Well the trade dead line has come on gone with the Memphis Grizzlies basically standing pat until the 2008 off season. Well they helped a couple of their division rivals exchange malcontents but decided against trading Mike Miller or Kyle Lowry at this time. Supposedly, Grizz GM Chris Wallace had multiple offers for both Miller and Lowry but decided none of the offers were worth making a move. Unfortunately for Wallace, after the Pau Gasol trade he has joined the likes of Isiah Thomas, Kevin McHale and Billy Knight in the ESPN WILL RIDICULE EVERY MOVE I MAKE CLUB. The influence of ESPN can not be ignored. Also, the fact that Gasol is now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and will likely be on national TV every week can't be ignored. For the rest of this season, Memphis will likely be losing and Gasol and the Lakers will be winning with ESPN's talking heads being critical of Wallace and the Grizzlies along the way.Whether I agree with the decisions Chris Wallace has made or not, after trading Pau Gasol for a bag of magic beans and not trading Mike Miller for another bag (I agreed with both), Wallace has always gone the extra step to try and keep the fan base informed about his reasoning for doing or not doing a particular move. Shortly after the NBA trade deadline, Wallace took it another step and fielded phone calls on Chris Vernon's radio show from frustrated Memphis Grizzlies fans for an entire hour(part 1, part 2, part 3). Although Wallace has a tendency to use redirection and deflection, he did at least give some outlet to the growing frustration in the Memphis Grizzlies fan base. It is one thing to call or listen to sports talk radio and speak with the radio host but it is another thing to engage in a discussion with the man who is making the decisions for your favorite team.
So after the uneventful trade dead line, it is time for Chris Wallace and the rest of the Memphis Grizzlies fans to turn our focus to college basketball and hope that our savior is coming in the 2008 NBA draft. The Western Conference in the the NBA is going to be hellacious to navigate through over the next season and a half. It is with this notion the Chris Wallace has positioned the Grizzlies to try and be ready when the Suns, Spurs, Mavericks, and Nuggets are hit with the realities of age that the Memphis Grizzlies can join Portland, Seattle and Minnesota as the up and coming to teams poised with young talent to take their place.
Now winning the lottery...that is another article entirely.
I really want to know if any other GM's do anything remotely close to what CW did yesterday.
ReplyDeletetaking an hour worth of phone calls from fans, most of them blasting away at you, does not seem like something most GM's want to do.
props to Chris Wallace....and to Chris Vernon for making it possible...
Actually, the Grizz didn't stand pat yesterday. They traded the rights of some prospect and got some dude from New Orleans that I never heard of. Ok, so that dude may never play for the Grizz but it's still something.
ReplyDeleteGreat post guys as always.
ReplyDeleteBig ups to Chris Wallace for facing the music.
If and when we start putting some wins together all of these small little problems will magically disappear. It is easier to nitpick when nothing is going right. Wins will change all of this.
Chris Wallace stinks, a failure of the NBA history
ReplyDeletethere better be an investigation on if he's gambling on Lakers
he's a traitor to all the Grizzlies fans, he single handed push Grizz to another 10 years of rebuilding, maybe longer.
Gasol is as good as KG, and he's younger. CHris Wallace and the Grizz are two idiots, know nothing about basketball, just plain stupid, awlful, making me sick