Xavier Henry on the Trade Block?

File this under "I Told You So." According to the Commercial Appeal's Ron Tillery, the Memphis Grizzlies have received several offers from teams wanting to trade for #12 pick Xavier Henry. Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley is insisting that Henry will not be traded and that the team's main focus is working out a deal with him.

The point of contention in the negotiations with Henry and his agent Arn Tellem has been rookie bonuses. Typically, rookies receive 120% of the salary assigned to them by the collective bargaining agreement. However, Heisley wants to change that tradition and feels that Henry must earn that extra 20%. Despite letting last year's first-round draft picks (Hasheem Thabeet and DeMarre Carroll) earn that 20% through participation in workouts and the NBA Summer League, Heisley wants Henry to earn his bonus through selection to the All-Rookie team. Obviously, Henry and Tellem are upset that they are not receiving traditional rookie treatment and are incensed at the offer of a Rookie Team selection for bonuses.

By offering Henry his 20% bonus, Heisley is sending the message that individual accomplishments are more important than team accomplishments. Thabeet and Carroll's bonuses were earned through workouts and Summer League, activities that benefit both the player and the team. Henry's charge to make the All-Rookie team is a purely individual pursuit. If he feels that he doesn't have the requisite stats to make that team, Henry will be gunning for his own shot when he should be playing team basketball. It's a horrible way to motivate a player. If the Grizzlies had told Rudy Gay in his contract negotiations, "Rudy, we're going to give you a 20% bonus if you make the All-NBA team," how do you think that would affect Rudy's play this season? He would be going for 30 points a night and crippling the team in the process! And that's exactly what is happening with Xavier Henry.

I've said it all summer and I'll repeat myself again: the Grizzlies are doing irreparable harm to the team with the way they are handling the contract negotiations with #12 pick Xavier Henry. Prospects already don't want to work out for the team. These negotiations certainly won't improve that. Future Grizzlies' draft picks will refuse to play for the team since they know how horribly management treats players.

Michael, we need Xavier Henry on this year's Memphis Grizzlies. He is a phenomenal shooter, adds length to the guard position and is a top-flight athlete. Losing him would put our playoff chances in serious jeopardy. Please get off your high horse and sign him.

Owen

Grizzlies 2010-2011 Schedule Released

Sorry I've been away from the blogosphere for a while, Grizzlies fans. We, the Grizzlife team, have been working on revolutionizing the blog and becoming a beneficial member of the Memphis community through the development of a multi-faceted marketing strategy. We'll provide more information about that in the coming days and weeks. But enough about us; let's talk Grizzlies.

As you might be aware, the NBA released its full 2010-2011 schedule on August 10. Here is a link to the full schedule, but I want to point out some of the highlights. First, the Memphis Grizzlies will kick off their 2010-2011 season at home against the Atlanta Hawks on October 27. The Forum is sure to be rocking that night as Memphis gets its first look at a (hopefully) playoff-bound team.

The first month of the season will arguably be the most interesting. Twelve of the first eighteen games on the Grizzlies' slate are against teams that made the playoffs last season. By November 30, the Grizzlies will have hosted the Hawks, Suns, Mavericks, Celtics, Trail Blazers, Heat and Lakers. Additionally, we will have traveled to play the Mavericks, Magic and Cavaliers. I'm not going to sugarcoat it: the first month of the season will be brutal. If we can steal some games from elite teams and beat the teams we're supposed to, we could enter December with a great record. What hurt the team so much last year was the 1-8 start. Although we eventually ditched AI and started playing as a team, that start proved to be too much to overcome and ultimately kept us out of the playoffs. We have a chance to reverse that trend this year.

Outside of the first month of the season, there are many other great matchups throughout the season. On December 29, University of Memphis alum Tyreke Evans leads the Sacramento Kings into FedEx Forum. In my opinion, the Kings are one of the best young teams in the NBA and have a chance to win a title or two down the road. On January 4, Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder come to town. The Thunder have become a psuedo-rival of the Grizzlies and are arguably the most well-run team in the league. In a two-week span in January, two elite Eastern Conference teams, the Chicago Bulls and the Orlando Magic, visit the Bluff City.

There are certainly many more exciting games on the schedule, but those are some that intrigued me. I encourage you to buy a season ticket (or at least come to as many games as you can). This year's Grizzlies team needs us more than ever and we as a city need to come together and show ownership that we have what it takes to support an NBA franchise.

Meet me at the Forum,

Owen

Grizzlies Sign PG Acie Law

According to multiple league sources, including The Commercial Appeal's Jason Smith, the Grizzlies have come to terms with point guard Acie Law on a 1-year contract worth almost $900,000. News broke yesterday that Memphis was in talks with the 4th-year point guard, who spent the 2009-2010 season with Golden State, Charlotte and Chicago.

Law has been a backup point guard for his entire NBA career and will fill that role for the Grizzlies, who feel that another backup is needed for Mike Conley. Rookie Greivis Vasquez is coming off ankle surgery this offseason and had a disappointing summer league.

How will this move impact the Grizzlies as they head into the season? Hardly at all. Conley will get at least 30 to 35 of the 48 minutes at point guard, easily the Grizzlies' weakest position. Law and Vasquez will be available to give Conley a breather but they likely won't play a big role on the team at all.

Law has averaged around 4 points and 2 assists per game in his career and will likely log similar numbers for the Grizzlies. If I were you, I wouldn't pay much attention to this signing; the Grizzlies' success (or lack thereof) at point guard lies with Conley, not Law or Vasquez. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies could not swing a trade for a starting point guard to replace Conley, who is better suited for a 6th or 7th man backup role.

Do you really need a PG in basketball??
Owen

Grizzlies to Host Bulls on MLK Day

The NBA announced last night that the Grizzlies will play host to the Chicago Bulls in the nationally-televised Civil Rights Game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 17). The announcement was part of a special wherein the NBA announced many of its marquee, nationally-televised matchups.

To no one's surprise, Memphis will have just one game on national TV this season. If Dr. King had not been assassinated here and if the city did not have the National Civil Rights Museum, the Grizzlies would have zero. This game is merely a vehicle for the league to celebrate its African-American heritage and the accomplishments of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders. It's not about basketball.

The full regular season schedule will be released on August 10th and you can count on GrizzLife to profile the upcoming season's biggest games.

Owen

Grizzlies, Zach Randolph Talk Extension

Late last week, multiple news outlets reported that the Memphis Grizzlies are discussing a multi-year contract extension with power forward Zach Randolph. Randolph, who is coming off an All-Star season in which he averaged 20.8 points and 11.7 rebounds, is set to make $17.3 million this season. This season will be the second of the 2-year contract he signed with the team last summer.

Last month, the Grizzlies refused to swap Randolph for Timberwolves forward Al Jefferson. Furthermore, the team then insisted that Randolph is not on the trading block. The 2-year deal was expected to be all the Grizzlies would get from Randolph, who will be a free agent at the end of next season. However, GM Chris Wallace has confirmed that talks are ongoing between the team and Randolph. The length of the extension is reportedly between four and five years.

Randolph's reasons for re-signing with the team are easy to discern. If he signs a deal now, he can lock himself into guaranteed money for a few years and will not have to negotiate a deal under the new collective bargaining agreement, which will be in place next summer. He knows that his value will never be higher than it is right now and he wants to get paid right now. I get it.

The Grizzlies' reasons for a new contract for Randolph are also simple. In my opinion, management has fallen in love with a player who reinvented himself this past season and proved that he can be a valuable contributor for the team. Wallace and Heisley have let an All-Star appearance, 20 points and 11 boards cloud their judgment. They want to believe that Randolph will continue to produce at that high level for the next five years and they are willing to pay him millions to find out.

But don't despair, Grizzlies, fans; I'm here to sort everything out. I am going to tell you why re-signing Zach Randolph to a four or five-year extension is just about the worst thing the Grizzlies can do right now.

The simple reason that it is a horrible idea to sign Randolph right now is age. He just turned 29, has already logged about 600 NBA game and is entering his 10th season. That trifecta should be a giant red flag for the Grizzlies, but it isn't. So i'll be blunt: history has proven that NBA big men age rapidly once they hit 30/their 10th season. Their stats plummet and they become a waste of space on a team's bench. The problem is, teams love to pay big money to a veteran big man because they are blinded by the stats the player has put up for the past several seasons.

Don't believe me? Let me show you the stats. For his career, Zach Randolph has averaged 17.3 points and 8.8 rebounds. If you throw out his first two seasons (in which he was used sparingly), he has averaged 20 points and 10.1 rebounds. Those numbers are pretty good, right? They most certainly are. Randolph has been one of the NBA's most consistent forwards for seven years, averaging between 17 and 23 points and 8 and 11 rebounds in each of those seven seasons. It is no surprise that he now has an All-Star game on his resume.

Now I would like to compare the first 9 seasons of Zach Randolph's career to the first 8-11 seasons of ten similar big name forward/centers of the last 25 or so years. Let's take a look...

For the first nine seasons of his career, Shawn Marion averaged 18.3 points and 10 rebounds. For the first ten seasons of his career, Alonzo Mourning averaged 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds.
For the first nine seasons of his career, Elton Brand averaged 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds.
For the first ten seasons of his career, Derrick Coleman averaged 18.5 points and 10 rebounds.
For the first ten seasons of his career, Terry Cummings averaged 21.3 points and 8.7 rebounds.
For the first nine seasons of his career, Antoine Walker averaged 19.8 points and 8.7 rebounds.
For the first nine seasons of his career, Vin Baker averaged 16.9 points and 8.2 rebounds.
For the first eight seasons of his career, Tom Gugliotta averaged 16.4 points and 8.7 rebounds.
For the first eleven seasons of his career, Shawn Kemp averaged 16.8 points and 9.5 rebounds.
For the first nine seasons of his career, Buck Williams averaged 16.1 points and 11.7 rebounds.

Man, those are great numbers! Take notice of how similar those players were to Randolph in his first nine seasons (17.3 points and 8.8 rebounds). Now, let's look at how those players did after they finished their first nine or ten seasons.

In his next two seasons, Marion averaged12.4 points and 7.4 rebounds.
In his next five seasons, Mourning averaged 7.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.
In his next two seasons, Brand averaged 13.3 points and 6.8 rebounds.
In his next five seasons, Coleman averaged 10.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.
In his next five seasons, Cummings averaged 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds.
In his next three seasons, Walker averaged 9.8 points and 4.5 rebounds.
In his next four seasons, Baker averaged 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds.
In his next five seasons, Gugliotta averaged 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds.
In his next three seasons, Kemp averaged 6.5 points and 4.5 rebounds.
In his next five seasons, Williams averaged 10 points and 9 rebounds.

As you can see, there was an incredible statistical drop-off for every player on that list! Just a couple short years after they were making the All-NBA team, they were riding the bench and poisoning their locker rooms. Those ten players' points-per-game dropped by an average of 9.6 points and their rebounds fell by an average of 3.9. If Randolph's next few seasons go normally, he will average around 8 points and 5 rebounds. Should the Grizzlies pay millions for 8 points and 5 boards? I say no.

Will Randolph's next few seasons happen this way? Who knows. I do expect him to have another big year this year (I'm thinking 17-19 points and 10-11 rebounds) and then rapidly decline like his predecessors. But here's the kicker: we have Randolph under contract for exactly one more year!!! That means we can reap his benefits while he still has them and then get rid of him at the perfect time, right before he starts to fade.

Chris and Michael, please let someone else overpay for a veteran forward who, if history repeats itself yet again, will be a waste of space in three years. If we sign Randolph to a four or five year deal, it will cripple the franchise. Like I said, he will never get more money than he can this offseason. Don't let the Grizzlies be the ones giving it to him.

Owen