NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

It is draft time speculation time or something like that and the Memphis Grizzlies, a perennial loser in the NBA, have the second pick and no clue as to what to do with it.

Hasheem Thabeet towers over everybody

The most persistent rumor has the Griz taking Hasheem Thabeet, but Hasheem wouldn’t even work out for them. Hey, would you want to spend your career on a perennial loser? Ok, Hasheem said he has some shoulder problems right now, but you wonder what his response would have been if the Lakers had called?

Who would the Grizzlies pick if the draft was held today?

Truth is, no one really knows at this point. No one. Agendas are flying all over the place.

Reports that Heisley has settled on taking Thabeet are erroneous and grossly overblown, as is speculation that coach Lionel Hollins operates with a Thabeet-or-bust mind-set.

Depending on the day, Heisley, Hollins and Wallace are as excited about a potential trade as they are about possibly drafting Thabeet or Rubio. Even guards Curry and DeRozan have become prominent in discussions among decision makers in the organization.

In other words, the Grizzlies are all over the draft map as it relates to the No. 2, 27th and 36th picks.

That doesn’t necessarily mean trouble given the Griz didn’t consummate a deal for O.J. Mayo until draft night last year, and the deal turned out just fine.
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With a solid plan like deciding on draft day who to take, does this explain why the Grizzlies are always such a rotten team?

Photo source Newscom

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How bad are the Grizzlies when Avery Johnson turns down a 5 year contract?

You remember Avery as the Dallas coach.

Johnson, 43, certainly fits Heisley’s profile, having posted a 194-70 record in four seasons with the Mavericks for a winning percentage of .735. Before his dismissal in May after two straight first-round playoff exits, Johnson took Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in the club’s history in 2006.

Johnson also earned NBA Coach of the Year honors that season and followed up the trip to the Finals with a 67-15 season in 2006-07, before his tenure with the Mavs began to unravel with a first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors and former Dallas coach Don Nelson.
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Not only did the Grizzlies offer up 5 years, but they have 3 awesome looking rookies in O.J. Mayo, Marc Gasol (Pau’s brother), and Darrell Arthur.

Rumors have former assistant coach Hollins taking the job. Hollins resume is a little less than sterling, so maybe the Griz will keep looking.

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Darius Miles and the 18 million dollar basketball

Darius Miles wanted to play and Portland will pay, but he won’t play for Portland. Darius will play for Memphis.

Confused?

Portland released Darius saying he was medically ineligible, but if he plays 10 games for anyone then Portland is on the hook for 18 million bucks. Portland’s owner even sent out a mass e-mail to all the NBA owners not to sign Darius. That did not sit too well with a lot of owners.

Miles was signed by the Grizzlies as a free agent on Dec. 13 after missing two seasons (2006-08) following micro fracture surgery on his right knee. The 27-year-old signed a free-agent contract with the Boston Celtics on Aug. 22, 2008 and appeared in six preseason games.

It was believed that Miles had to play in 10 regular-season or postseason games in a season for the $18 million to count against the Blazers. But his six preseason appearances with the Celtics counted toward the 10. Miles then signed with Memphis, served a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy and played in two regular-season games for the Grizzlies.

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Darius has tried to stay out of it saying he just wants to play.

Photo source Newscom

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Pau Gasol takes a seat to nobody when playing basketball in the NBA

In the world of “yeah we kind of figured”, Mitch Kupchak came out and admitted the Lakers kind of stole Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Really? And we just kind of thought the Lakers were lucky?

Originally the Grizzlies wanted more for Pau Gasol.

The deal included Kwame Brown and weren’t the Lakers aching to get rid of him, Aaron McKie, the long time NBA veteran role player, rookie Javaris Crittenton, and two future first round picks, and Pau’s brother Marc. As you can see, they picked him up for a whole lot of nothing. Even the first round picks will most likely be low first rounders and worth very little.

The Grizzlies were asking for Monkey King…err Sun Yue, but the Lakers talked them out of it.

The Lakers had a pair of second-round picks last year. Gasol was selected 48th overall, eight picks after the Lakers drafted Sun. The younger Gasol spent the 2007-2008 season playing in Europe.

In the end, the Lakers were able to hold on to Sun, primarily because of the scouting report that assistant general manager Ronnie Lester prepared for Kupchak, after Lester evaluated Sun in Singapore, a month before the trade was consummated.
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So now you have a Laker team of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum.

Sun will be surrounded with Stars!

Photo source Newscom

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LeBron James is partying at the thought of all the NBA players available in 2009

Even with all the big name free agents in 2010, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the group, the year 2009 could still be the year of the free agent.

Try this out for 2009.

Some of the Restricted Free Agents: Andrew Bynum, Marvin Williams, Jason Maxiell

Some of the players that can opt out of contracts: Kobe Bryant, Carlos Boozer, Rip Hamilton, Hedo Turkoglu

True Free Agents: Shawn Marion, Andre Miller, Rasheed Wallace

So what about money?
Some teams are loaded depending on what happens.

Thunder 25 - 30 million
Trail Blazers 15 - 32 million
Grizzlies 18 - 24 million
Pacers 11 million
Heat 10 million
Bobcats 10 million

Plain and Simple, there will be lots of player movement in 2009 in the NBA.

story source espn

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Zach Randolph only equals a Darko and a Marko?

How can this even be a real trade?

Memphis is looking to trade Darko and Marko? What? Come on.

No, as reported in Hoopsworld, …

The deal, which has been on the table for quite some time, had the Knicks sending Zach Randolph to the Grizzlies for Darko Milicic and Marko Jaric. As we’ve discussed at length in this space, the positive for the Knicks in what would otherwise seem like a lop-sided trade, would be the possibility that Mike D’Antoni’s expertise with European players might be just what Milicic needs to finally arrive as a productive NBA player.

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Zach’s value went down under Isiah Thomas and could go up under Mike D’Antoni or could not. Anyway, that seems to be the holdup on this trade. What is Zach really worth?

By the way, go to Hoopsworld. It is a fun read.

photo source newscom

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Why is it we all think of the NBA as a league full of pot smokers?

We don’t seem to worry too much about performance enhancing drugs, just weed.

Anyway, it has happened again. Players got caught. Rookies. Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur were caught at the rookie transition program.

Chalmers, who sank the game-tying, buzzer-beating 3-pointer that forced overtime in Kansas’ 75-68 championship victory over Memphis, was drafted 34th by Minnesota. He was quickly traded to Miami, where he is expected to vie for the starting point guard position after playing well during summer league. Chalmers played three seasons for the Jayhawks.

Arthur, also an early-entry candidate who played two years at Kansas, was a sympathetic figure on draft night. Roundly believed to have lottery-type talent, Arthur sank to the 27th spot after erroneous rumors of a health problem circulated throughout the league.

Then, after being selected by New Orleans, the 6-foot-9 forward was traded to Portland, then Houston, before finally settling in Memphis.

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Talk about making the transition!

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O.J. Mayo was traded for big Kevin Love

Image details: 2008 NBA Draft served by picapp.com

Hold on to your hats. There has been a trade between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Ok, wake up, there may be some important stuff happening here.

O.J. Mayo was traded in an 8 person deal.

That’s good because Mayo didn’t come cheap. In addition to parting with the draft rights to forward Kevin Love, the No. 5 pick, Memphis gave up Mike Miller, a sharp-shooting guard who is extremely valued around the league. The Grizzlies were able to dump the remaining two years and $13 million on Brian Cardinal’s contract while also sending center Jason Collins, whose contract expires after the upcoming season, to Minnesota. In return, the Timberwolves unloaded Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner.

The contracts of Walker and Buckner aren’t guaranteed past the upcoming season, but Jaric has three years and $21.3 million left. Getting rid of Jaric gives Minnesota the potential to be a significant player in the bountiful free-agent summer of 2010.

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Ok, what just happened here?

Opinions were divided. Love has the potential to be a long time starter and solid player. Mayo has the potential to be a star.

Minnesota wanted Mike Miller for his shooting and wanted to get under the cap for the 2010 free agents. They got that.

Memphis wanted some star power.

Both teams have a history of mucking up the trade wars. One needs only to look at the two NBA finals teams. Pau Gasol came from Memphis to the Los Angeles Lakers. Kevin Garnett came from the Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics. This left what? Memphis - 0 Minnesota - young Al Jefferson. Of course, don’t forget the Brandon Roy for Foye Minnesota trade. Who is Foye? Who knows, but Minnesota wanted him.

So O.J. Mayo ends up playing for the Memphis Grizzlies for now and Kevin Love plays for Minnesota for now. For now being the key words.

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Cleveland beat the Memphis Grizzlies.

108 - 89.

And all the new guys played and played well.

LeBron thinks it will work out just fine.

Coach Mike Brown cautions them to take it one game at a time.

Still, even though it was only the Grizzlies, it was a victory and everyone was excited from the beginning.

“It brought some energy to the building,” Brown said. “It was energy from the fans because of the new players.”

Ben Wallace, who started at power forward, scored 12 points, tying his season high, and had 10 rebounds, while Delonte West, the starter at point guard, scored five points with six assists.

The other two players picked up in the deal, forward Joe Smith and guard Wally Szczerbiak, came off the bench late in the first quarter. Smith scored 14 points while Szczerbiak had 10. source

For Big Ben it was especially pleasing to have the crowd at his back like in the old days with the Detroit Pistons.

Wallace, the target of criticism by Bulls fans, enjoyed his new home.

“The crowd was great,” he said. “I didn’t get booed. That’s new for me.”

James was pleased with Wallace’s contributions.

“He showed it tonight, his ability to get up and rebound and his ability to throw down dunks,” James said. “And he made free throws, too.”

It didn’t take long for the newcomers to make an impact. Wallace brought the crowd to its feet with a dunk less than 2 minutes into the game and West hit a 3 midway through the period.

There were even T-shirts.

His arrival even was celebrated at the souvenir stands, where T-shirts proclaiming ”BIG BEN A CAVALIER” were on sale. source

Well, it was only one game and Coach Mike Brown is probably right about taking it one game at a time, but LeBron is happy and that means a lot!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will Big Ben make the Cavalier difference?

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How can this be?

It is a reach even for 7′ 6″ Yao Ming to win 11 in a row.

Tracy McGrady playing consistently good?

Houston even trades two players away, do not suit up the guy they get and still keep winning!

How can this be?

Well, admittedly, most of the teams they beat were pretty bad teams, but they did just knock off Chris Paul and the Hornets (sounds like a 60’s rock group) and there were a couple of close scrapes with the Cleveland PreWallace LeBrons led by Cavalier LeBron James, which the Rockets managed to pull out.

Still… They are winning!

And get this, they have not lost in February and finish the month with games against the Big Ben-less Bulls, the Wizards minus Agent Zero, and the Pau-less Grizzlies (get it, paw-less Grizzlies, ok, bad joke).

Sounds like 3 more wins and an undefeated month to me.

Side Note: Your intrepid author was pretty harsh on Houston a while back and is currently flogging himself.

It seems the Rockets are worthy.

When both Yao and T-Mac are on, they are pretty hard to beat. In fact, they will kill you from inside and out.

But there is a new element Read more