How To Build A Team From Scratch: The Memphis Grizzlies

It still amazes me how the Memphis Grizzlies were able to build their core with three seemingly bad or, at least, questionable moves.

It all started in June, 2007 when the franchise from Tennessee selected Mike Conley Jr. with the #4 overall pick in the NBA Draft. He had been a talented player in Ohio State alongside Greg Oden, but the Grizzlies chose him over some really good players like Joakim Noah or Conley´s current teammates Jeff Green and Marc Gasol (I’ll get to him later), after having selected the talented Kyle Lowry a year before. He didn’t have a very promising rookie season either, splitting minutes with Lowry and the veteran Damon Stoudamire while averaging 9 points and 4 assists per game, so it didn’t seem like the best possible outcome for them.

The second move took place in February, 2008 when the Grizzlies traded their All-Star Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for two first-round picks, Kwame Brown -ironically, the #1 overall pick in Pau’s draft class back in 2001-, Javaris Crittenton -a 20-year old rookie that was to become famous for his off court issues-, guard Aaron McKie and the rights to Pau’s relatively unknown younger brother Marc.

And finally, in July, 2009 the Memphis Grizzlies acquired the extremely talented but equally problematic Zach Randolph, who started his career out in the famous ‘Jail Blazers’ and had been wandering between New York and the Clippers for the previous two years, putting up big numbers though.

I’ve got to be honest here and say that I didn’t think Randolph was going to fit in the way he has - give Memphis’ former coach Lionel Hollins, his teammates and Z-Bo himself a ton of credit for that. I also thought trading Kyle Lowry was a mistake, although he’s become an elite point guard in this league, Mike Conley has proven he’s capable of running the point for a top NBA team. And although I’d watched Marc Gasol play in Spain for a couple of years and did know he had some potential, I would’ve never anticipated the terrific player Marc was about to become.

So, what all of this shows us is how important patience, knowing what your needs are, making the right choices despite the criticism and the initial struggles and, of course, a little bit of luck are when building a long-term, competitive NBA team.

Honorable mention to trading their leading scorer, Rudy Gay in January, 2013 in exchange for Ed Davis and the veteran Tayshaun Prince. Although I fully supported the trade, I thought they could’ve gotten more out of it, but yet again the result was the Grizzlies succeeding and making their first ever Conference Finals appearance against the Spurs.

Author: Alvaro Heras

I’m a big-time NBA fan from Spain who’s always been very passionate about writing, and here I am letting it fly. Love this wonderful sport.

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