mayo this year. We’ll also see lot of games like Friday, when he went 5-17 and 1-7 from three.
2. The New Ivory Towers: For the second straight game, the Grizzlies started Marc Gasol and Darko Milicic together and got pretty decent results. Head coach Marc Iavaroni didn’t give any clues in his post-game press conference about whether this will carry over into the regular season, but it’s clearly a pairing the team is looking at closely.
Oddly, it seemed to help the team more offensively than defensively. Having Gasol gives the team a playmaker in the frontcourt, while NOT having Hakim Warrick and his shot-happy approach in the starting lineup allowed the team to funnel more shots to its best players, Mayo, Rudy Gay, and Mike Conley. Warrick might be a better fit with this team as instant offense off the bench, which would surely be his ideal NBA role.
Gasol had another striking game, putting up 14 points, 10 boards, and 4 assists in 35 minutes. Gasol’s limitations are serious — a lack of foot speed that hurts on defending drives (Rasho Nesterovic blew by him for a reverse layup), rebounding out of his area, and making quick moves on the block — but purely physical. In terms of effort and skill, he’s a terrific basketball player, with a strong face-up shot, some viable post moves, a willingness to play physical, great court awareness, and terrific passing skills. The Grizzlies ran a lot of offense through Gasol tonight both from the high post and on the block and he was able to create shots for himself and teammates at an impressive rate.
3. Regular Season Rotations: As has been the norm so far, the Grizzlies featured a starting lineup that could go opening night and played them significant minutes. Compare this to a Pacers squad that sat three likely starters (Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy, and Troy Murphy). Iavaroni doesn’t seem to be using his preseason to gradually get his top players ready to go, but seems to be using it as a serious time to get his core group playing on the same page. With so many young players, so many new players, and so much apparent pressure to be competitive out of the gate, this seems smart, but you have to wonder about the lack of on-court time for development projects like Hamed Haddadi, Darrell Arthur (sure to get more run going forward), and especially Javaris Crittenton, who got a DNP-CD tonight.
The Jacob Riis Report: Remember how lumbering Georgetown center Roy Hibbert was supposed to be too big and slow to make it in the NBA, especially with an uptempo team like the Pacers. Well, Hibbert looked like an entirely different person tonight. He’s clearly lost a ton of weight and got up and down the floor well. He showed a nice touch around the hoop and, more surprisingly, was really active defensively and on the boards, to the tune of 17 points, 9 boards, and 3 blocks on 6-9 shooting off the bench. Hibbert looked good, but seeing another rookie center (following the Wizards’ JaVale McGee) go off against the Grizzlies is troubling.
Deflections:
Michael Conley’s improved three-point shooting late last season seems to be carrying over. Conley is 6-11 from three through four preseason games.
Former coach and current ace broadcaster Doug Collins was in the house tonight, sitting next to GM Chris Wallace. The grapevine says that Collins is a friend of Iavaroni’s and was in town to attend practice, watch the game, and act as a sounding board.
The team twice ran alley-oop plays coming out of a timeout, connecting on both. A good sign for what has been shaky offensive execution.
Rudy Gay’s tomahawk put-back jam off Conley’s desperation three-pointer was perhaps one of the most spectacular Grizzlies plays ever.
Well, I missed Fridays preseason win against the Bobcats while on (a much-needed) vacation, but heard the Grizzlies looked much better than they did in an unusually dispiriting pre-season loss to the Wizards a couple of nights earlier.
Im back in town and in the building for tonights action against the Pacers. This will be the game post, which I will contribute to as seems warranted and will serve as a landing spot for comments if anyone have anything they want to add.
A few things Im looking forward to tonight:
(For the record, the quote mark and apostrophe button is currently malfunctioning on my laptop, so I apologize for the sloppiness that causes)
1. Seeing Mike Conley and Kyle Lowry match up with the change-up point-guard tandem the Pacers will employ: super-quick T.J. Ford and rugged, post-up-oriented Jarrett Jack.
2. Seeing the Darko Milicic and Marc Gasol pairing in game action for the first time. (The Pacers have big bodies, but not proven low-post players, so consider tonight a partial evaluation.)
3. Seeing Darrell Arthur in (NBA) game action for the first time.
For better or worse, tonight’s preseason home debut didn’t really feel much like a preseason game. The Grizzlies played something approximating a regular-season rotation — all five starters playing over 30 minutes — and seemed more focused on winning the game than is typical in the preseason. Meanwhile, the Wizards were playing without their four best players and didn’t play any starters more than 25 minutes. That disparity made losing particularly frustrating, as was apparent on the court and which Mike Conley acknowledged after the game.
More on the first full sighting of the 2008-2009 Grizzlies:
1. D Up, O Down: While the Grizzlies certainly didn’t deliver an overwhelming defensive performance tonight, allowing 44% shooting to bunch of players who might not make the Wizards team, much less the rotation, it was clear that the defense is further along than the offense right now.
The Grizzlies demonstrated a more aggressive approach to pick-and-roll defense, with guards routinely fighting over the top of screens and big men stepping out aggressively to hedge or trap. And rotations on the back end that would be needed to make this effective seemed respectable. Generally speaking, you got a sense of how the quickness and activity this year’s team can deploy across the perimeter could be disruptive defensively, while starting bigs Hakim Warrick and Marc Gasol partly overcame their physical limitations with impressive effort.
On the other end of the floor, however, the Grizzlies were a huge mess. The team shot 35% from the floor and a miserable 2-17 from three-point range (including a combined 0-9 from Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo, likely to be the team’s two best outside threats). Without a commanding post threat and with a dearth of good three-point shooters, the Grizzlies will have to find other ways to score and they really struggled tonight. With halfcourt offense a serious work-in-progress, the team needs to get a lot of transition opportunities, but tonight’s 10 fastbreak points won’t cut it. (Neither will only three steals — the team should be able to generate a lot more opportunities off forced turnovers.
In the halfcourt, this team needs to feed off dribble penetration to either create lay-ups, free-throw attempts, or open catch-and-shoot looks, but the execution here was highly erratic. There seemed to be a lack of purpose and structure. There was too much stagnation and the team devolved into forced one-on-one play quickly. Conley suggested after the game that there was a lack of continuity in the offense (my wording, not his), that after first options on plays were shut down, the team settled for too much individual play. That’s how you get Gay taking 19 field-goal attempts (and, with 14 free-throw attempts, his actual shot total was probably more like 25): With the offense routinely breaking down, the team’s best scorer ends up creating shots by himself. This resulted in a miserable 5-19 shooting performance from Gay, who came up limping slightly after an early spill and never seemed to recover his full athleticism.
2. The NBA is No Joke: Fans hoping to see something special with O.J. Mayo’s first home NBA game went away disappointed. Mayo scored 7 points on 3-11 shooting and had as many personal fouls as steals, assists, and rebounds combined. Mayo impressed with his attentive, tough-nosed on-ball defense and looked good when he could get off open looks, but didn’t look very explosive going to the rim and had one jump shot summarily rejected. Even against the Wizards' second-teamers and training-camp scrubs, he saw a level of size and athleticism he never saw in the Pac-Ten. There’s no reason to expect Mayo not to struggle in a transition to the pros.
Second-year guard Mike Conley was more effective than Mayo, but also had a highly uneven game. Conley flashed eye-popping quickness and elusiveness on a couple of forays to the hoop, but he just wasn’t as consistently dynamic as the Grizzlies need him to be. Hubie Brown always said that the most important thing for a player was knowing when to pass and when to shoot. For Conley, playing alongside two higher-profile perimeter players in Gay and Mayo who will both demand touches and shots, his challenge is knowing when to attack and when to defer and I sense he’s struggling with that. It’s very early, obviously, but I think Conley figuring out how to maximize his abilities within the team context is the key to this offense working. While Gay, Mayo, and even Warrick can be effective in isolation settings, Conley’s quickness and court vision should be the engine that creates better shots for the whole team.
3. The New Gasol: Relative to expectation, the most impressive player on the court tonight was Marc Gasol. Not only does Gasol look like a beefed-up clone of his big brother, he has some identical mannerisms. After picking up an over-the-back foul, the younger Gasol delivered what you might call The Full Pau: He clasped both hands to his face in disbelief, dropped them down over his mouth, and then raised them to the top of his head and stared up in frustration. It was serious déjà vu time at the Forum.
But that’s where the comparison stopped. Marc lacks his brother’s scoring ability, and will never play in an All-Star game, but in 31 minutes of a home debut he established to anyone who watched that he’s a different cat from Pau: He was throwing meaty ’bows after a defensive rebound. He stepped up to pop a Wizards cutter with a thundering chest-to-chest blow. He set a stiff pick and then flashed to the hoop for a putback lay-up. He grabbed 9 rebounds (4 offensive) and consistently fought hard in the paint. He passed the ball very well despite not garnering an assist. He didn’t get to show off his perimeter shooting, but that will come.
Overall, Gasol looked like a tough, efficient basketball player. A quality center from the get-go. If Darko Milicic — who missed action again tonight with a back strain — doesn’t get it together, not only will Gasol be starting in the middle. He’ll be playing two-thirds of the minutes.
The Jacob Riis Report: According to a team source I talked to after the draft, and also reported in the Commercial Appeal, the Grizzlies had a draft-day deal in place that would have sent Javaris Crittenton to the Washington Wizards for their first-round draft pick (#18 — where the Grizzlies were set to take Courtney Lee). The deal was contingent on certain players being off the board when the Wizards picked. When Nevada seven-footer JaVale McGee was still available, the Wizards declined the deal.
McGee looked raw in his pre-draft workout with the Grizzlies, but boy did he look good tonight. McGee came off the bench to score 20 points on 8-12 shooting, grab 8 rebounds, and block three shots. Despite banking in a straightaway jumper, McGee didn’t show a lot of skill, but he showed tremendous athleticism for his size and impressive assertiveness for a rookie. He ran the floor, got up above the rim, and dunked with flair.
Of course, the Grizzlies had something to do with McGee’s big game, having no one available to match him athletically. The centers were too slow and the power forwards were too short. This is a problem. If McGee is going to go nuts against the Grizzlies, what are Dwight Howard or Amare Stoudamire or Tyson Chandler or Kevin Garnett going to do?
Deflections:
Hakim Warrick: Fantasy league sleeper. With Darrell Arthur and Antoine Walker as the other options at power forward, Warrick’s going to get big minutes and he’s going to put up numbers. His rebounding and shot blocking has been impressive through two preseason games (11 and 3 in 38 minutes tonight), but I’m not convinced he can keep it up.
Marc Iavaroni picked up a technical foul tonight arguing a no-call when Rudy Gay was playing volleyball on the offensive glass. “Make the call!,” Iavaroni screamed to a ref standing right next to him. When the ref blew the whistle to T him up, Iavaroni responded sarcastically, “Finally.”
At one point, Greg Buckner was probably the third best offensive player on the floor for the Grizzlies (ahead of Quinton Ross and Hamed Haddadi). I bet he hasn’t been that high on a pecking order since he was at Clemson.
The Wizards featured a player named Taj McCullough. Could this be Todd McCullough's brother from another mother?
Well, I'm live at FedExForum with about 15 minutes left until tip and, if I so desired, I could easily count the number of people in the building. I think the attendance at open practice was probably 50 times the numbers of people in the building right now.
I'll add commentary here if the mood strikes and will be glad to respond to any questions or comments, but look for a full post-game report later tonight.
First Quarter:
Two best things I've seen -- Conley with an outrageously quick stutter-step in transition for a layup and Marc Gasol throwing heavy elbows after a rebound. Defense looks ahead of offense so far, but the quickness and aggression defensively bodes well.
Second Quarter:
Up to 9 turnovers now, with 13 points given up. They definitely look sloppy out there. It's preseason, but a general point is that with no reliable post threat and shaky three-point shooing, the offense is going to be more reliant on dribble-penetration, which would lend itself to more turnovers (though some of the ones tonight, especially early on, were of the bad-pass variety.)
Griz lose it 89-80. Post-game package of blog goodness to follow in an hour or so.
The Grizzlies open their home preseason schedule tonight against the Washington Wizards, following a 96-93 loss last night to the Houston Rockets.
Some housekeeping notes: I’ll be in the building and will be doing a post-game report. I’m not planning on doing any thorough live-blogging this season as I’ve found it distracts too much from a close viewing of the game. I will, however, have an in-game post up that I might contribute to as seems warranted. It will also provide a comments forum for anyone who wants to make an observation or ask a question during the game.
I won’t be doing in any game previews for preseason games, but will do post-game reports on games I’m able to attend (which should be three of the four). Once the regular season starts, I’m planning on doing pre-game and post-game blogs on every game I’m able (which will not be all of them), particularly home games.
Last night’s game: With only the box score to go on, a few things stand out:
*Mike Conley: Conley had 13 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and ZERO turnovers in 24 minutes and shot 2-2 from three-point range. This is exactly the kind of dynamic performance I’m expecting to see a lot of this season. I said to a fellow media person this summer that I think Conley, not O.J. Mayo, will be the Grizzlies second best player this season. I still believe that to be true.
*Hakim Warrick: Warrick may not be getting an extension this month, but his hold on a starting job seems strong despite some (borderline loopy) suggestions about Darko Milicic or Antoine Walker starting at the 4 for the Griz. Warrick certainly didn’t hurt his case last night, with 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks in 28 minutes, not that I expect that kind of rebound and shot-blocking production from Hak very often when the games start to count.
*Rudy Gay: The only zero on Gay’s stat line last night offensive rebounds. We know Gay’s going to score, but for him to become a truly elite player he needs to use his athleticism to fill up the stat sheet at least somewhat like Andrei Kirilenko and Josh Smith do. Gay had three combined blocks/steals in 23 minutes last night. That rate of production needs to be more common this season.
*Hamed Haddadi: Haddadi went 1-3 and committed 4 fouls in his NBA pre-season debut. But he also grabbed 5 boards in limited time, so there was some positive there.
*Vets: Antoine Walker, Quinton Ross, and Greg Buckner combined to shoot 4-19 in 71 minutes. The shoddy offense is to be expected but not too worrying: If that trio gets that many shots or minutes in a regular season game, something’s wrong.
*Three-point shooting: The Griz shot 4-17 (24%) from downtown. No one expects three-point shooting to be a strength of this year’s team, so the percentage is less troubling than the attempts. If the Grizzlies aren’t going to shoot the three well this year, they need to be much more judicious about taking those shots.
The Grizzlies hold their annual open practice Saturday morning on the main court at FedExForum. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Practice starts at 11:30. The event is free and open to the public.
Notes from Thursday and Friday’s practice sessions:
Bigs: The big men started to become a little more noticeable the past couple of days, as more post feeds have begun to be implemented and the team has started experimenting with playing Darko Milicic and Marc Gasol together for the first time.
I think it would help the team to be able to deploy this tandem at times given the lack of size the team has at power forward, but Marc Iavaroni suggested after practice that he’s still trying to determine how viable that lineup would be.
“Everything’s an experiment in training camp. We want to take a look at it, but I have to feel like it’s a good combo. It’s not something we’ll do just to do it.”
Matching up against a frontcourt rotation of Antoine Walker, Malick Badiane, and Hamed Haddadi didn’t allow for much of a feel for the potential of a Milicic/Gasol tandem, at least not in the brief scrimmages media was allowed to view today, but it’s an interesting work in progress.
Individually, watching Milicic and Gasol, Milicic seems clearly to be the superior athlete — much stronger, more explosive, faster down the floor. But Gasol seems more skilled and a craftier basketball player. Milicic looks to be the better defender and rebounder, while Gasol probably brings more to the table offensively. If the Grizzlies can get both players performing up to their abilities — a big if — the team could end up getting really good play out of the center position with this tandem. Time will tell.
For Darko, like minority owner Elliott Perry, confidence is the key. He had some frustrating moments today — having two free throws sail over his head and into the hands of offensive rebounder Quinton Ross, getting an offensive rebound but getting stripped when bringing the ball down below his waist. Nevertheless, Milicic’s effort and attitude seemed strong and positive throughout.
As for Gasol, it was really fun watching him battle for rebounding position on free throws of all things today. Gasol was very craft positioning himself in these situations and was routinely going over or slipping around his man to grab offensive rebounds or tip the ball.
As for the third leg of the international sever-footer contingent on the roster, Haddadi doesn’t look ready. (It will be interesting to see if the team sends him to the “D” league, where he’d have yet another new environment to adapt.) But he did have a nice moment yesterday, winning a rare scrimmage for the third-string “green” squad with a turn-around free-throw line jumper, drawing cheers from his inactive, first-string teammates.
Fire & Ice Coaching: Assistant coach/“defensive coordinator” Kevin O’Neill has been taking the lead in some halfcourt drills to implement defensive philosophy, with Marc Iavaroni stepping in to underscore or add to certain points. We seemed to get a good glimpse of the disparate coaching personalities and the hopefully complementary roles they can play today, with O’Neill pushing the team to be more aggressive and Iavaroni reminding players to keep their head about them while doing so.
After one player picked up an unnecessary foul after O’Neill had pleaded for more aggression, Iavaroni said, “I like physical, but I like smart too. Don’t do all that work and bail a guy out.” As the team went back into a live drill, you could head O’Neill offering instruction: “Everytime you see a cutter, go tag his ass.”
Banged Up:Wear and tear seems to be setting in a little after a week of hard practices. The team got a brief scare yesterday when Darko Milicic caught a pass from O.J. Mayo heading to the rim and plowed into Antoine Walker, falling to the floor and staying there a couple of seconds. But Darko made it up and seemed fine today.
A couple of other players didn’t fare as well, as the Grizzlies had to abandon their three-team rotation for end-of-practice scrimmages when a couple of players weren’t available: Darrell Arthur sitting out with a minor hamstring injury and Marko Jaric leaving the court after taking a shot to the face.
Lil Lowry:Kyle Lowry has been perhaps the most eye-catching player the past couple of days. Yesterday, he knocked down multiple jumpers and defended aggressively, diving across the court for a loose ball and drawing appreciative chuckles from the first-stringers watching from the baseline.
Today, Lowry was particularly relentless attacking the paint. He still needs to add more variety and nuance to his off-the-dribble game, but Lowry reminded onlookers today that few players in the league are as adept at getting into the paint and drawing contact.
Gasol, certainly, has been getting to know this particular teammate better – going nose to nose with him diving for a loose ball and then getting knocked back when Lowry basically speared him on a drive to the hoop. Lowry also made a nice defensive play today streaking down court to cleanly strip Hakim Warrick on a breakaway attempt.
I’m starting to think that Lowry and Marko Jaric could make for a nice backcourt pairing off the bench. Jaric wants to be a point guard, but can’t be trusted to bring the ball up under pressure. Lowry can handle those duties, while Jaric’s better playmaking feel in the halfcourt could make up for a Lowry deficiency.
O.J. Mayo: Right now, Mayo’s the only guard on the roster I’d feel good about rising up for a jump shot. He shoots really well off the dribble — adept at finding an open spot off one or two bounces and sinking mid-range shots. He’s also shot pretty well spotting up from three in the practices I’ve seen. Mayo got a little bit of run at the point today. His decision making in transition was shaky, mixing really bad moments with really good ones. Said Iavaroni about Mayo’s first week of NBA training camp: “He’s learning he can be an assassin in this league, but also needs to play a well-rounded game.”
Subject for further research: Last year, the Grizzlies opened the year with a proven post scorer (Pau Gasol) and two elite three-point threats (Mike Miller and Juan Carlos Navarro). Those elements are sorely missing from this team, which doesn’t necessarily mean the Grizzlies are doomed to be worse offensively, but does mean that points will come in different ways this season. Expect fewer post plays and three pointers and more free-throws, fastbreaks, and mid-range jumpers. On the latter, expect a lot of them to come from frontcourt players. After Mayo, the three best mid-range shooters on the team will probably be Warrick, Gasol, and Gay.
Deflections: Hakim Warrick looks even thinner, if that’s possible. He’s been connecting on mid-range jumper and running the floor well, but he’s also been getting toasted on the block by Antoine Walker. If he can’t handle Walker, then things could get ugly when he routinely faces off with legit power-forward starters in the league.
Today’s highlight came courtesy of Mike Conley, who blocked Javaris Crittenton’s layup attempt at one end, came down with the ball, and went coast-to-coast to finish a layup over two defenders.
I’ve been able to make it to the morning sessions of Grizzlies training camp the past two days, though I haven’t had time to stick around to the end or talk to anyone.
Yesterday we saw some four-on-four halfcourt drills and brief bit of full-court scrimmaging. Today (with Michael Heisley in the house), we saw the roster divided into three teams for a fairly lengthy series of full-court scrimmages. For the record, the “white” team today consisted of Mike Conley, O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick, and Marc Gasol. (Before you get too excited, the previous day’s scrimmages had Darko Milicic and Javaris Crittenton with this group instead of Gasol and Mayo). The “blue” team was Kyle Lowry, Marko Jaric, Greg Buckner, Antoine Walker, and Darko Milicic. The remaining six players rotated on the “green” team.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in a couple of brief snatches of practice on the first two days of training camp, but a few team-wide tendencies seemed notable. Defensively, point guards have been applying pressure full court. And the team certainly seems to be preaching more aggressive pick-and-roll defense — hedging harder and sometimes trapping the ball-handler.
Offensively, the team has been running and looking for transition opportunities (most memorably Crittenton connecting with Darrell Arthur on a halfcourt alley-oop play). In the halfcourt, things look are understandably perimeter-oriented, rooted in dribble penetration and pick-and-roll. Bigs have scored on catch-and-shoot, catch-and-finish, and off the boards. I don’t think I saw a traditional post play in the two bits of practice I saw. I’m sure that will come, but given the personnel, it’ll be a secondary part of the offense.
A few observations on individual players:
Hamed Hadaddi appears to be more agile and athletic than Jake Tsakalidis, but considerably less so than Darko or Gasol. He also might have some conditioning issues, as he was by far the last one to finish a running drill. I’m not certain about this, but Hadaddi seems to have a pretty average wingspan for a guy his size, which might mitigate his 7’2” height. Again, I don’t know for certain, but I suspect Darko and Gasol might have a greater standing reach. He was also pretty lumbering with his approach to the hoop. I did see Hadaddi sink a straightaway jumper from about 18 feet.
In the two days I saw, Conley’s jumper looked spotty, but his penetration and control was very encouraging. Yesterday, I saw him blow by Mayo to get in the lane and find Gasol for a lay-up. Today he drove into the paint and floated an alley-oop pass to Warrick for a dunk. A few moments later, he jetted into the lane and sank a Tony Parker-esque floater. He seems to be able to get wherever he wants on the court.
Gay was active on both ends of the court, turning steals into breakaway dunks, passing up open threes to drive to the rim and draw fouls, hitting jumpers over smaller defenders (Buckner). He looks really good so far.
Mayo’s jumper was in good form. I saw him make shots coming off screens and spotting-up for three, but his athleticism still doesn’t look special, which given his so-so size for the position he’ll be playing concerns me a little.
I’m not sure Jaric is really someone you want bringing the ball up the floor (in fact, I know some Timberwolves fans who are absolutely sure about that), but he showed some of his playmaking ability, getting into the paint and making smart passes. I liked his demeanor today. Given his versatility, experience, and ability, I think the team almost has to find a way to get him into the rotation.
Crittenton showed good defensive intensity.
Lowry was a bowling ball, knocking multiple players to the floor, including Conley on a fierce foray to the hoop.
With so much action on the perimeter, the bigs haven’t stood out as much. After finger-rolling (and missing) a play at the rim yesterday, it was nice to see Darko flush one today. Gasol seemed adept at playing pick-and-roll on both ends of the court, showing harder than his brother ever did on the defensive end and playing a two-man game with Gay on the offensive end in which Gasol set up Gay for an open jumper.
Quote of the Day:“We’ve got a lot of [power] forwards on this team, and I’ve told them: If I have to play your position, something is wrong.” — Rudy Gay, after I asked him if he thought he’d see significant minutes at power forward again this year.
He was smiling when he said it, but was also serious. What I got from his response: He isn’t thrilled at the idea of playing the four, but more importantly is confident enough in his role as a team leader to apply friendly but firm pressure to teammates.
Consensus of the Day: That O.J. Mayo is not to be trifled with. If there was a pattern to responses today — from players and other team personnel, on the record and off — it was this: Mayo has an intensity, swagger, and work ethic that is highly unusual for a rookie. When Mike Conley was asked if he thought Mayo might struggle to make a big splash on the team as a rookie — since Conley himself and Rudy Gay both struggled their rookie seasons — Conley smiled and said, “O.J.’s a different guy. He has the swagger right now. It doesn’t matter with him [that he’s a rookie].
Further testimonials continued from a number of non-player team insiders. One said that after Mayo’s team lost in an unofficial pick-up game last week, Mayo spent the next day stewing about it, a story Mayo himself confirmed. This source also said Mayo has been “making everything” in recent team pick-up games.
Another said that he’d heard Mayo had gotten into it with pretty much everyone on the team, but in a good way, including chastising one teammate for being 10 minutes late to an informal shooting practice. Asked if he thought Mayo had crossed the line from being a leader to a problem, this source said no: “We’ve never really had guys take control like this. We need it.”
A third source confirmed Mayo’s suffer-no-fools demeanor and said he thought Mayo would make an easier rookie transition than Rudy Gay because, as someone whose been under the microscope since middle school, he’s better prepared, and because his superior ball skills will allow him to be more effective earlier.
Other player-by-player notes:
Rudy Gay: Rudy’s presence and ease was really impressive today. With the departure of Pau Gasol and now Mike Miller, this is his team and he seems to have embraced his role as team alpha dog. When one reporter asked what he thought about playing alongside the first Iranian player in the NBA, Gay scrunched his face in a quizzical look and deadpanned, “Hakim’s Iranian?”
Asked about his role as team leader, he said, “I think my mindset changed in the middle of last year” and then said, “This is fun to me. I want to see what we can do. I’ve been thinking about it all summer.” He also said that’s he’s seen a different dedication level this summer among the young core — everyone working on their games and then coming into camp early to work together.
Mike Conley: Conley isn’t necessarily quotable, but still strikes me as the most real, most thoughtful person on the team. He talked about his determination to be more assertive in his second season after “feeling his way” as a rookie, but also allowed that it’s challenging to do that on a team that’s going to be so perimeter focused — with a two guard (Mayo) and small forward (Gay) who are going to need the ball a lot. He also talked about needing to improve his spot-up shooting to make himself more effective off the ball when Mayo is bringing it up.
Darko Milicic: Darko seemed in good spirits today, and I always appreciate his candor. Asked if he’d changed his approach this summer in terms of preparing for the season, he said that his goal — which he’s met — was to come in lighter, partly in anticipation of seeing some minutes at power forward. To do so, he concentrated on running and shooting and less on the heavy weightlifting he did last summer. “It was a stupid approach for me last year,” he said about bulking up, and allowed that it may have contributed to some of the foot problems he had last year.
Darko said that he took two weeks off to heal his Achilles injury, but that he’s good to go for training camp. As for having countryman Marko Jaric on the team, Darko didn’t make too big of a deal about it, but did say he’s known Jaric since he was 15.
Antoine Walker: Walker was going strong with the veteran platitudes, but I tried to get something else out of him. I asked if he was going to be a one-position guy — power forward — at this point in his career. He gave lip service to still being able to play the three, but allowed that the four was probably his primary position. He made the case — a legitimate one, probably — that his three-point shooting can create match-up problems and give the team another dimension at the four.
I pointed out that the other two power forwards on the roster — Darrell Arthur and Hakim Warrick — are both young players and asked Walker if he sees them more as players he would serve as a mentor for or competitors for playing time. Walked wasted no time choosing the “competitor” option: “I’m coming to play,” he said with a smile.
Hakim Warrick: Warrick talked about this as the first year where he has a strong claim to a full-season starting job coming into camp, a “chance to go out there and show what I can do.” He talked about “having to fight my way back in” last year, but allowed he needs to improve his defense and rebounding to keep hold of a starting job.
I asked about his sudden discovery of a three-point shot a year ago, and he allowed that that was a facet of his game he was trying to develop to make himself a more complete player.
Marko Jaric: Jaric came across as smart and cordial and someone who knew the drill: Asked about his versatility, he said that his preference is to play the point, then shrugged, implying he knows that’s unlikely on this team. Asked about his relationship with Darko, he said that there was a generational difference between the two and they hadn’t really played together that much.
“He’s one of those guys who pisses you off, he’s so talented,” Jaric said of Darko. “He’s a good player now, but I think he can be a lot better.”
Hamed Haddidi: I peered over a scrum of reporters trying to interview Haddidi through a translator and it seemed to be rough going, so I moved on. My goal of engaging him in a conversation about Iranian cinema will have to wait for another day.
Marc Gasol: Gasol was the only person in the building who has seen Hadaddi play an actual game in person, so I asked for a scouting report: “Great hands. Understands the game. Moves pretty well for a 7’2” guy. Plays great defense. A good rebounder.” Sounds good, Marc! I talked to Gasol a while about the Olympics, but none of it made my notebook or was particularly memorable.
Quinton Ross: Ross talked about adding a defensive presence to the team and said he really didn’t see his cousin Darrell (Arthur) all that much growing up, but kept tabs on him.
The Grizzlies hold their annual pre-season media session this afternoon.
I'll be there and will be walking over the join Chris Vernon on his show afterwards. I'll probably be appearing sometime in the four o-clock hour, but maybe later.
Because of radio duties immediately after the media session, I won't have notes up on this site until later tonight, or maybe even tomorrow morning — not that I expect much of real substance to come out of this. My experience is that players do their most compelling talking on the court, so the start of practices and games is what I'm really looking forward to. I don't plan on spending much time jotting down and regurgitating the platitudes and cliches that are the primary currency of these kinds of events, but anything interesting I pick up, I will pass along.
