This will be the final post on the current incarnation of Beyond the Arc. Starting today, the blog will move to a new location as part of a web redesign at the Memphis Flyer. Once the canary in the blog coalmine for the Flyer, it will now be one of many staff blogs on the main site.
You can now find Beyond the Arc here.
The most recent posts on this site have been moved to the new one, but the archives will remain here. Also, sadly, the comments on recent posts have not made the conversion.
The new site will probably take a few weeks to get all the kinks corrected. And the blog roll on this site probably won't show up on the new site until later this summer.
But, I hope everyone will make the trip with me to Beyond the Arc's new location. Which, in case you missed it is here.
Apparently the Suns got into town early and Shaq wanted to get some Jungle Room action in. A blow-by-blow from the Big Aristotle's Twitter feed (thanks to True Hoop for catching this):
Quote:
# And the winner @kiafbaby , dam that was fast , they got me at the lisa marie , I was lookn at the plane
about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
# Whoeva finds me at graceland gets four tickets
about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
# Pullin up to grtaceland in about twenty minutes, is this were elvis is really from
about 16 hours ago from TwitterBerry
# Should I go see elvis, I'm in memphis, you aint nuttin but a hound dog, ridin around town Dun nun daa
With the college season over and the NBA season winding down, it's time again to start focusing on the draft. Like last season, I'm going to do multiple installments of my Grizzlies draft board following each step in the process: the lottery selection, the pre-draft combine, the individual workouts. Unlike last season, I expect some significant changes to the following list.
Last year, the only big difference between my initial draft list and my final one was moving Anthony Randolph off the board after seeing his individual workout (and getting a sense of how much of a project he was going to be). But this is a more difficult draft to get a handle on and I've watched less college basketball than I did last season, so I expect to learn a lot more over the next two months that will impact my thinking on the draft.
So, consider this a very preliminary ranking of who the Grizzlies should be looking at in the lottery. I'm going nine deep on the list, because #9 is the lowest the Grizzlies will possibly be picking. I'll have a follow-up post in the coming days on players to potentially target with the team's two later picks.
Griz Draft Board
1. Blake Griffin
Griffin doesn't require much commentary: The hands-down top pick and exactly what the Grizzlies need. I don't think he has the length or all-around game to be a Duncan/Garnett-level league-MVP-caliber player at the 4, but I think he can be a physical force from day one and a monster rebounder and (emerging) scorer. He's Carlos Boozer with hops and toughness. We can only hope…
Click here for the full post.
I'm courtside for Griz-Blazers as this season winds down.
The home team has won four straight and five of their past six. At this point, the winning hurts the team's lottery odds, but given the lack on consolation prizes in this summer's draft and the long odds against getting the #1 pick regardless of record, it's nice to see this team's four most meaningful players all playing well together and picking up wins.
Tonight, Greg Oden makes his Memphis debut, coming off the bench behind Joel "White Mutombo" Przybilla. Darko Milicic will miss tonight's game (as will Quinton Ross), which means we might be looking at a Greg Oden-Hamed Haddadi clash tonight. And you know I'm looking forward to that.
As always, if you have any queries, comments, or elaborate conspiracy theories to impart, you can do so in the comments section of this post. If anybody's alive out there, I'll check in throughout the game.
Coming up after the game: The first installment of my Grizzlies draft board.
I'm courtside at FedExForum where a few hundred Memphians are getting ready to watch the home team try to go on a two-game win streak.
One thing the Grizzlies and I have had in common of late: We both spent a good bit of time on the road in March. In fact, the team's only home stand last month coincided with a work trip for me, so I haven't made an appearance here in a while.
What I'm most looking forward to? Checking out the newly formidable Hamed Haddadi.
As always, feel free to chime in on the comments thread here with any absurd commentary, knock-knock jokes, or withering criticisms you can muster.
Let's do this.
Dear Michael Heisley:
I don’t know if you know it, but you're having a good day. Your basketball franchise hasn't had much in the way of good fortune over the years — wayward draft-lottery results, career-ending injuries to players on long-term contracts, Stu Jackson. But today you received a rare gift when John Calipari left his coaching post at the University of Memphis.
You shouldn't gloat about this of course. That would be poor public relations in this college-sports-crazed town, and you've done enough damage to you and your team's image already. Besides, as someone who has always found Calipari insufferable, I'm happy to celebrate for you. But make no mistake: This is an opportunity.
If the University of Memphis makes a smart coaching hire (paging Missouri's Mike Anderson), then their basketball program can still be very successful. But it's wildly unlikely that the next coach will be able to maintain the consistently lofty status Calipari has achieved at the University of Memphis over the past few years — at least not without incurring the scandal Calipari was slick enough to avoid. And, with "Coach Cal" all but napalming the Tiger program on his character-revealing way out the door, it will take even a good new coach a little time to get things back on track.
With the Tigers likely derailed for a couple of years, this presents a much-needed chance for the Grizzlies franchise to reassert its prominence among local basketball fans.
Memphis may be the only city in America in which a major-league team and a minor-league team in the same sport co-exist and there's more civic interest in the minor-league team. Part of this is due to the strong, long-held affection many locals have for the University of Memphis basketball program; multiple generations of fans have grown up treating Tiger basketball like the professional franchise it's not supposed to be.
But even more than ingrained fandom, the recent disparity in interest between the Tigers and Grizzlies has been a direct response to the relative on-court success and failure of the two teams. With a talented head coach deft at gaming an already inherently non-competitive system, the Tigers have lost fewer games over the past three seasons (10) than your floundering Grizzlies have this March (11). Yet, just a few years ago, when the Grizzlies were going to the playoffs and the Tigers were an NIT-bound underachiever, it was the major-league team in town that was drawing the bigger crowds.
The attendance and fan-interest battle can swing your way again, Mr. Heisley, and it can start to happen next season. But you must seize this opportunity with a dramatic offseason that is followed by a significant improvement on the 20-something-win malaise your franchise has been mired in for three seasons now.
Getting the University of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin would be a good start, but the Grizzlies have no control over that. It's up to the draft lottery gods, who haven't exactly smiled on your team in the past. And getting some kind of marquee free agent this summer would be good too, but that's more difficult than a lot of fans realize. Neither of these things is a matter of merely wanting to act.
There are, however, some areas where you can control you own destiny: You can start with the coaching situation. Marc Iavaroni, while a tremendously smart and decent guy, was a disaster in his first head-coaching stint. You listened to Jerry West in hiring the former Phoenix assistant, and you got burned. Forced to make a change with a year and a half left on Iavaroni's contract, but not wanting to pay two full-fledged head coaches in the middle stages of the team's so-called "three-year plan," you replaced Iavaroni with returning company man Lionel Hollins. It was a deflating, uninspired choice made out of personal comfort and financial reticence.
Hollins is essentially a glorified interim coach. After a couple of smart initial changes — turning Mike Conley loose and upping the team's pace of play — he hasn't distinguished himself, and what's left of the fan base has no reason to believe in him going forward. Hollins' interim period should end this summer.
Bump Hollins up to a front-office position of some sort where his solid community ties can be helpful and go out and hire a coach that you believe in and that fans can get excited about. (One idea among many potential targets: Bill Laimbeer, the former Pistons all-star whose three titles in the WNBA suggests translatable head-coaching experience and whose commanding personality and winning pedigree should get the attention of players and fans alike.)
A coach in place, you simply must finally give general manager Chris Wallace the full green light to use all of the team's assets this summer — three picks in this June's rookie draft, copious cap room, and plenty of attractive and potentially expendable young players — to do whatever he possibly can to make the team significantly better next season without sacrificing the long-term goals. No more talk of three-year plans. That phrase should be stricken from the team's vocabulary. No more leaving all your free-agent money on the table. After compiling what is certain to be the worst combined record in the NBA over the past three seasons, this team needs to make a big leap NOW.
Whatever form the offseason takes — and I'll get into plenty of specifics once we know exactly where the team's lottery pick falls — the rough outline should be obvious: Adding a major young piece to a core that starts with O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol and may or may not include Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, and/or Darrell Arthur is a first priority, one hopefully the draft lottery can make easy to fulfill. Next comes spiking the team with multiple experienced players who can play big minutes and make a real impact. The likes of Marko Jaric, Greg Buckner, and Quentin Ross should be gone or buried at the end of the bench next season. This year's Grizzlies' squad may struggle to top 20 wins for the third straight season. Next year's version should be committed to winning 40, with better years to follow.
Despite this season's struggles, your team had a good and active offseason last summer: Trading for Mayo and signing the younger Gasol. One way or another, this summer's haul needs to be even more dramatic. John Calipari has given you a golden opportunity: He isn't just leaving the Tiger program, he's leaving at the very moment fans of that program were most excited about the future — with top prospects Xavier Henry, DeMarcus Cousins, and John Wall all potentially on deck. And he's wrecking that short-term future by not only taking all those potential stars with him, but raiding the current roster of its most usable parts. This whole saga has been one long (too long) learning moment for a lot of Tiger fans unaware of how shady their sport has become. Maybe they're ready to give the legitimate pro product in town another chance.
Tiger basketball will be a mess next season; the Grizzlies don't have to be. This is a gift, Mr. Heisley. But it's also a test. Don't blow it.
Hey! I'm live at FedExForum -- courtside in official mode for the first time in a long time.
The Grizzlies will try to go on a little two-game winning streak tonight following their upset win Sunday in Detroit.
Tonight, I'll be focusing almost exclusively on the four-man "core" of the team — O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol, and Mike Conley. Though there are a few other players who matter, the Grizzlies looming offseason will be driven in large part by what the team feels they have in these four players and how they fit together.
I haven't written much about the team on the court lately, but will check in later tonight with a post-game that addresses these four players in addition to whatever other game-specific stuff seems necessary.
I'm not live-blogging this but, as always, feel free to pepper the comments section with conjecture, complaint, astute observation, and maybe the occasional haiku. I'll pop in occasionally if there's any action.
Let's do this.
The Associated Press is reporting that Philadelphia prosecutors will not file charges against Marko Jaric in relation to the sexual assault allegation that surfaced yesterday. The AP reports that Philly officials say the accusations "lack prosecutorial merit."
Jaric's attorney released a statement tonight that reads as follows:
Quote:
Statement from Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. on Behalf of his client Marko Jaric
“I received official word from the Philadelphia District Attorneys office that after a thorough investigation no charges will be filed against my client Marko Jaric, (an NBA player for the Memphis Grizzlies), in connection with the alleged incident with an unnamed female on February 11, 2009 while his team was in town to play the 76ers.
Persons in Marko’s position are often the target of malicious statements and it is not unusual for the police to be asked to investigate. However, these allegations were proved to be completely false, and while Marko is extremely unsettled by these accusations, he is happy that the law enforcement authorities have cleared him of any criminal conduct and the issue can now be put to rest.”
From the "just when you thought this season couldn't get worse" department: An unnamed Grizzlies player has been accused of sexual assault, according to an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia:
Quote:
A woman has accused a Memphis Grizzlies player of sexually assaulting her earlier this year, a source told NBC 10. The alledged incident happened in the city of Philadelphia.
The Grizzlies were in town to play the Sixers. The Grizzlies are aware there is investigation surrounding one of their players, said a team representative to NBC Philadelphia.
Philly police would only confirm that they are investigating an allegation. The police wouldn't elaborate on who the allegation was against or any other details.
I've made a few calls to people inside or connected to the Grizzlies organization today and no-one had any info on this. If the team is aware of the allegation, as the story says, the story doesn't seem to have filtered very far into the organization.
More info on this story as it emerges.
