By: Dustin Chapman

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• Selected Kevin Love 5th overall and traded his rights along with Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins to Minnesota for Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric, Greg Buckner, and the rights to O.J. Mayo (3rd overall).

• Selected Donte Greene 28th overall and traded his rights to Houston for the rights to Darrell Arthur (27th overall) and a future second round draft pick.

Just when you thought the draft was over, the almighty duo of Chris Wallace and Kevin McHale teamed up to shock the world with an eight-player deal including two top five draft picks.

Memphis won both deals, hands down. First off, nabbing a guy like O.J. Mayo is remarkable. He’s got all the tools to be a big time star in the NBA, and he’s got the work ethic to follow up with. Putting him alongside Rudy Gay and Mike Conley on the perimeter can be something special in the future. Mayo was undoubtedly the best player in the deal, and a no-brainer for Memphis to pull the trigger on.

In addition, how about a little Darrell Arthur with that Mayo? Arthur rapidly went from being in lottery consideration to the back-end of the first round, and the most discouraging part about it is that it likely has more to do with false health information more than anything. Arthur, in my eyes, is a lottery talent, and a tremendous steal in this draft. Put a lottery talent with terrific athleticism and a chip on his shoulder into an up-tempo system, you’ve got yourself a gem.

In my estimation, the Memphis Grizzlies had an absolutely unbelievable draft. They got themselves a legitimate star on both ends of the floor in O.J. Mayo, who is ready to play right away, and a lottery-caliber big man in Darrell Arthur. Mr. Wallace, I think you just made up for the Pau Gasol donation.

Grade: A

From Grizzlies.com:

Photo Gallery

Video

Q&A With Tony Barone Sr.

Q&A With Darrell Arthur

Q&A With Will Daniels

Q&A With Courtney Lee

Q&A With Shan Foster

Q&A With Anthony Randolph

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

The Memphis Grizzlies have officially began their 2008 pre-draft workout process, and Grizzlies.com has put together a day one report:

The preparation for this month’s draft went to a new level Thursday as the Grizzlies opened their draft workouts with a trio of forwards. As in the past, the sessions were run by Grizzlies Director of Player Personnel Tony Barone, Sr.

Photo gallery

Tony Barone, Sr.

What are your general impressions of the workout?
Well, I think that we just have to be diligent in looking at a number of types of players. I think each of these kids brings a little bit something different to the table. The Casspi kid, as you can tell, has played professional basketball in Europe, and so he has a different physicality to him. Rhodes, who we liked at Mississippi State, is a very good shooter, and has a little bit of a step-back jumper that will allow him to get that shot off in the game. Davon is a developing young big guy. He’s going to have to figure out a position right now. Is he a two? Is he a three? We don’t know yet. I was really impressed with the way they competed today. They came in here and really went after each other. They all showed some skilled level today.

I know you don’t want to have preconceived notions, but were you looking for certain things out of any of these individuals?
I try not to do that. I think you get into a little bit of a funk when you do that. We’ve seen each one of these guys play a minimum of eight times, so we already have in the back of our mind a snapshot, which is a big snapshot, by the way. This is a small snapshot, and what you see from them in a workout is usually pretty consistent as to what they did during the year. Now, there will be some changes, and sometimes those changes are pluses and sometimes they are minuses. You add that to the whole pot, and then you stir it up and you make a decision.

What impressed you about Charles Rhodes when he was at Mississippi State?
Well, I thought he could score the basketball and that was a big issue. Even though he was a little undersized for his position, and that’s great league obviously, he could always score the ball. He has that jump shot, a little step-back jump shot that a lot of guys don’t have. That is a big plus for him.

Chris Wallace:

Can you talk about the players you brought in today?
These are three aspiring NBA players. Casspi comes to us from Israel, he’s one of the best young players in Europe. He plays for Maccabi Tel-Aviv, which is one of the traditional powers in European basketball, his team reached the Euroleague Final Four. I think eventually he’ll be the first Israeli to play in the NBA. He’s rugged, you might remember from last year at the Hoop Summit, he was one of the best players for the international team at the Hoop Summit. He showed ability to run the court, finish well on the break, he played with a great deal of determination and toughness, and that’s what you’ve got. You’ve got a tough guy who can score inside and outside. He may stay in this draft or may not, depending on the feedback he gets from teams.

Davon Jefferson was on the USC team with O.J. Mayo. He played in the Orlando pre-draft camp. If he gets drafted it’ll probably be in the second round. He’s a highly-regarded athlete who was considered one of the best high school players in the country when he was coming out.

And Charles Rhodes has put a lot of points on the board, grabbed many rebounds and been very productive for Mississippi State in the SEC over his career. He’s someone who I think is going to do very well in professional basketball over time.

So we’re real glad these guys came in. They worked hard. This is just the beginning of the process.”

Charles Rhodes:

How many teams have you worked out for? Was this your first workout?
The Miami Heat was my first workout. This was actually my second. I left Miami, flew here, and had a workout. My next one will be with the Wizards.

What do you think about what you did today, what you have to work on, and how you feel?
I felt really comfortable today. It was just right down the street, and this is the team that I have wanted to play for ever since I was in high school. I did very good today, and I need a lot more help, just like every other guy. You always want to improve something in my game.

What could you bring to the Grizzlies?
I think I can bring a lot to the Grizzlies. I’ll bring whatever the coach and general manager want me to bring. I think I have that type of ability. Whatever they want me to bring, that’s what I’ll bring.

What about your size in this league? They feel you are a little bit undersized, but you have always been able to score the ball in the SEC?
Everybody at the Orlando camp averaged around 6-7, even Michael Beasley, which is the same as me. I don’t think that height has much to with it. I think it’s all about your valentine. It’s all about your heart, what you’ve got inside.

How would it be to be able to be pretty close to home?
It would be unbelievable to play here in Memphis. The other day, I had a day off and came in here and worked out. I was walking around looking at everything and just started starting at the Memphis Grizzly in the middle of the court. I just started daydreaming. It would be a dream come true, but I have a lot more workouts to do and I just have to work hard and stay focused.

What is some stuff that you need to focus on that you think you need to work on?
I think the only thing I need to focus on right now is being an NBA player. Working hard and doing everything I need to do to become an NBA player.

When you talk to GMs and scouts, what are they telling you about your game and the things that you need to improve on?
They’ve just been telling me to do what I do, do what I did to get here. Do the things I did at Mississippi State and just improve. That’s what I’m doing.

Davon Jefferson:

Had you been to any workouts prior to today’s?
This was my second workout. I had one last night in Detroit. I flew out around nine o’clock last night, got in around 10-something, got to the hotel, it was late, but I was ok.

Did that quick turnaround affect you today?
No. You just have to do the workout. I got plenty of sleep. You’re going to get tired, you’re traveling, changing time zones, but you have to compete.

How would you rate your performance today?
I didn’t think I made a lot of shots, but I competed and went hard.

What are you looking to get out of the workouts?
I’m just trying to get better. I’m competing, trying to learn the drills to show what I can do. As far as the conditioning I worked out for a month and a half strong, so I wasn’t tired.

What position do you see yourself playing at the next level?
I’m a three. I have to learn how to play better defense on the perimeter and get my ball handling (down), but I’m a three.

Was it a hard decision to leave USC after one year?
It wasn’t that hard because I made up my mind a long time ago. As soon as the season was over I sat down with my mom. I think I’m ready. I have a lot of improvements to make, I have to get better. I have a lot of growth and progress to make. The main thing is I’m just trying to compete and get better.

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

For the second straight year, the Memphis Grizzlies have fallen in the draft lottery, based on their pre-lottery positioning. Luckily, this year’s drop was not as far as 2007’s first-to-fourth. Memphis went into last night’s 2008 NBA Draft Lottery with the fourth-best overall chances, and a 11.9% chance at landing the first pick. By the event’s end, Memphis fell one spot shy of their original position, giving them the fifth overall selection in next month’s draft.

Chris Wallace may not have had the chance to bring in a Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley, but Memphis fans should still be excited about this draft. The likely candidates to be your newest Grizzly are USC guard O.J. Mayo, Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless, and Stanford center Brook Lopez. Some have also speculated that Indiana’s Eric Gordon could work his way into the discussion.

Regardless of who becomes available at the fifth spot, Memphis will have an opportunity to bring in a terrific young talent to stick with their core of Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, and company.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

 The Memphis Grizzlies are the worse team in the NBA. But from looking at the roster, and not the record, nobody can honestly say Memphis is that bad. There are several reasons the Grizzlies season has been terrible, but there are three major reasons that has really hurt us this season.

 1. Coaching-On the 2006 NBA Draft, we took Rudy Gay and traded away Shane Battier, Mike Fratellos dream player. Then, in the Summer Championships, the Grizzlies best player, Pau Gasol, was injured. This injury would eventually sit him out for majority of the seasons first half. After the injury, it was clear that Jerry West wanted to see an uptempo game with players such as Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick and Dahntey Jones getting more playing time. But Mike Fratello never changed the style of the team and it resulted in a horrible beginning. Several players were noted of coming to Jerry West asking for a immediate change. This is when the Memphis Grizzlies released Mike Fratello and interim coach Tony Barone, who helped build the team, came in to make a quick change. So within a week, the Memphis Grizzlies switched from a slow grind-out team to a fast paced, shoot when open game. If you havent noticed, it took Phoenix three years to develop a good defense in this system. It is apparent that you cant, in the middle of the season, just switch to a pace like that. Since, Memphis has been averaging 110+ppg, but giving up just as much. If we can bring in a young and experience coach this off-season, he will be able to develop a efficient defense in the off-seasons training camp. With this, the Grizzlies can go into the 07-08 season knowing how to play defense, while still be a high-paced team.

2. The second reason is injuries. The biggest of course being Pau Gasols injury. When people say the Grizzlies offense ran through him, they were being literal. 90% of our first two passes ended up in Gasols hands. And it work, he truly is a player who makes his teammates better. He would do much of what Chris Webber and Shaquille O’Neal does, he will look at the defense, read it and usually make the right decision, if it was to pass it out or go for his own shot. When he went down, the Grizzlies lost their identity, lost they way they knew how to play, and it was kindve hectic to see them play. Although Hakim Warrick flourished while Gasol was out, Warrick isnt the offensive machine Gasol is. The Grizzlies took a outside-shooting system, relying mostly on 3’s, and some dunks. Other injuries such as Eddie Jones and Kyle Lowry also hurt us. Eddie Jones was our best defender, and when if he wasnt out with the sore Achilles injury, he wouldve helped the poor defensive team Memphis stop opposing stars. Kyle Lowry, the Grizzlies 2006 draft pick showed he was something special. In his first NBA game, the 6′0 guard pulled down 10 rebounds in a thriller against New York. He showed he could run a fast-paced offense behind Damon Stoudamire. Stoudamire, suffering a season ending injury last season against former-team Portland Trailblazers, came back this season strong. But in about 10 game, you could see the injury and age wearing Stoudamire down. He went on a bad shooting streak, where he lost his starting spot to back-up Chucky Atkins. All these injuries took a serious toll on the Grizzlies, and hopefully we can come back next season alot more healthy.

3. The third and final reason is youth. Memphis traded away its smartest and hardworking player, Battier, for a youthful, athletic kid outve college. When Gasol went down, we replaced his starting spot with 2nd year man Hakim Warrick. We also started 2nd rnd draft pick Alexander Johnson, and also had the inexperienced Dahntey Jones start as shooting guard in place of Eddie Jones. With Miller and Stoudamire/Atkins being the only starters with real NBA experience, the Grizzlies lost several games on rookie mistakes and bad decisions. Memphis suddenly became a very young team who majority were still learning the NBA life. We looked at Warrick and Gay for much of the scoring, and the pressure was simply too much for the younger players. But after a off-season and a training camp, these young players will soon learn to grow into smart and efficient players.

  Outve all the losses, and heart-breakers, there are some good things to come outve this. Hakim Warrick was given an golden opportunity to show what hes got. And hes is now a starter along with Gasol, and is constantly in the Grizzlies rotation. Rudy Gay has been given many opportunites and responsibilties most rookies do not recieve. In return, Rudy, post all-star break, has had excellent numbers for rookies. And there is something the Grizzlies are bitter-sweet about, an extremely high daft pick. Although the Grizzlies are not proud of the horrible record, you cant help but think about that 2007 Draft Class. Players like Julian Wright, Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Brandon Wright and Greg Oden in it, theres several players the Grizzlies could use. If Memphis were to get the first pick in the draft, and a certain two players came out, Memphis could make alotve history on draft night for the Grizzlies.

These are three, of several reasons, the Grizzlies are not up-to-par with previous Grizzly teams, and if the Grizzlies play their cards right, this record could be flipped this time next season.                        

                                                                                                                     -Austin