Training Camp Notebook: Thursday/Friday
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.
