The Memphis Grizzlies held a press conference in the lobby of FedExForum today to introduce the newest player to don Beale Street Blue: Spanish center Marc Gasol, who signed what is reportedly a three-year, $10 million contract to play for the Grizzlies.
Acquired, in a perhaps unprecedented moment of hoops irony, in last season’s trade of older brother Pau to the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol should be plenty familiar to local hoops fans already: In addition to being the equally cavemanish younger brother of the franchise’s scoring leader, Marc also prepped at Lausanne Collegiate School here before heading back home to Spain to play for his hometown pro team, FC Barcelona.
Those same local fans might not recognize the younger Gasol though: After five years playing pro ball in Spain, the heavyset teenager who once palled around FedExForum with high-school teammate Johnnie “Son of Jerry” West before Grizzlies games has transformed into a muscular, sturdy athlete — one who, in five seasons, evolved from a possible legacy signee to the best player in the world’s second-best league. Gasol won the MVP of Spain’s ACB league last season.
The previous four ACB MVPs (Juan Carlos Navarro, Luis Scola, Walter Herrmann, and Andres Nocioni) have all come to the NBA and held their own. Gasol is younger and bigger than any of them heading into the league and thus likely a higher-caliber prospect.
Gasol’s press conference wasn’t terribly interesting, as these canned photo-op events rarely are. Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace called Gasol “one of the most improved players I’ve ever seen,” while Gasol himself cited the 2006 World Championships as the turning point in his career, when he realized he could compete at the highest level.
After a photo-op in which Gasol held up his new #33 jersey (Mike Miller’s old number), he took some more informal questions. Asked about potentially taking less money to come to the NBA this season than he could have gotten in Spain, Gasol said his desire to play in the NBA won out. That may well be true, but I’ll add my own non-P.C. addendum: If he becomes the kind of player everyone seems to think he can, Gasol’s real NBA money will come on his second contract, so the sooner he can get his first NBA contract behind him the better off he’ll be in the long run.
I asked Gasol about an ESPN magazine story in which Pau said he was leaving his downtown Memphis condo (and custom-made bed) for his little brother. Gasol allowed that that was true, but maybe only in the short-term. “Once my girlfriend makes it over, she’ll decide if that’s an okay place to live,” Gasol said. “You know how that goes.”
Gasol flew into Memphis last night and is heading back out again tonight to return to his Spanish national team for Olympic preparation. He did have time to meet teammate Mike Conley, with whom he’s sure to work many, many high pick-and-roll plays next season, and Wallace was hopeful Gasol would get to meet with other future teammates today before heading to the airport.
Practice Notes:
Before the Gasol presser, I slipped onto the practice court to catch the end of this morning’s summer practice session. Media didn’t get to see quite as much live action today as yesterday, but it was interesting to see Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo matched up against each other on opposite scrimmage squads for a few possessions.
In these sequences, Mayo used his superior size to back Conley down and score in the paint. On the other end, however, Conley blew by Mayo (and anyone else in his way) to get into the paint on every possession I saw, usually dropping the ball off the teammates for point-blank looks. In these brief early flashes, Conley is looking terrific.
I had a chance to talk to Conley for a few minutes after practice. He talked about working with new assistant coach Kevin O’Neill, who traveled to work with Conley at Ohio State earlier this summer. Conley laughed when he described O’Neill as “very intense” and someone who “picks up on every mistake.” He did say that O’Neill is spearheading a more aggressive but more conventional defensive approach, picking up opponents full court and now forcing opponents to the baseline instead of to the middle, which was the approach last season. Conley allowed that this change in approach was probably more intuitive, because that’s the way he was coached dating back to high school.
Conley was sporting a blue “Let It Fly” wristband he said was given to him by Mike Miller after his shooting improved last season. “I’m keeping the memory of Mike alive,” he said.
Talking about his shooting, Conley said he was trying to build on his strong late-season play from his rookie year and had been corresponding with shooting coach Mark Price, with whom he hopes to meet in Atlanta before the season starts.
We talked a little bit about adjusting to the longer NBA three-point line last season, and Conley made an interesting point, saying that the adjustment helped his shooting by forcing him to use his legs more on his shot instead of relying on his upper-body the way he did with the shorter distances in high school and college.
Speaking of his upper body, Conley said that building up his body has gone along with defense and shooting as his off-season priorities, the difference in his build very apparent in these practice sessions. After a couple of injury issues last season, Conley said he felt it was important for him to add more muscle and strength to his upper body to absorb contact in the paint.
Better prospect that Andres Nocioni? Can't go wrong with that.