OLD-SCHOOL COOL
Gasol’s sublime throwback style makes him one Griz watcher’s most watchable
With the All-Star Break in the rear-view, let’s get Pick-andPop back on track. Today we’ll deal with weekend housecleaning and Thursday’s trade deadline. Later this week, we’ll look ahead to the resumption of the regular season.
Most Watchable Grizzlies
Late last week, Geoff Calkins asked me for my list of the five “most watchable” players in Grizzlies history, with a sentence-long explanation on each. Typically, for me, I struggled with brevity. Geoff used a couple of my comments in our consensus “most watchable” column on Friday, but I’ll share my full vote and comments here:
1. Marc Gasol: It’s an era of small ball, of flashy, ball-dominating guards and three-point shooting. But the skilled big remains my favorite breed of baller, and Gasol’s game has a kind of sublime throwback style: Floppy, flat-footed jumpers, Duncan-esque post fundamentals, sticky picks and rumbling rolls. But two things make Gasol the Younger my pick for most watchable Grizzly: 1. The range and inventiveness of his passing, including the sense, as I’ve written before, that he loves this most because it combines creativity with selflessness. 2. His chest-crossing, ball-smooching, air guitar-playing expressiveness, which manifests in a captivating mix of joy, perfectionism and self-criticism.
2. Zach Randolph: Marc Gasol’s highlow life partner also isn’t flashy in the modern style. But we’ve learned to love his own lexicon of bully ball: The pushing and shoving that sets up the rebound. The combination of sharp hips and soft mitts. The jab-step attacks. The floor-bound relentlessness. But also the various sartorial sacraments concerning his headband, and the menu of mean mugs, huffs, and puffs that follow a successful deployment of the Grizzlies’ ground game. “Watch” implies visual, but the live Z-Bo experience, at FedExForum, engages other senses: The ripple of anticipation in the air when the Who: Memphis vs.Indiana Pacers When, where: 6 p.m. Feb. 24, Bankers Life Fieldhouse TV, radio: Fox Sports Southeast; WMFS 92.9 FM/680 AM ball goes his way during a #feed50 frenzy, and, from my privileged sideline perch, the chirps of his children over my shoulder.
3. Tony Allen: Considering the quality of the competition, this is pretty high for a player who can be unwatchable at his worst. But Tony Allen’s best? It’s an injection of rocket fuel. A sprint across a tightrope. A no-no-no- yes thrill that leaves you giggling and a little exhausted. And that’s just on the court. The Tony Allen secret: He’s often at his most entertaining on the bench or when wandering around during timeouts arguing with the voices in his head. Here’s another place where he’s “First Team.”
4. Pau Gasol: I suspect I might be the only person with Pau on this list ( turns out I wasn’t), but, again, I love skilled bigs. Gasol the Elder’s body language and projection of toughness (or lack thereof) were demerits where they’re pluses for his little brother. But Pau was the most polished post scorer this team’s ever had, a pretty deft passer in his own right, and probably underrated now for the ferocity of his rim attacks. A lot of the best dunks in Grizzlies history came from Pau. My favorite thing, though: His impossible body control and fleetness in the open floor for his seven-foot frame.
5. Jason Williams: I feel a little guilty leaving off the tougher two-way talents of Mike Conley and James Posey, but passing is the most fun thing in basketball and J-Will is the best and most compelling passer in franchise history, NonGasol Division at least. We remember the flashy stuff, but I remember the advanced geometry with which he managed the fast breaks that weren’t so rare when Hubie Brown was at the helm: The way Williams’ eyes bugged out in hyperalertness and the way he not only saw passing angles but would vary his tempo to create them, often with a Pau Gasol dunk at the receiving end.
As mentioned above, Mike Conley and James Posey are the obvious honorable mentions here, along with O.J. Mayo, Shane Battier, Mike Miller, OK sure Hamed Haddadi, Much Missed Lorenzen Wright, Not Really Rudy Gay and Stromile Swift When He Dunked. But digging deeper, here are some of my lower-key Grizzlies favorites over the years.
Underrated Watchability: Fancypassing Greivis Vasquez … gogglewearing fast-break disrupter Bo Outlaw … pick-and-popping, pick-and-roll destroyer Darrell Arthur … high-socks obscurity Mike Batiste … crafty black socks-wearing Gordan Giricek ... early folk hero Rodney Buford … stretchfour-before-his-time Brian Cardinal … coolest guy in the room Vince Carter … happy-to-be-here mid-range assassin Marreese Speights … hustling tweener Dante Cunningham ... fancy passing Nick Calathes ... talked myself into him being good Tarence Kinsey … Bloodsport James Johnson … Young Kyle Lowry ... Juan Carlos Navarro’s wasted year … rainbow-shooting Wesley Person … the long arms of Tayshaun Prince … Supreme Commander of the MidRange Leaner Beno Udrih … Shawn Bradley blocker Earl Watson.
Least Watchable: Who’s been hard on the eyes? Setting aside the end of the bench guys, my vote for least watchable rotation player has to be Jeff Green. Other contenders: Post-injury Damon Stoudemire (not his fault) … dribble-dribblechuck-it-up Bobby Jackson … finally tired of his act Matt Barnes … finally tired of his act, part two Lance Stephenson ... foot-on-the-line Jerryd Bayless … played ahead of Tony Allen wings Xavier Henry and Sam Young … mechanical shooting subject of coaching resentment Ed Davis … dribble into the corner and stop there Nick Calathes … lost on the court tweener Drew Gooden … jersey ripping was his peak Darko Milicic … pouty Quincy Pondexter … The Aborted Second Coming of Jason Williams … Oh, God, Hasheem Thabeet … um, work in progress (we hope) Chandler Parsons.
Boogie, Freed ... and the Pau Gasol Trade Comp
In an era of alleged small ball, the two most statistically prolific big men in the NBA will now partner up, as the Sacramento Kings traded DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins (along with forward Omri Casspi) to the New Orleans Pelicans for Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, (the Expiring Contract of) Tyreke Evans, New Orleans’ 2017 first-round pick and the Philadelphia 76ers’ 2017 second-round pick. Boogie will join the weekend’s All-Star MVP, Anthony Davis, in NOLA.
This was familiarly terrible asset management by the Kings, who are almost certainly the NBA’s worst organization. They’ve been going nowhere fast with Cousins for a while now. The point of decision should have come earlier, when one presumes a better deal could have been had. With Cousins creeping closer to potential free agency and with the sense of his off-court difficulty deepening, there apparently wasn’t a market anywhere close to commensurate with his talents.
It’s hard to get comparable return when dealing an elite player in his prime. If it’s a rebuilding trade, as this one is, you’re more likely to bring back a mix of cap-clearing contracts, young players with promise, and draft assets. And the Kings did check all three boxes. In that way, it’s similar to a previous star big man trade that hits a little closer to home: The Grizzlies 2008 trade of Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Then, the Grizzlies sent Pau Gasol and a 2010 second-rounder to the Lakers for then-rookie Javaris Crittenton, the rights to Marc Gasol, (the Expiring Contracts of) Kwame Brown and Aaron McKie, and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010.
How do these deals compare? The expiring contracts cancel each other out (but we’ll come back to that). From a draft perspective, a pick that’s likely to be in the 10-16 range and a highish second rounder is probably a little better than the Grizzlies’ haul of adding two later first-rounders but losing a secondrounder. Although the Grizzlies found some value in those first-rounders (one essentially became Darrell Arthur, the other Greivis Vasquez) and the Kings’ draft track record is terrible.
In terms of player assets, Hield is both a higher pick and more proven at the NBA level than Crittenton was at the time, while Galloway is unlikely to matter long-term. It tips toward the Kings until you factor in Marc Gasol. No one — the Grizzlies included — would have predicted what Marc Gasol became, but after being taken by the Lakers in the late second round, he had gone back to Spain and made a leap, then on his way to an MVP award in the world’s second-best league. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace told me at the time — with plenty of justification — that Gasol had become the equivalent of a late-lottery pick.
So, it’s close, except for the expiring contract part: That “asset” meant more then than it does now. The Grizzlies turned that space into a (missed) shot on Darko Milicic and then, a little further down the road, into a salary slot with which to absorb Zach Randolph’s contract. GaZ-bo, the Brothers From Another Mother, the Big Trains from Memphis. It all started here.
Grizzlies Trade Deadline Thoughts
The Boogie deal fits what was already my primary Grizzlies-centric take on Thursday’s trade deadline: That what other teams do is likely to matter more than what the Grizzlies do.
Odds are on the Grizzlies standing pat: Signing up Toney Douglas for the rest of the season and continuing to work in him and Brandan Wright as internal mid-season additions. But I still think they should be on the lookout for an Douglas upgrade, perhaps at the expense of one or two of the young players who have fallen out of immediate and perhaps future plans. (Jarell Martin? Andrew Harrison? Is there value there? Probably not much.) The prospect of the Grizzlies making a minor trade have been complicated by the recent uptick from the Miami Heat, who owe the Grizzlies a 2017 second-round pick if it falls in the 31-40 range. That once looked likely, and made for an interesting minor trade chip. The value of that pick (unprotected in 2018) has taken a little hit lately.
My favorite back-up point guard trade target had been New Orleans’ Tim Frazier, perhaps for a Martin/Harrison combo. Now that New Orleans has turned to the present and jettisoned three incumbent guards, such an already-made-up deal seems unlikely. Instead, opportunity has perhaps shifted to Sacramento now, where trade acquisition Langston Galloway is rumored to be waived. Were Galloway to become available, he’s likely to an upgrade over Douglas as a kind of three-and-d(efense) combo guard, though he might be less equipped to man the second unit. The Kings’ rebuild could also make higherend point guard Darren Collison available, though that would require parting with a Vince Carter or Brandan Wright for contract purposes and, at least in the former case, also a young asset. As a smaller guard, Collison wouldn’t pair as well with Mike Conley.
Some other potential targets I’ve mulled over: When Mike Conley went down, I suggested some kind of JaMychal Green for Tyus Jones deal with Minnesota. Jones is overqualified for the third-point guard role for the Wolves, and might be gettable, but I wouldn’t deal Green for him now. Lou Williams with the Lakers seems like one of the most likely meaningful players to move this week and would be a great fit for the Grizzlies on one end of the floor. But that would be similar to the Collison case, except for perhaps the cost of two future assets. (The Miami second-rounder and a young player?) I suspect someone else would make a better offer.
Here’s hoping that someone else isn’t the Oklahoma City Thunder. If the Grizzlies seem likely to stand pat, the real trade deadline risk comes from the Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers or Utah Jazz making a win-now move.
And, for all the focus on the backcourt, are the Grizzlies really playoff comfortable on the wing? What if Chandler Parsons still can’t help by midApril?