Our Grizz is Back!

The writers at 3 Shades of Blue have had the great fortune to interview many of the main figures at the Memphis Grizzlies. From Chris Wallace and Michael Heisley to Coach Iavaroni and some of the players we have been informed and educated in the many aspects of the team from an insider's point of view.

Today, we have probably the most moving interview we have had the pleasure to be involved in.

Last season the team's mascot Grizz went absent for most of the season. Eric McMahon, the man inside the bear suit, was struck down with Hodgkin's Lymphoma a very dangerous disease. In an unprecedented move the team refused to replace him with another person and instead became involved with other mascots across the country in an incredible gesture of support by others teams mascots coming and rooting for Grizz and the Grizzlies in his place. Today we bring you the first in depth interview Eric has given on what it has been like for him.

photos by Joe Murphy, NBAE Photos

3SOB: Eric, you are being promoted as returning on Opening Night. How long has it actually been since you worked a game for the Grizzlies?
EM: Yes I am planning on returning opening night! The last game I performed in was on Dec. 17th vs the Golden State Warriors. I had a biopsy on my neck on Dec. 13th performed at a home game the next day then again on the 17th. I then received my results that I had cancer the morning of Dec. 18th and was immediately put on medical leave because there were some very necessary procedures that I had to get taken care of before I could start Chemotherapy which I immediately started a few days later.

3SOB: Can you tell us what that last year of your life has been like?
EM: The last year of my life has been a roller coaster to say the least. My first reaction when I was diagnosed was pure devastation. My doctors did a great job of putting my mind at ease and letting me know that I had a great chance at beating this. When I first started chemo it was tough but I was getting by. That was until I got a bacterial infection in my stomach that put me in the Intensive Care Unit for a month. The infection had gotten so bad that I got blood poisoning, my liver and kidneys shut down and my lungs collapsed.

My family and closest friends immediately flew out to Memphis to be with me because it was a real touch - and- go situation. Luckily for me I don’t remember much of that time but I eventually got over the infection, out of the danger zone and was released and moved to Arizona to continue treatment at the Mayo Clinic. Once I was moved out there I started getting some strength back, started walking again and my body started to respond to the chemo!

3SOB: So you are totally in remission now?
EM: Yeah, I have been in remission for 4 maybe 4 and a half months now. Of course you are never 'cured' with cancer but I am cancer-free right now. I went back to the Mayo Clinic a little while ago and was given a clean bill of health.

Photos by Joe Murphy, NBAE Photos

Who arranged for the mascots of other teams to come and replace you at the Forum? Did you ever get to see these guys?
EM: Once I was diagnosed I consulted with a few other mascots in the league, they expressed their thoughts and prayers and wanted to find a way to help out the Grizzlies because they felt that the organization was doing something unprecedented by not replacing me. A few of the mascots contacted our Senior Director of Marketing John Pugliese and pitched the idea. From there more mascots from around the league wanted to help in any way and rearranged their schedule to be able to make a trip to Memphis at a shared expense with the Grizzlies!

I was only able to see two of the mascots while they were in town. I was still in the hospital at the time and Rufus Lynx from the Bobcats and his wife stopped by to check on me, and a couple nights later the Coyote from the Spurs dropped in. It was such a nice surprise because I was still a bit out of it and it really helped lift my spirits to have some of my buddies stop by. True to form the Coyote, before entering my room took a doctors coat and mask, put some gloves on and busted through the door asking if I was ready for my sponge bath!

Once I was released from the hospital I was immediately moved to Arizona so I wasn’t able to visit with the other mascots while they were in town.

3SOB: What does being a mascot mean to you?
EM: Being an NBA Mascot is a dream come true, I love being able to put smiles on faces, lift spirits of sick kids and cause havoc around the city. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and I though the Phoenix Suns Gorilla was the coolest thing in the world. I remember going to games when I was younger and watching him fly through the air with no regard for his body. Years later after I graduated from college I was able to perform with him on the Suns dunk team. He taught me everything I know, and saw some potential in me. I am very lucky to have the best mascot in the world as my mentor and teacher. Now I just hope to do for the city of Memphis and the Grizzlies as he did for Phoenix.

Photos by Joe Murphy, NBAE Photos

3SOB: Do you see your return as Grizz as an important part of your life returning to normal?
EM: When I started to get sick, going through all the treatment with all the rigors that go along with it, I would just lay there and think about the day that I would just feel normal again. I took my body and health for granted. Now that I’m in remission I finally feel that my life has some normality again but something has been missing. I have been pushing myself hard in the weight room and doing a lot of cardio to get back in shape. I can’t wait to get in front of fans and perform again on Opening Night. That’s when I really feel that all the pain and horrible times were worth it and my life will be back to normal.

3SOB: How much support have you received from the Grizzlies organization?
EM: The Grizzlies have exceeded every expectation that I ever had! It started with Andy Dolich and picked right back up with Greg Campbell. One of the most devastating parts of being diagnosed with cancer was I thought I was going to lose my job. I called John Pugliese and Andy the day I found out, right away I was assured that I was part of the family and they would do everything in their power to make sure the only thing I had to be focused on was winning this battle. Talking with other mascots around the league they all said that they would have been replaced. For the Grizzlies not to do that and let the city know about my battle was remarkable. I have received hundreds upon hundreds of letters and cards from all over the city and world for that matter with their well wishes and prayers. The city of Memphis embraced me as one of their own and for that I am truly grateful.


3 Shades of Blue has always encouraged fans to come to the games and cheer for their hometown major league franchise. Talking with Eric puts a different perspective on things. I hope everyone who reads this interview will come out for the Opening Night game if not to cheer for the Grizzlies on the court at least for the man behind the Grizz Mask. His turnaround this season is worthy of a huge response from the community.

HDTV is here: The Grizzlies are broadcasting 10 home games in HDTV this season. The games are Friday, Oct. 31 vs Orlando Magic, Monday, Nov. 24 vs San Antonio Spurs, Tuesday, Dec. 16 vs New Orleans Hornets, Friday, Dec. 19 vs Charlotte Bobcats, Friday, Jan. 2 vs San Antonio Spurs, Tuesday, Jan. 27 vs Denver Nuggets, Wednesday, Feb. 4 vs Houston Rockets, Saturday, Feb. 7 vs Toronto Raptors, Monday, Feb. 9 vs
New Orleans Hornets and Saturday, Mar. 21 vs Boston Celtics.

Interview with the Enemy: The Lakers Nation

Last week, we exchanged questions and answer with The Lakers Nation, a great blog that follows the Los Angeles Lakers. Our answers are up on their site right here. Here are the queries that we had for their lead writer, Jonathan Somers-Harris.

3 Shades of Blue: If Kobe, Lamar, Pau and Bynum all expect to participate in the offense, how do you think the attitudes/egos will mesh?

The Lakers Nation: Well, I think it will be easier than most people think. Kobe is the undisputed top dog, there's no question about who's taking that final shot. Pau is a very good 2nd option, and in fact you could probably argue that he's more comfortable in that 2nd option role than as a first option. That just leaves Lamar and Bynum. Lamar would be happy averaging 10/10/8, scoring or not scoring isn't going to hurt his ego. The only problem i can see would be Bynum. Right before he got injured, he was showing great promise as an offensive option (not just put-backs and alley-oops). He was regularly scoring in the 17-25 point range while picking up 13-16 rebounds leading up to the injury. (No center, no matter how good, scores 17-25 points a game on put-backs and alley-oops alone)

He may turn out to be a pretty selfless guy, and he shoots such a high percentage that he may not need a whole lot of touches, but he's the one guy that i can see having a problem being the 3rd option in his contract year. (I wouldn't be happy either if a 5year/80M contract was on the line)

3SoB: If Kobe's finger forces him out during the season, will the Laker faithful be kind to him or not?

TLN: Lakers faithful: we're faithfully fickle. The same people who are praising him now for his "competitive spirit" or whatever they want to call it will be cursing his poor judgment. I don't think it will stop us from loving him though. I will liken the situation to that of Cristiano Ronaldo at Manchester United. before he came back from Injury, people were saying how they wouldn't cheer for him anymore. However, as soon as he was ready to start warming up for his first game back from injury. (even before he was introduced as a substitute) the crowd went crazy for him.

In the same way, we might grumble a bit about the surgery, but in the end, we need him to much to not be kind to him.


3SoB: Last year the Lakers bench was critical to the team's success, but disappeared in the Finals. Is there any concern that the bench won't live up to that level with so many big name players in the starting lineup now?

TLN: This all depends if Lamar comes off the Bench or not. if he doesn't come off the bench, our projected "bench mob" will be

PG: Farmar
SG: Sasha
SF: Ariza
PF: Powell
C: Mihm

The only real difference between this year and last would be Powell replacing Turiaf (I will miss that man) and Mihm replacing Mbenga. Either way, Gasol is still expected to see some time at C and Lamar is expected to see some time at PF too, so there's not a whole lot of drop off from this year as there was last year. A bigger concern for the Lakers is that if both Lamar and Ariza are playing the SF position, then Kobe won't be able to slide over the the SF slot, and the three guard lineup that was so effective last year (Farmar/Fisher, Sasha, and Kobe) won't get a lot of court time.

3SoB: When do you expect Jordan Farmar to claim the starting PG role? Is it Derek Fisher's spot for the foreseeable future?

TLN: It's up to Farmar to claim the starting PG role. Fisher performed far beyond expectations the last year, but the Lakers cannot continue to expect that from him, as age will have to affect his performance at some point. That being said,Farmar needs to make the next big jump in his game in order to take the starting gig from Fisher outright. Farmar had a great first 60 or so games last season, and during that time he was getting about 24MPG. For whatever reason though, his production tailed off dramatically after that, and Fisher was forced to play upwards of 30MPG for the rest of the season/playoffs.

I think we'll see Fisher average 20MPG this season as a starter, and the probably the transition will happen in the 2009-2010 season

3SoB: Should Lamar Odom start at SF or come off the bench as a 6th man this season?

TLN: He should definitely start, if only so that the Lakers can see how a big, yet fast, line up works. If the "Lamar as a starting SF" experiment fails, then we can move him to the back up PF roll. there won't be a huge learning curve there because Odom has played the PF position for the Lakers for the best part of 3 years now, plus he's usually the only starter playing the the bench players during line-shifts, so he's already used to having to run the show/being a first option.

Speaking of big line ups, if you will indulge me for a second, I've been really excited about the possibility of Sun Yue (6'9") winning the starting PG spot at training camp this year. Imagine a starting line up where your shortest player was Kobe Bryant at 6'6"?

PG: Sun Yue. . . . . . . 6'9"
SG: Kobe Bryant. . . . 6'6"
SF: Lamar Odom. . . 6'10"
PF: Pau Gasol . . . . . 7'0"
C: Andrew Bynum . . 7'1"

It probably wouldn't work, but its exciting to think about.

3SoB: Which team in the Western Conference concerns you most as a potential playoff opponent next spring?

TLN: New Orleans, without a doubt. Fisher does a good job staying in front of bigger guards like Deron Williams and Jason Kidd, but Chris Paul is an absolute nightmare. I'd like to think that Gasol and Bynum gives us too much size for them to cover, but that won't matter if we can't stop Chris Paul.

A lot of people are surpised that I don't say the Rockets, but in truth, they don't worry me as much, and here's why. Unless they're going to effectively slap Shane Battier in the face and make him Ron Artest's back up, the Rockets are going to lack some defensive size. If they play all of T-Mac, Artest, aand Battier at the same time that limits the minutes that Luis Scola gets, and by extension valuable players like Carl Landry won't get time either.

3SoB: Your thoughts on Coby Karl, who looked like a future Hall of Famer in his Summer League game against the Grizzlies?

TLN: How did you know that Coby Karl was my favourite Lakers player? Honestly, If Sasha had left the Lakers I would have been fine with it, because I felt Coby Karl could replicate most of his production. I think he has a great career as a solid back-up in this league. Personally, I'm hoping he has the balls to ask for the No. 8 shirt coming into camp this season, because that would be the most amazing thing since. . man. . that would just be awesome.

3SoB: What were your expectations for Pau Gasol last year and how much have they changed for the upcoming season?

TLN: I expected him to be a lighter, more versitile Andrew Bynum on the S/R's with Kobe, everything beyond that was a bonus. this year, I'm expecting to see more of his short/mid-range game obviously. I think we underutilized him last year, hopefully this year we can incorperate more of his offensive skill set into the game plan.

3SoB: True or False: Jerry West is the best SG in the history of the Los Angeles Lakers.

TLN: In finished History, true. by the time Kobe is done, we might have to revisit this question. (see how i dodged that bullet? haha)

3SoB: If the Grizzlies and Lakers were to switch divisions, how much would that affect each of their records for the upcoming season?

TLN: Oh man. well, between not having to play Spurs, Hornets, Mavs, and Rockets that extra 1-2 times each (4-8 games) as well as being able to play the Clippers and Warriors that extra 1-2 times (2-4 games) or vice versa. I'd expect the Grizzlies to win about 5-8 more games, and the Lakers to win about 2-3 less (The Lakers had a great record against playoff teams in the West last year). It would definitely lower the winning percentages of all the teams in the Southwest division, and they would probably all still qualify for the playoffs. . that's just crazy to think about.

We want to thank Jonathan and The Lakers Nation for doing this interview and would love to be able to wish them the best for the upcoming season....except that it is the Lakers, so we'd rather die a slow painful death than to wish them anything but misery and doom. We can't help it -- it is ingrained in us to hate them with every fiber of our being.

Quick Hit Links

Matt Moore (Hardwood Paroxysm, NBA Fanhouse, Ridiculous Upside) interviews Mike Conley about entering into his sophomore campaign with raised expectations. He follows that up with an interview with Javaris Crittenton. Quality reading.

The Grizzlies did not pick up the option on Hakim Warrick's contract, effectively making this a contract year for the former Syracuse forward.

Hoopsworld projects O.J. Mayo as the top rookie this year. Who am I to disagree with that?

Wizards Insider (Washington Post) profiles the Grizzlies before tonight's preseason game.

Gratuitous Self-Promotion: An Interview with Kornheiser's Cartel

By Joshua Coleman

On Tuesday, Kornheiser's Cartel posted a column titled Memphis Grisly. As I'm sure you can ascertain from the title, it wasn't full of rainbows and marshmallow goodness for our fair team. But that didn't stop me from acquiesing to an interview when Billynho requested one. After all, I'm all about defending our franchise and setting the record straight whenever the opportunity arises. They asked and I answered, all of which can be found right here. I encourage you to head over there to see the great questions they asked, as well as the answers I gave. They really do run a fantastic blog that I recommend adding to your Favorites List.

Linksplosion

We're overdue for a Links post, so let's dive right in with a couple of interviews!

Yahoo! (Sean Deveney - Sporting News) - Rudy Gay talked with Deveney at Chris Paul's charity event last weekend about a variety of topics. Deveney asked some rather provocative questions, many of which seemed to be designed to get a reaction from the young SF, but Rudy enhanced his calm and comported himself quite well. He answered questions about leadership and why the fans should show up this season, too.

The Sporting News (Stan McNeal) interviewed rookie Darrell Arthur yesterday via phone. Among the topics discussed was his involvement in the happenings at the Rookie Transistion Camp and how he had to face his mother afterwards. Solid interview for a player we hope is a solid presence in the post.

Ron Tillery checks in with two solid articles in the past couple of days. The first one, found on the Commercial Appeal, discusses the likelihood that the team is done making moves for the time being and will go into preseason with the 13 players already under contract. The second (and far more enlightening, IMO) is on the Memphis Edge, and gives fans something to be excited about: This Grizzlies team has fire and intensity! Reports of O.J. Mayo and Darko Milicic getting in each others' faces during practice makes me all tingly inside.

Speaking of Darko, over on FOXSports.com, my least favorite MSM NBA scribe, Mike Kahn, has a column about The Dark One and whether or not he'll ever live up to his hype and potential. Given what Marc Iavaroni told us in his interview posted earlier this week about Milicic moving over to the PF spot more this upcoming season, I think we could see some interesting things from him this year.

In an interesting interview that Chuck Klosterman did with Michael Rand (StarTribune.com), there was the following question and answer:

RB: Kevin Love or O.J. Mayo?

CK: This is actually pretty close. I think Love has the potential to be better, but only if he’s the third option on a very good team (and that will never happen in Minnesota). Mayo is more complex. He’ll either be awesome or useless. There is something strange about his attitude; he seems detached in a way I cannot define. He might end up being a version of Vernon Maxwell who passes well, or a [redacted] sociopath.

The Grizzlies are now short a shooting coach. Mark Price has joined the staff of the Atlanta Hawks.

Hoopsworld is reporting that even though the Zach Randolph trade is dead (can I get an Amen???), the Grizzlies are still more than willing to listen to trade proposals from around the league. Does that classify as breaking news given their imbalanced roster and overwhelming amount of young guards? No? Just checking. They also check in by listing Mike Conley as one of the Top Six Players in Need of a Trade. Ummm....yeah....right.

Kornheiser's Cartel seems to think that the Grizzlies' problems lie at the feet of GM Chris Wallace. I disagree and will explain why in an interview with the mastermind of this great new blog in the very near future.

Upside and Motor has a note for fans around the league that complain about ticket prices: Be glad you aren't a Laker fan.

For the stat geeks out there, check out this post from Bucks Diary that calculates the Win Profiles for each NBA team. This is some Dave Berri-level stuff, so it isn't for the faint of heart.

Think that all NBA referees suck and that you could do better? Henry Abbott (TrueHoop) says, "Not so fast". More often than not, these guys make the correct call.

Would you like to know more about defensive principles? Then read this excellent post by Dave on Blazer's Edge. Truly a great read.

Would you like to know more about basketball -- and sports in general? Then read Eric Musselman's blog every single day. What a great mind!

Former (Vancouver) Grizzlies forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim retired this week. Most fans in Memphis never got to see him suit up for the franchise, but I'm sure that many of the fans in the Great Northwest remember his remarkable consistency as a 20/10 player, night after night.

Finally, don't forget about the Tip-Off Luncheon. There are still a few seats available at the 2nd table that we here at 3 Shades of Blue will be sponsoring, so shoot us an email if you're interested.

Sitting in the Shade, Part Two

This is Part Two of our interview with Coach Marc Iavaroni.

3SOB: You have Marc Gasol and also Darko at center, quite a few options at power forward but the interior is considered an area of weakness on the team. You have a lot of experience coaching with with big men. Are you going to be directly involved with coaching the big men this season and what improvements do you hope to see?

MI: Well I think one of the things I learned my first year is that you have to delegate and you have to trust them and not micro-manage them but I think you also have to know what your expertise is and that was one of them. I think this was very important in the recruitment of Marc Gasol - because he had options and we had to recruit him - was the question 'was I going to be on the floor for him?'

I learned that the first year. You have to have delegation, but at the same time if they think your really good at something why wouldn't you be supervising that? Why wouldn't you be overseeing that? Why wouldn't you be actually in the trench? And I am willing to do that.

You know before games head coaches usually walk around in coat and tie and get their mind set for the strategic things going on in an hour or two. I've decided I am going to break that mold a bit. I'm going to get a little more prepared earlier in the day. I am going to get out there in my sweats for half an hour or so and work with our bigs. I'll work with our bigs at the end of practices because they are all young. They are all 23 years old. I'd like them to be on the floor with me 45 minutes before practice. Now I know there will be others at practice 45 minutes or so that I will work with also but that is less so. I want these guys to know that I will be expecting this of them. They are going to be on the court with me. Last year when we did perimeter and big guys I took turns supervising them. This year I'll be in there every day.

3SOB: Last year you said you saw players as perimeter and interior players and you don't worry about specific positions. Is that going to continue this year?

MI: Yeah, I do think you need to have versatility. I think you do need perimeter skills and big man skills are different. Now perimeter players need to work on their post up defense because people are going to try and post them up but they need to work on their post up game offensively. I think with the bigs if you can play 4/5 you have an advantage. Guards if you can play the 1/2, or 2/3 or if you're good enough to play a 1/2/3 then you got an advantage.

The real tough position is the one we are asking Rudy to do and that is play the 3/4. Now you have to have perimeter skills and perimeter knowledge of our offense and you also need interior skills and interior knowledge of what we're trying to do. That's going to be the challenge that we're going to put on him. We know Rudy led us in scoring last year. What other areas do you want to lead us in this year. That is going to be very important and defense is going to be one of those. This is an area where we are going to count on him. This is a team leadership need.

But getting back to your question, I think the key is that the guys have the skills we need on the perimeter and on the inside. They need to know what we want and they need to do it on a more consistent basis. They have to be more successful.

3SOB: You traveled this summer to Europe to see Darko. What did you talk about and what do you want him to improve on this season and how is his Achilles?

MI: Well we wanted to see how he was doing and make sure he was going to come into camp in shape. He didn't finish last season with a splash because of injuries. He was having problems with his heal so we wanted to make sure he was doing things that were obviously going to make him stronger and in better shape but we're not going to do things that exacerbate that. We wanted him to think more like a 4 in terms of his training. You know we had a sort of informal date of May 12th as in terms of when we wanted him to get back in there and start getting into condition where ever they were with the supervision of Mike Curtis.

So that said when I went to see him in Italy for their training camp in Costa, Italy I saw him for two workouts out of five and unfortunately after the second workout of 2 a days - and they had been there since July 4th and I got there on July 15th I believe so they had been there quite a long time and they go pretty hard in national team workouts - that's when it started flaring up. So we did a lot of talking but unfortunately not a lot of working on the court. Their coach is sensational. He welcomed me with open arms. Let me know what was going on with the team and Darko and what his expectations were.

So it finally got to the point where it was not getting better. So they decided it was best to let him go back to Belgrade and get that taken care of. So unfortunately he was inactive for about 20 days before he got back into light training. We wanted to make sure that that thing had toned down. So it's going to be very interesting how he shows up. He's do in any day. He's got somewhat of a visa issue. Hopefully we are getting him in this weekend. It's going to be very important to see what shape he is in because we want him in the 4 spot because as you said we might be a little light there.

Hakim Warrick is known as an NBA player but he isn't known for his bulk and size. We want to Present different looks.

3SOB: Well my next question was going to be if you see Marc and Darko working together...

MI: Well sure. I mean that is a definite possibility.

3SOB: That's very interesting. How do you see Marc Gasol fitting into this system? What adjustment issues do you see with him?

MI: (laughing) Well I think normal for any guy who lived a couple of years in Memphis watching his brother play and then went overseas and to become an MVP despite not being able to get a major Division 1 scholarship.

Other than that I think its a continuation of him asserting 'I'm not Pau Gasol and I'm not going to try and be him. I really like myself and I like what I've done so far but I'm no where near satisfied.' Those are the vibes I've gotten from him. I've gotten a real good spirit from him. He's a 23 yr old who's kind of on a mission. What he did in the ACB last year I think reflected that. He's now asserted himself after helping a team win a world championship two years ago in 2006. He's asserted himself on that team as a player with real value. He's a player that has gotten the attention of other people outside his country. People like Kobe Bryant who said we got Pau and he is great but we gave up a player that could be great.

Of course I'm paraphrasing but I think he's going to understand that he needs to stay in great shape in this league. There has to be a toughness not only in your mind, which I think he has, which is the place to start but he's going to have to translate that quickly into physical toughness and develop his mind even more maybe up another two or three levels to get to the higher level. Certainly before his career is over.

He's a player who's demonstrated that he's got skills with both hands and he has good footwork and moves. He's a very unselfish passer sometimes to a fault and he's got an almost deceptive quickness to him. He will make a jump shot on a pick and pop or stepping off the low block, but at the same time he has a quick first step which I really like. Foot speed is important at this level. He's got to be challenged athletically. Only because we have great athletes not good athletes at this level. So there's going to be people like Dwight Howard, Shaquille and Yao Ming who are going to go after him. I think it is going to be very important that we support him and stay with him through thick and thin because that is what a rookie year is all about. He's going to be challenged early. In the first pre-season game he's going to be right there in the hunt with Yao Ming. I don't know how much Yao will play in that pre-season game but we've got them on opening night as well. So it will be trial by fire because he's going to play.

3SOB: After your first year with head coaching experience has your coaching philosophy changed significantly and if so in what ways?

MI: I think number one you need to know who you are. I don't think you can't be a chameleon. I think there was a real interesting dialogue about me. People said Iavaroni was a defensive player. He played with Billy Cunningham and Cotton Fitzsimmons. He came into the league with Mike Fratello who's a defensive coach. He then goes to Miami with Pat Riley after the Lakers showtime when everyone was starting to realize this guy was a defensive coach. Then he went to more of an offensive system in Phoenix. So people wondered what I was going to be like.

I look at the personnel. My philosophy has always been you have to look at your personnel to get the most you can but know what you're about. I think last year rightly so we got attacked for not being defensive enough. I committed to looking at our defense a little too late. That's not a problem admitting that. I can learn from that. I just felt if we didn't run with the personnel we had, we had gazelles, if we didn't run we were really going to have some troubles. With players like Juan Carlos Navarro we're not going to walk it up. We're going to let him go. Rudy Gay is a tremendous runner. I didn't want people to lock in on him. Mike Conley we drafted for a reason and that is speed. Kyle Lowry can probably get up the court from one pass around the free throw line and have it in the other lane in about 3 seconds or less so I wasn't going to take that away from him. So I've learned that you have to be who you are while knowing the talents you have on your team.

3SOB: Last year you mentioned you didn't want the team committing fouls. Do you think that philosophy accounted for the defensive problems and are you more willing to tolerate fouls especially if it doesn't affect what you are doing on offense?

MI: Well again I think we want to emphasize the defense more. For many reasons it was not very good. I think I am less concerned about fouls affecting the flow of the game as I was last season.

Now I don't want to see fouls because people got beat all the time. That's not defense. That's a bailout. We want to make sure we are so into stopping our guy and being physical and yeah we may pick up some more fouls. I wouldn't have a problem with that. I don't want silly fouls but I think you have to establish in the referees minds that we are going to be aggressive. That you are not going to back down. I think our guys are going to have a chip on their shoulder. They really are. We are trying to change the culture here. We are perceived as a soft team last year and the only ones who can change that is us.

3SOB: What is Kevin O'Neill's role as assistant coach, how is your relationship working with him and how involved were you in his hiring?

MI: I was very involved. I mean we are talking about someone who is going to be on my staff. He's got a reputation for defense. I have a very good close relationship with Rick Carlisle. He's probably my most trusted confident in the league. I don't have a lot of guys I talk to but Rick is right there and he also spoke very highly of Kevin. So I am excited we were able to do this and get him in here. This is a perfect opportunity for him. I feel very comfortable introducing his defense. We are going to change some principles. We are going to be doing some things differently. More forcing the ball to the side. We're going to be tougher on the ball tougher on pick and rolls and we're going to simplify things. These are all things that let me to just relax, coach and see the game. Kevin can do his job as well. I don't want to micro manage.

3SOB: Hubie Brown coached the rookies during the summer league. Last season you coached the rookies in the summer league. This season you didn't. Was there any particular reason for that?

MI: Oh well I am happy for Hubie Brown but I'm not Hubie also. I coached two games the first year so there really wasn't much of a change. Last year we spread it around amongst the assistant coaches. It's all about having development. Like player development I like to have coaches develop. I think I did that more for my staff as opposed to me not wanting to do it. After all they are going to hear me all season.

Last season was my first year and I wanted to establish myself with the team. That wasn't the case this year.

3SOB: Last question, how many starting positions are set in your mind?

MI: I think it is best that I don't go in with mind focused on who should start.

I think it would be a shock if Rudy doesn't start but beyond that I think people realize that it's wide open. I trust Rudy enough to know he's done his work this summer not anticipating anything. Everyone still has to go out and earn their spot.

At this point the practice was really starting to get going and Coach Iavaroni excused himself to get back to work. I thank Coach Iavaroni for fitting us in for the interview and for the honesty and bluntness he responded to our questions. I haven't seen any other coaches willing to do that for their fans. I was impressed in how many of the Grizzlies were at the 'voluntary' workout. Sure Darrell Arthur, Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo were there but so were more established veterans like Hakim Warrick and Kyle Lowry. With the anticipated arrival of Marc Gasol, Darko Milicic and other veterans over the weekend Coach Iavaroni should have nearly all his players in town and working out way before the official start of training camp.

Sitting in the Shade: An Exclusive Interview with Marc Iavaroni

We at 3 Shades of Blue have been very blessed. First, as simple fans we are very fortunate to have an NBA team in town. Second, after 5 years of Jerry West's secrecy and silence we have a front office willing to talk to fans about anything they want to know. People who read our site may not realize just how fortunate the fans of the Grizzlies are to have a team so willing to sit down and talk so openly about the franchise.

Because of this, the boys at 3 Shades of Blue were lucky enough to be given a few minutes the other day with Head Coach Marc Iavaroni. As has been our tradition we are including the entire interview without any editing. Coach Iavaroni has been very busy this summer and he is only getting busier as the season progresses. Coach Iavaroni was kind of enough to cut short his own personal workout to squeeze us in before a voluntary workout with 7 players so there wasn't any time for follow up questions.

Catching the end of the coach's personal workout I did get to notice that Coach is still in excellent shape and is not someone I would want to play against in a game of H-O-R-S-E. Here is Part One of our interview with Coach Marc Iavaroni.

3SOB: You have probably been asked this 100 times this summer but you were the topic of a lot of rumors at the end of last season about you not being brought back. Now that you are back what do you believe is required of you by Mr. Heisley to be a success this season?

MI: Well first of all I think what Mr. Heisley did at the end of last season was really good because he wanted to have an opportunity to share his thoughts on the season. We had a season of upheaval, of major personnel changes and he wanted to make sure we were on the same page going into my second season. Now of course there was speculation because of the record. That's the way it is in this league. When you have a record that people look at in black and white and don't go into the intricacies of why the record then they start speculating and that was fine. So I thought we had a really good discussion on what he assessed the season to be.

What he wanted to make sure was foremost on our minds going into year two and that was obviously an improvement on defense, it was making sure the young players were going to continue to develop because we have a lot of young players that we are relying on and he wanted to make sure there were improvements in areas in end of the game situations. He wanted to know about defensive aspects and what we were going to do in the off-season. He wanted to make sure we learned those lessons and then there were also a lot about personnel changes.

3SOB: It was reported that you played the devil's advocate on the O.J. Mayo trade. What were the reasons against the trade and what arguments were being made in favor of it?

MI: I think again another healthy situation. Here we are in what used to be called the war room but here we are in the draft night and frankly I think it was positive. We said let's look at everything. Now if someone wants to brand me the devil's advocate as several people were saying that is fine. I've never been a sheep. Mr. Heisley has never been a sheep. Heisley has always led by leading and I am the same way. Obviously, foremost on my mind is that we were a young team and we were going to get younger. Like it or not I tend to develop affinities for players in my corner and one of those players was Mike Miller.

The number one reason for being a devil's advocate was Mike Miller's a pretty good player. I really like him as a person. I thought he embodied what we are trying to do here. It was not I don't like O.J. Mayo. I think that's what happens when you start getting into this. People say that you liked Miller more than Mayo. No, I questioned it because I wanted to make sure what we were giving up makes sense in the future. And like everyone else talking through it you realize it is enough. Mike Miller's deal is coming up in a few years. He's going to be eligible for an extension. We had a player who could be as good and maybe better in O.J. Mayo. We also felt that we felt we had it in our power get more bigs so maybe weren't going to need Kevin Love. Kevin Love also had some knee issues. That was frankly more frightening to people down the road management and ownership-wise than for me who is trying to win next year.

3SOB: You mentioned Mike who is obviously a great player. Who do you see replacing Mike both on and off the court and does the team have enough 3 pt shooting for you right now?

MI: It doesn't frankly and we are going to have to change our philosophy unless we add some late three point shooters. We have to be more space, drive the ball and draw fouls. I don't think we can come down and just launch threes. We don't have the proven personnel to do that. I think that O.J. Mayo is going to be a guy who down the road that could be as good as Mike if not better an outside shooter than Mike is.

Now remember last year Mike shot over 40% so that is quite a task for him in his rookie year. You can't judge him as a rookie just like we didn't judge Conley on his first year, we didn't judge Kyle Lowry as a rookie although his first year even though I wasn't there. We didn't judge anyone. Rudy Gay. After his first year we didn't say this is all he is going to be. He proved last year that his first year was a distant memory.

So I guess my point is yes we are going to have to alter our philosophy. Yes to help our defense in transition - which was the worst in the league last year - we are going to have to look at our offensive strategy and our balance to allow us to get back and play good defense. These are things we are willing to do. Again Mike's not here so we are going to have to adjust. You can't count on him to be as much of a play maker but we can look at O.J. to be one.

3SOB: Well what about off the court? Who are going to be the guys in the locker room? Who on the team right now can take that role?

MI: Well I think you look around and say what have they been doing in the off-season? who's led by example? Who has led himself and then tried to lead others? I think they've all taken turns at that. I think Kyle Lowry jumps out as a guy has admitted I want to be a leader. Sometimes I wasn't a good one but I want to be a good one. I think Mike Conley led by example more than being on the phone and such. I mean he went back to school. He's going to get his degree eventually. He's been working very hard at the Ohio State facility with Mike Curtis who is no longer with us unfortunately. He took a job at rival Michigan ironically.

Rudy Gay. He's a guy who does more than just try to become a better player. He tries to make people better. He does a lot of charitable things, does a lot of things with kids. He's a little bit of a pied piper this summer. He's spread the word on Rudy Gay and the Memphis Grizzlies. Javaris Crittenton has been working very hard on his game in Atlanta. Not just with Mark Price as a shooter, but also on his overall game. Hakim Warrick's been working in New Jersey.

So when you say leadership, you say okay, what have they done in the off-season and what are they bringing to the table when they are back? That remains to be seen. We need to see how they are on the court. How are they going to approach that role. And then we also need to decide who will be our team captain. We don't have that position right now. We need to see.

(laughing) That's the short answer...

We'll post the remainder of the interview with Coach Marc Iavaroni tomorrow morning.

Links: Offseason Rolls Along

Great interview with Marc Gasol as he prepared to kick off the Olympics. I've really been impressed with his defensive ability so far and hope that he can be a solid contributor for the Grizzlies.

Be sure to read HoopsAddict.com's interview with Josh Smith in the aftermath of Atlanta matching the offer sheet he signed with the Grizzlies. He talks about why he was interested in coming to Memphis and was willing to sign with them.

Floor Burn Tournament: Round Two: Even though Kyle Lowry came up short against Mark "Mad Dog" Madsen last week, there are still a lot of interesting matchups to vote on, so go over there and click away.

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah fans are gauging interest in acquiring Darko Milicic as a backup center.

Memphis Flyer: Frank Murtaugh links Elvis songs to Memphis sports in honor of Elvis week here in Memphis.

Over on HoopsWorld, Steve Kyler continues to ride the Backtrack Express in the wake of his poorly conceived column from last week. Somebody please tell him to just leave it alone already. What's done is done. I'd hate to for hem to have to let Chris Herrington out of his cage again to deal with him. That could get ugly quick.

Courant.com: Rudy Gay spends time in Conneticut at Jim Calhoun's basketball camp and talks about life in the NBA. He also won the MVP of the charity game.

Stay tuned for a few announcements about some changes coming to the blog later this week.

Talking with Eric Musselman

Eric Musselman was rumored to be high on the Grizzlies list when searching for a Head Coach to replace Hubie Brown. After the team went with Mike Fratello instead the Grizzlies were quick to make sure they kept Musselman on their radar naming him Assistant Coach. Eric patroled the sidelines for two seasons in Memphis before accepting the Head Coaching position at Sacramento. Recently, he has started the Eric Mussleman's Basketball Notebook which is quickly becoming a must read for basketball enthusiasts like the guys at 3 Shades of Blue. After some conversations on some of his blogs Eric was kind enough to do an interview via e-mail with the us.

3SOB: You have been out of the public eye since leaving Sacramento . What are you doing these days?
MUSS: Since Sacramento, I've been visiting a lot with coaches at all levels of the game. I went to Lawrence and spent almost a week with Bill Self at KU. I also spent time with Larry Eustachy at Southern Miss and Derek Thomas at Western Illinois (now Detroit Mercy). All of them are terrific coaches and I enjoyed picking their brains.

I also attended John Calipari and Larry Brown's coaches retreat in Tunica, Mississippi, and went to a few dozen college games around the Bay Area, from Cal to Stanford to St. Mary's, to USF and Santa Clara. I even coached a high school all-star game here in the Bay Area.

And this summer, I went to Athens, Greece, to speak to about 400 Greek coaches as part of a big coaching clinic over there that ran alongside the FIBA Olympic tourney. Great experience, especially since my older son was with me.

3SOB: One of the blogs you wrote on your site titled Does Screaming at the Refs Really Help a Team mentions that you believe that the refs usually get calls correct. However it has been a feeling of mine that a well timed Technical Foul call can often change the direction of a game both by making refs aware of a perceived inequity in calls and also to motivate your team. How does that correlate to your blog?
MUSS: You're right on. A well-timed tech can change the tempo of a game and bring a sense of urgency to your team. I really agree with that.

3SOB: Can you give me an example of when taking a technical helped your team?
MUSS: I think it was my 99th game as an NBA head coach with the Warriors. We had a game at Denver against the Nuggets where we were behind by a large margin , Our guys were playing as if we were tired, so I purposefully got thrown out. This got the team going. They really responded to a new voice in Tom Sterner, one of our assistants. We came back and almost won the game. The story would be better if we’d won, but I couldn't have been happier for the effort the team put out and the job Tom did. What I didn’t like was the fine I got from the league for getting tossed.


3SOB: Another one of your blogs was titled The Role of Your Team's Leaders in a "Team Meeting". You mentioned Shane Battier as a great leader on the court. Do you believe that Memphis ʼ problems of late have to do with a lack of on court leadership on the team?
MUSS: I don't know the inner workings of the Grizz as many of the players who were there when I was an assistant there have changed teams, as so often happens in the NBA. But as with most young rosters, leadership develops over time and it develops organically. That is, some guys naturally step up and fill that role. If they don't, the team usually has problems.

3SOB: Do you prefer an on-court leader to a vocal leader or does a team need both?
MUSS: I think a team needs both types of leaders. It helps if your best players are also your leaders, like Tim Duncan in San Antonio and Tom Brady in New England. When your best players practice and play hard and really compete, it makes everything easier.

3SOB: How is Shane Battier a great team leader? Is he more of a leader by example or is he a vocal leader?
MUSS: Shaneʼs a great leader in so many ways. First, he leads by example, by the way he plays between the lines, how he interacts off the floor in the locker room and how he lives his life away from the game.

Heʼs always on time, pays attention to every game plan and executes game plan, is a positive person, and does all the little things to make your club function as a team. He can also lead vocally when the time is right or when itʼs needed, whether in practice, in a huddle, or on the floor during a game.

3SOB: Leadership, even with Shane Battier on the team, seemed to be a trouble spot for the Grizzlies when you were coaching (Jason Williamsʼ apparent dislike of Pau Gasol and Bonzi Wellʼs displeasure with playing time being examples). What was really happening behind the scenes at that time? Was the team as dysfunctional as it appeared at times?
MUSS: A team's chemistry is a complex thing. Personalities, likes and dislikes, etc. It's like any group that works together, whether it's a Boy Scout troop or a department within a big company, it's always a challenge to manage a group of people.

But ups and downs aside, the bottom line is that Memphis team won games. They reached the playoffs and it's tough to reach the postseason in the NBA.

3SOB: Mike Fratello left Memphis under a shroud of unsatisfied fans and unhappy players. What was it like coaching with Mike Fratello and were those criticisms justified?
MUSS: It's always a balancing act between playing the young guys and trying to be competitive and win games. Coach Fratello can coach uptempo. In fact, his Hawks teams in the '80s really played at a fast pace. I think they averaged close to 110 ppg with Nique, Doc Rivers, Spud, Kevin Willis and those guys.

3SOB: Jerry West has been getting some terrible press in Memphis lately including a blurb about him storming out of the draft room after Gerald Green getting drafted leaving Tom Penn to make the selection of Hakim Warrick. Did that really happen and what was it like working with Jerry?
MUSS: I genuinely loved working for Jerry West. He's a great competitor and has a high desire to win. I learned a great deal from him and he was nice enough to help me with the Kings job. He's always willing to help. I consider him a mentor and someone I can always go to for good advice. He's a pro and he's been around the game forever.

3SOB: You had some success in both stints as head coach and as an assistant coach. Do you plan on getting back on the bench in the NBA someday?
MUSS: Yes, I definitely want to coach again. It's my career, it's something I've chosen to do, but it's also something I really love. At the same time, I've enjoyed this past year, talking with other coaches, learning about the game, watching the game from a different perspective, and spending time with my sons. The last 12 months have been great.


3SOB: What do you think about the Grizzlies point guards. Do any of them show the potential to be ʽa perfect point guardʼ in your opinion?
MUSS: Well, Mike Conley has a bright future. He's developing and could be a good leader I think.

I love Kyle Lowry's toughness. Players really seem to respect him. I think he's a solid back-up who can lead by example. Guys will follow his lead and play hard. That's important, but sometimes gets overlooked or downplayed.

OJ Mayo's a nice combo guard and Jaric is really a 2-guard who can play some point, though he's not a vocal type leader.

3SOB: Do you believe winning is enough in the NBA today? Since it is a business does showmanship and flair mean as much as your record?
MUSS: Ultimately, winning is the most important thing not only in pro sports, but at most levels of sports. Itʼs how youʼre evaluated. I don't care how nice a guy a coach is, even at the high school level, if he loses all of his games, he's not going to be around long.

The object of any competition is to win. Period.

Talking with Eric via e-mail is interesting because the man has such a wealth of knowledge about the game. Eric also wanted me to mention that he loved living in Memphis. There were lots of great people and he is thnkful for his time here in Memphis. Eric has been rumored to be looking for a college coaching position but I hope he returns to the NBA some day. One thing is for sure, Musselman is a teacher of the game.

Dancing with the Grizzlies: Linea Wyatt

Continuing the 3 Shades of Blue effort to keep fans informed with what is happening with former Grizzlies Dance Team member we were fortunate enough to run into Linea Wyatt a while back and she agreed to do an interview with us when got back in town. A dance team member since 2003, Linea officially retired this year from the squad. However, that isn't to say that Linea is slowing down.

3SOB: You were a Grizzlies dance team member for many years. What prompted you to try out and why did you decide to retire?
LW: I tried out because I simply could not imagine my life without dancing. I had just graduated from college and was starting Graduate school at the University of Memphis. I had been a part of a dance team since I could remember and was looking for an outlet in which I would still be able to perform on a regular basis. I had a few friends who were on the Grizzlies Dance Team who were also former U of M dancers who encouraged me to try out.

Retiring was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make for myself. Dancing, especially with the Grizzlies had become a huge part of my life. It was my outlet, my stress reliever, and social circle (considering many of my close friends are dancers). I had gotten to a point where I was ready to take the next step of my career and unfortunately that did not leave enough time for being a part of the team. I don’t think most people realize what a commitment it is, or how many hours the girls put into it each week. They don’t just show up at 7pm on game day!


3SOB: You mentioned the time commitment, what is a typical week like for the dance team members?
LW: A typical week would consist of two practices (about 3 hours each), an average of 2 games (about 6 hours each), and probably at least one promotional appearance (about 2 hours). So, I'd say on average each girl devotes about 20 hours per week to the team. Of course there are some weeks where there are 3 or even 4 games, extra practices, or long promotional appearances so it's isn't out of the ordinary for a girl to have dance team activities 5 or 6 days of the week.

3SOB: You were a dancer for both choreographers the Dance Team has had. What were the differences between their styles? Do you think Tamara has the team going in the right direction?
LW: I was lucky enough to work with both choreographers. Though they are quite different, but they are both great ladies with a passion and a gift for dance. Kathleen reminded me so much of my former technique training and I always felt right at home with her style and choreography. Tamara brought to Memphis a fresher, more audience focused style. She has worked with the NBA in many different roles and knows what has been successful in other markets. While less technically challenging, her style is fun to perform, and provided me the challenge of adapting to a new style. I definitely think she has the team moving in the right direction.

3SOB: When did you start dancing?
LW: I started dancing at the age of 3. I studied ballet, tap and jazz until I graduated from high school. Dancing for the Tigers brought me to Memphis. I enjoyed all 4 years of college dancing for the U of M, which taught me about commitment, competition, and most of all hard work! I met some life-long friends there and made so many memories. I also danced for the Redbirds Redhots during summer breaks from the University of Memphis. I auditioned for the Grizzlies in 2003 and was a part of the team until the 2007-2008 season.


3SOB: You said that the Tigers brought you to Memphis. Where were you living before coming here?
LW: I grew up in a small town about 50 miles Northwest of Nashville. It's called Cunningham, TN and is close to Clarksville. I lived there my entire life until moving to Memphis for college.

3SOB: You work now at St. Jude. What is the job like and do people recognize you from your dancing days?
LW: I love my new job! I’m working in National Program Marketing for ALSAC/St. Jude, which basically means that we manage programs that assist other organizations and individuals in raising money for the life-saving work being done at the hospital. I am about 2 months in to my new position, and while overwhelming at times, I think it is going to be a perfect fit. Yes, people recognize me from the Grizzlies dance team all of the time. And, not just new co-workers, I’ve been approached in restaurants, stores, and even in the bank. It’s really nice to know that at least a few people were paying attention to the faces of the girls on the floor, and it was always nice to hear someone say that they enjoy your performance.

3SOB: What are your plans for the future?
LW: That’s a good question? I tend to set more short-term goals for myself, and lately those include surviving my sister's wedding, adopting a dog, and maybe buying a house!


3SOB: Now that you no longer spend time with the Grizzlies dance team at night what do you do for fun?
LW: I'm enjoying spending more time with friends and family, reading and watching TV, traveling, shopping, and I'm volunteering weekly at the Ronald McDonald House. I'm also looking into teaching some classes at a local dance studio starting in the fall.

3SOB: As an owner of 3 dogs myself what type of dog are you looking to adopt? Are you looking for AKC registration or would a good old fashioned mutt suffice?
LW: I would love a mutt, I'm as sucker for a dog that is "so ugly it's cute".

At this point I mentioned something about how my nose gets cold and many people have described as being loyal like a mutt. Linea said that was nice and ended the interview.

I've got to remember to take off my wedding ring when I do these interviews!

Back in School: The Chris Wallace Interview - Part 4

This is the 4th part of the exclusive interview Chris Wallace gave 3 Shades of Blue on Friday, June 6th. Part 1 discussed his introduction to the NBA up to his first draft. Part 2 dealt with the draft process and how it has developed. Part 3 dealt with the character and intangible issues of the drafting process.

As in the Michael Heisley interview in April, we are presenting the interview in it's entirety and not taking excerpts out to forward any agenda or point of view. We at 3 Shades of Blue hope everyone enjoys the interview and trust our readers to draw whatever conclusions they want from it.

3SOB: When you are thinking of drafting a player does marketability come into play in the decision to draft that player?
CW: That would if he was a definitive rain maker. I think there are very few players in the NBA that really sell tickets. I think the great ones sell tickets but there aren't many of them. I think the local aspect is over-rated. You guys had Lorenzen Wright here and that guard (Antonio Burks) but it didn't spike attendance a great deal. I remember in Boston we had Dana Baros for a number of years who played at Boston College. He was a great player and a great guy but people didn't turn out just to see him play. They didn't turn out to the Clippers to see Bo Kimble. So that's a little over-stated. So if you find me a player that is a great player who's going to help us win and be a box office draw that's the best but to try and manufacture one, maybe you think this kid has a personality or a flair that will make people come to the games or his team went to the NCAA tournament, that generally doesn't hold out.

3SOB: Would you draft someone either who couldn't or wouldn't work out for the Grizzlies?
CW: Yes. Definitely in this draft because players are all known commodities now. They played on big time college teams or were High School Superstars, you have the physical examinations from the Orlando camp, I have no problem at all doing that.

There is a little bit of a sense of security really in doing that because if the guy doesn't come in because he thinks he is going to go ahead of you or he has an attractive spot behind me that he is happy with even if it drops him a few spots, maybe he has a good relationship with a team, and they are giving him a guaranteed. So the guy might be saying 'wow, I am guaranteed to go 8, 9 or 10 without doing any more workouts. Sure I may end up going as high as 5 but I could hurt my stock in the next couple of weeks and not end up 8, 9 or 10 too. Things might not go right so let me take the sure thing now. So if we know a guy isn't coming in because he is already guaranteed a spot then we can have a great sense of security because the other team has already done the work. They've signed off on him on and off the court or they wouldn't have given him the guarantee. So we can piggy-back on their work without ever having done it.

3SOB: but if he doesn't come in do you feel there is any additional work required because of that?
CW: Oh we're still putting the work in. We're making the calls, countless calls on all these players to anyone we can think of. We're talking to anyone with a valid opinion of him. We're talking to coaches, opposing coaches, conference players, so we have a handle on these players. We check them out. While you haven't met them they are highly regarded and you should know from your research that these are decent quality individuals you wouldn't mind having on your team.

3SOB: You've been in the business for 20 some odd years, what do you feel was your biggest mistake in the draft and what did you learn from it?
CW: Well, it is another thing too that I have to qualify, and I'm not absolving responsibility, but it is hard to say what a person's record is because you don't know how many picks they actually made. Their team has a record. Once you've been on the inside of this business it's like being in congress. Sometimes you have a hand on legislation being passed and sometimes you don't. So you don't know but of the things I have done that I can safely say that I was responsible, I would say my biggest drafting mistake would be selecting Kedrick Brown and I will tell you why because I am a great believer in learning from your mistakes.

One, we made a commitment to him early on and asked him to shut it down. I'm very much against commitments. I've been involved in a number of commitments, some have worked out and some haven't. But when you make a commitment, I don't think it is as common now but it did happen alot in the NBA, it precludes all other possibilities. And all the other information may come.

Mike Heisley has a great saying. I asked him, "Mike, you've been very successful, how do you go about decision making? Mike said I don't make a big decision until you have to." Now we don't have to make this decision until the night of the draft. You don't even have to make that decision the day of the draft. You can wait until 10 seconds before you pick if you like. Theirs a guy named Stu Inman, he's passed away but he was the 1st General Manager of the Trailblazers and was the GM when they won the championship, who said "let the draft come to you." So if you sit back, and theirs no need in most cases, why ask a player to shut it down?

So one we made a commitment. I was very close to his college coach. He'd fed me some pretty good players and he was pushing him. Then I went and watched him play. He was a very physical kid. The best junior college kid in the country, but what I didn't take into consideration was the commitment and not checking him out against other players in that environment. These junior college's, like I mentioned before, aren't as strong as they used to be. The game has changed. Kids are now going to prep schools and maintaining their full four years of eligibility. You see virtually no big time junior college players any more that impact the final 16 teams in the NCAA tournament any more or even making an impact in the NBA. Look around the NBA, how many guys are major players that were JUCO? Shawn Marion, Nick Van Exel was one but he's not in the league anymore. I'm hard pressed to think of any.

So I had a guy that was a junior college player but that isn't what you think it is when you break it down. I passed on Richard Jefferson. He's obviously very good right now. He's been a high level player for a long time. Now Richard was a big time high school player. That does mean something. Those players over the years have succeeded in the NBA at a very high level. So here's a guy that played in the National Championship game, I believe Arizona made it that year, was a top 10 high school player versus a player who was a sleeper. I don' think he was first team all-state coming out of high school. He goes to a junior college and becomes a legitimate JUCO star. It's like law school. You have someone coming out of an Ivy league school going for a job in a blue chip firm versus someone from a mail order law school you know.

It's just different. There's a different pedigree, different credentials. So there is a safety net and a much larger margin for error. And in the final thing, it's that 6 to 5 ratio that we talked about before. If you looked at it on no other basis, if Kedrick really hit it how much better would he be than Richard Jefferson? There is no way in hell he's going to be 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 better than Richard. If all that had worked out for him it would be that 6 to 5 ratio. So if that's the case, why not cover your downside and go for a little bit more of a sure thing? If you take the sure thing then you may give up a little bit of the upside but the upside isn't that great to override the sureness of the sure thing. Okay?

3SOB: I have to ask you this, it was reported that you were confused about how the lottery actually worked, if they used ping pong balls. How is it that with your experience you don't know how the lottery actually works?
CW: Well I'd never been backstage before. I'd been back when they explained these things and they had combinations on the wall. I didn't know exactly how they came up with the combinations whether they used ping pong balls or what. This year I went to the drawing and I saw how it happened. Which is kind of ridiculous. Where they are drawing 4 ping pong balls and that gives you one of the 1000 combinations. There's only 14 balls to give you the combination. I had always heard of this ping pong balls but I wasn't sure where the combinations came from until I sat back in that room.

And that is really not a pleasant experience. You're stuck there for over an hour after the drawing is done. They take all of your communication devices before you enter the room. So your stuck there until the lottery results are revealed.

3SOB: Kind of getting away a little bit from the draft, another question I have to ask is we're going to come out of the draft with 2 more players...
CW: We may come out of the draft with 2 or 3 or even none. Who knows how we will utilize those assets? The most likely way is we exercise 5 and 28 but you don't know what will happen.

3SOB: Well either way we are most likely going to end up short of 13 players at the end of the draft. When do you start looking at the players to fill out the roster for next year?
CW: We're evaluating right now. We have been evaluating players all along. After the draft we will have a good idea of who we want to invite back to work out. We will look to fill out the roster in July although we aren't adverse to not having the roster completed by July. Sometimes there are some gems that can drop down in the form of veteran free agents.

In Boston we signed Eric Strickland who helped us win 3 or 4 games. We picked him up the day the season started. I remember that. We picked him up at the airport and I took him to our house and watched the game on TV. He was playing by the 2nd game. That 3 or 4 games may not sound like much but that made the difference in Boston having home court advantage in the first round and that series went to a deciding game. So those wins made the difference between playing that game in Boston or on the road. So if the roster is finalized in July that is fine. If not then we'll keep looking for something to come up that we don't expect.

3SOB: Along those lines, we have a dwindling season ticket base in Memphis. Do you feel pressure to shake up the roster to get people interested again?
CW: We always like to do something big. We don't want to go out and do the same things we did last year. Sure we'd like to do a Kevin Garnett type deal but it isn't very often those deals come along. So we have to keep building the team, showing improvement, maintaining and improving the assets we have and bring more talent into the roster. It a very simple process. The players we have will continue to grow. The young players are people we are excited about down the road. We may take bits and pieces of those players and trade them away for other pieces however. The idea is to continue to develop as a team every day.

3SOB: Way off topic now but I would be remiss if I didn't ask, I know you saw the article last week quoting Mr. Heisley in a way that sounded like you were being blamed for the Gasol trade fallout. I don't know if you read his rebuttal in the CA or our blog. Do you feel like you are on thin ice right now or are you secure in your job?
CW: I saw the article but I haven't seen the rebuttal but I will say this, everybody job in the NBA from the coaches to the front office is on thin ice. You're always as good as your last pick. You don't see many 5-6 year plans anymore in pro sports. The timetable is much shorter. You saw coaches this year in the playoffs get fired. Owners have paid an exorbitant amount of money to own these teams. The are very much operating in the public spotlight. Other than politics there are very few endeavors that put you in the spotlight like sports teams. Fans don't have a tremendous amount of patience. The consumer just doesn't have that kind of patience so you have to do things or they will find someone else to do the job. That is just the facts of life in the NBA. That is our occupational hazard.

3SOB: Are you worried right now that other GM's think you can be had in a deal? That you can be taken advantage of?
CW: No because in the NBA we don't have to say yes to a proposal. We don't have to say yes. Basically you know all the repercussions of a deal so there are almost no secrets. You know the financial data at the time. That's all out in the open. You know how the math works out. You have a pretty good idea of the talent quotient. Nobody really knows the ramifications. The deal may look pretty good at the time. Now over time maybe you have a winner or a loser in a transaction. Some people get hurt. Some players decline but it is not like you are selling someone real estate. It's not like commercial real estate or used cars. You know a lot about these players. You know the financial situation. You don't know what the future holds however. It's a little bit more difficult than that.

That concluded the interview. 3 Shades of Blue wants to thank Chris for his time and openness in helping our readers understand a little bit more of the inner workings of the draft and how he perceives his job. This interview was far less contentious than the Heisley interview despite some difficult questions. Chris is a likable man that you want success for, not only because he runs our favorite team but because you feel an empathy toward Chris. He is the type of person you want success for. With some big workouts this week and the important draft less than three weeks away we appreciate him taking the time to meet with us.

Back in School: The Chris Wallace Interview - Part 3

This is the 3rd part of the exclusive interview Chris Wallace gave 3 Shades of Blue on Friday, June 6th. Part 1 discussed his introduction to the NBA up to his first draft. Part 2 dealt with the draft process and how it has developed.

As in the Michael Heisley interview in April, we are presenting the interview in its entirety and not taking excerpts out to forward any agenda or point of view. We at 3 Shades of Blue hope everyone enjoys the interview and trust our readers to draw whatever conclusions they want from it.

3SOB: Are there certain things about a player's background or play that is a red flag for the you and the Grizzlies? I assume with the preponderance of knowledge about the players games that this backgrounds take greater prevalence.
CW: This is much more important. Some of the things which are red flags are obvious such as substance abuse. You obviously have to be very concerned about that. A police record. If young person is aiming for a pro basketball career and trying to be a good citizen then why do you have rap sheet? But the biggest red flag in my opinion is not having a passion for the game. That it's not an over-riding concern for him. Being a well-rounded person is great for society. The world needs them. What we need is guys that are obsessed with getting better. They have a real passion. They have somewhat of a tunnel vision.

College coaches have more control over kids these players than we do. They are the gate keepers to these kids getting into the NBA. They basically don't have any choice but to get with the program. They also go to school and that takes up a lot of their time. So when they come to us and they sign that contract, They own us in a way. You can't just get rid of people if you want to win. Trades aren't automatic if you make a mistake. Plus they have a lot more free time and money in their pocket than they did when they were in college. We've got them for 3+ hours a day. They are on break for the other 20+ hours. No study halls. No classes they have to attend. Sure there are programs put on by the NBA but they have their money and feel like they've arrived. So if a player comes in with problems just being in the NBA isn't going to be a panacea for their problems. It exacerbates those other problems. So that is why you have to be careful who you get involved with.

At this time of year, so many people have a vested interests in the player going high. Their agent, their college coaches it's good for their programs after all. So people are reluctant to really unload on a kid negatively when you talk to people unless you really know them. And players have had issues in the past. They understand what they did was wrong and being in the NBA, they're motivated to become a great player, they won't do this and that but being in the NBA isn't some magic balm rubbed on their shoulders. It doesn't work that way. And then the outside people who have had such influence over the years, their high school coach, their AAU coach, family members, their college coach, whatever, once these guys are getting paid that impact lessens. So if you have an issue it's not like you can call the college coach to help you solve it. Maybe their mother will but basically you're on your own.

3SOB: The next question builds on this issue, everyone has a red flag. So once you have associated the players red flags how do you sort them to determine who you draft?
CW: There are almost no perfect players. There's either something in the background, injuries, size, a certain matchup they didn't fair well against in college. There's something that you can point to as a negative.

3SOB: So how do you determine I'm going to ignore this red flags and not ignore that one?
CW: That's a good question. It's a bit of a moving target. You give greater allowance for better talent. First of all you look at a player. I'm not concerned if someone says he can play or he can't play to be honest with you. We're trying to have a team that can go far in the playoffs to get a title. That's what this exercise is all about. We're looking for players projected to be of that caliber. That can be rotation players. The Celtics and Lakers in the heydays had non-entities at the end of their benches. That's not what you anticipate but to be a rotation player, if you look at those players, at the top of the page is physical ability. Do they have the athleticism, the size, the matchup at his position because there are very few long term productive tweeners or in between size players in the NBA.

Then you get into the skills. Do they have the outside shot? Can the guy rebound? It's not just athleticism. The basketball component comes into it too. So you check that off. If you got both of those boxes, the size, the appropriate athleticism, the physical makeup, the skill set then I like to resonate to the productivity. There are virtually no players that I can think of that are valuable players that weren't productive at whatever level they are at. Nobody is going to be averaging 1 or 2 points per game for the Memphis Tigers is going to suddenly be able to play in the NBA. A rotation player on a big time team is going to have to produce to climb up the ladder. There's a resume there. So you look at the statistics of them. The statistics can sometimes make liars out of you but after you look at the physical profile, look at what they did as part of a team.

And if at all possible you want somebody from winning programs although there are exceptions to that. Rodney Stuckey is an example. Rodney's a very good player in Detroit but he was on a losing team at Eastern Washington in a very small conference. I think it was the Big Sky and the coach got fired so obviously the administration wasn't happy. There are always exceptions to that rule. It's when you get into the intangibles that all those questions become a concern. Is he a quality person, how's his basketball IQ, have there ever been any issues off the court and then the big one with me is does he like to play? As the Patriots say if it's a football player, how important is football to his life? Well how important is basketball?

So when all that lines up then we really got something. Most cases it doesn't all line up. So now you have to take out the negatives and evaluate how egregious are the negatives. There's no exact formula for that. Some cases you say 'okay I understand why this happened.' Maybe this system didn't use him to the best advantage but to be great that whole tower has to line up.

One other thing to, the great players, you don't have to study, watch film, spend hours on the work to figure out who is going to be great. Those players stand out. I think you should be able to tell within 10-15 minutes. I watched Kobe Bryant play and I could tell after 2-3 times up the court that this guy is going to be special. Kevin Garnett when he was young, Alonzo Mourning. These guys stand out so noticeable from their peers, even to the casual fan.

3SOB: I guess I don't have that eye because I remember the Nike Hoop Summit a couple of years ago when Saer Sene stood out to me. I remember thinking once this guys figures things out he is going to be dominant.
CW: See now you have a big if. Is he going to figure that out? That is the problem. Will he learn offense and how to play? It seems simple to master basketball when you watch from the outside. You get a coach and shoot free throws over and over you will get better. But at this level of competition despite all the good intentions, sometimes you just don't get any better. And I have found that if you don't have a good feel for the game early on then you probably aren't going to develop that later on.

See it's different than in football. In football you can be a great physical specimen and you passed the ability to play the position then you're probably going to be pretty good. In our game it is a little more difficult. It's not enough to have that one skill, like shot blocking. You still have to, if you want stay on the court along time, to be able to add value. The guys who can produce in this league hit all of the bases. You have to be someone who doesn't consistently make mistakes. There is a whole feel for the game aspect that is a skill.

to be continued...

Back in School: The Chris Wallace Interview - Part 2

This is the continuation of an interview Chris Wallace gave exclusively to 3 Shades of Blue. The first part of the interview began with his Blue Ribbon Basketball Digest up to the point he made his first real pick in the draft.

As in the Michael Heisley interview in April, we are presenting the interview in it's entirety and not taking excerpts out to forward any agenda or point of view. We at 3 Shades of Blue hope everyone enjoys the interview and trust our readers to draw whatever conclusions they want from it.

3SOB: So you would say your first hand picked player was Kevin Gamble. Now he ended up playing for the Celtics didn't he? Was he there when you were there?
CW: He played for the Celtics, Kings, the Miami Heat. He was a journeyman but he had a good career though. Now I did a total of three years with them with the amount of traveling I did and responsibilities growing. Then I went to the Denver Nuggets. I lasted there 8 months. Jon Spoelstra took me to the Nuggets with him when became President of the team. He got fired 3 months into a 4 year contract.

3SOB: Was there a change of ownership or what?
CW: No. He came in with new ownership and there was a controversy about a player that got signed, Blair Rasmussen. He was signed to a very hefty salary at the time for a center especially at his level. The General Manager said Jon had signed and Jon said the General Manager did it and it became a kind of hot potato. And he ended up getting fired. So I had just moved out there. I had no contract. I don't know anyone. Lasted eight months there before they brought in a new management team and I got fired. Then I went back to West Virginia and did some work on my magazine and did some work on basketball litigation and I worked for the Clippers and New York for two years on a part time basis out of West Virginia.

The Knicks situation was different because I talked them into, in 1991 or 92 at the beginning of European scouting, sending me to Europe to scout every European and American player playing abroad for 3 weeks. So I got a 3 week trip out of it. It was in Denver, the most important thing I did there, I took my first European trip. I scouted Toni Kukoc when I was there. So with that experience and what I had before it really sparked an interest in international scouting which has become a passion. Then in December of 1993 I went to the Miami Heat.

3SOB: Now when you went to Miami you are no longer just that guy somebody hired. You went there as a major player.
CW: Well I didn't really go there as a major player. I mean everyone involved is a major player because it's not that big. Even a team with the most extensive staff is still a small number of people. It's just a small world and the impetus to make a pick can come from any part of that. Scouts drive it. General Managers drive it. Coaches can come in and drive it. It's really hard to explain unless you've been in it but often there is not a clear cut pipeline like there is in other businesses.

Certain companies may have a research department come up with something and it gets moved to the top, then accounting people come and so on and it's a well defined process. We have all the names in the draft, or virtually all the names - some get added on along the way, then the lives of these players inside the personnel department kind of take a life of their own. This year the General Manager may drive it a bit, another year some guy from the scouts like an international scout might be particularly excited about a player and he drives it. So the ideas and the momentum for the choices come from all over the organization.

3SOB: Well do the Grizzlies have an extensive scouting group?
CW: Yeah we do and you have to understand the difference between our endeavor and football or baseball. You don't have the volume of players these other sports do. For example, baseball has a draft that involves college players as well as high school players that we don't have anymore in the NBA. Baseball also doesn't have an international draft I believe. So the Red Sox, Dodgers and Braves are in fierce competition in places like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela for the next great 15 year old shortstop. So that takes a tremendous amount of manpower with the farm clubs and all. To get ready for some 60 round draft with college and high school players and then stay ahead of the competition in Latin America and the volume of signings of 15 and 16 year olds signing hundreds of them and hope you uncover that next one or two gems.

So there's no way one person would have the familiarity to assess that talent pool and be able to make a decision. In football there obviously more players than even in baseball much less basketball. In football there is only about 13-14 games to judge players in. There is no AAU football. Some players may not even play for 2-3 years too. Players like Willie Parker for the Steelers. He's a star running back now but only gained like 4-500 yards his whole college career. He wasn't even a starter. That's not happening in the NBA. Some guy who's a very minor player and doesn't even start until maybe his last year and doesn't have numbers goes on to become a starter on an NBA team isn't going to happen.

So these other sports don't have the benefit of common competition that we have in the NBA. See these guys play AAU ball. Now we can't go watch them now but you hear about who the best guys are. You know who the best guys are in Memphis, Baltimore and Detroit. These kids rise to the top of the draft. Anyone who looks at the 2008 draft, if you read the internet and read the publications you knew who these guys were since they were 15 or 16 years old. They were separated from their peers. So the top guys in basketball tend to stay in the top. In football picking the top high school guys is more difficult because they may not make it in college. So these other sports have a much larger task as far as the numbers are concerned and they don't get to see the players compete that often.

You know if you went out and tried to scout football games you would find it difficult to see many games. I mean they play some on Thursdays now and maybe you can find a way to see 2 games in person on Saturday but you can't take in many games. We can see games from November all the way through the NCAA tournament almost every night. Thanks to TV we see a lot more in the way of competition with inter-sectional games and pre-season tournaments, post season tournaments so the guys we are looking at go up against each other more often than in football.

We only draft 60 players. Every year there are probably 75 or 80 players that can go in that 60. These other sports you are looking at hundreds. So what I'm getting at is we don't have, or I don't think we have, as arduous a task to see these players. This is where the mechanics of the job take place. You know who the guys are in this game. I mean you can just go off of mock drafts from the beginning of the college season on. You may not have them in the same order but you would have 2/3rds of the lottery. I mean everyone knew O J Mayo was going inside the lottery. Derick Rose, Beasley. They are out there early.

And what also has happened which makes the job easier is the dispersion of this talent. There aren't many NBA players who didn't come from high profile Division 1 schools. The junior college player has virtually dried up. There are almost no small college players of any significance. The historic black schools just aren't putting the players out they used to. The Willis Reed's, the Earl Monroe's, the Bobby Dandridge's. It just doesn't happen anymore. I don't know if there are any NAIA ball players in the league anymore. Maybe Devon George might be an NAIA player. That's like 1 guy out of 400 something players. The Juco players or players coming out of JUCO to Division 1 schools, that has come to a halt. So what we are dealing with is basically big time high school players who came out of the BCS conferences with minor exceptions and the high level European players. So you don't have to go out and beat the bushes like you used to do. We're not trying to outfox the experts for the next great player out of Uzbekistan. These are all known players.

So our object is not discovery. It is catagorizing. Getting those known players in the right order. Now that's no small feat. If you look back at past drafts you'll see that a lot of times the names are all upside down. Every team in the NBA has blown many drafts. Partly because it is an inexact science at best and more I think because of the decision making and the outside stimulas in the process more than people just don't know talent. So my point is having more people, a large group, doesn't neccessarily lend to a better result. Take the top 10 and there are at most 12-13 players being considered for those spots. Everybody knows who they are. The most casual fan can name them because outside of Gallinari they are all branded players. Now the trick is getting them in the right order.

Since I've been in the NBA, which is more than 20 years, there has never been so much manpower devoted to talent aquisition as there is now. More travel, greater use of technology yet the end result is not any better than it was 20 years ago.

to be continued...Part 3