Go Ahead...Request a Trade

Let me take you back to January of this year. That was when Pau Gasol allegedly demanded a trade to a "better" team. Why would I bring this up, you ask? Well, given the recent spate of trade requests and other player demands, I thought we'd take a look back at how Gasol's request was received and also how it was made, in comparison to those made by others.

Pau was fresh off recovering from a broken foot -- an injury sustained during the World Championships -- and had come back to a team in complete dissarray. Head coach Mike Fratello was fired, head of the scouting department Tony Barone, Sr. was given the task of directing the team and the team was beset by multiple injuries. So when Gasol held a closed-door meeting with owner Michael Heisley to talk about his concerns regarding the direction of the team, especially in light of the fact that the team was in limbo due to a pending sale that fell apart, leaving Jerry West with little to do with his time other than dream about spending his days in a quiet cabin in West Virginia, it didn't appear to be a hasty decision. This is especially true given that the team had been remade twice in a short time period, first adding veterans following the first playoff sweep, then bringing in a lot of youth after the third straight first round playoff sweep. That included trading away the face of the franchise, Shane Battier, a glue guy whose leadership was greatly missed during the difficult start to the season. It seems to me that Gasol's questions didn't result in the answers he expected, leading him to request a trade to a more stable team with a better chance of winning. Then this request was leaked to the media -- by whom we do not know for sure, although it has been attributed to both Heisley and Gasol's agent -- leading to an uproar among the Grizzlies' fans and hopeful dreams by every other team's fans, especially fans of the Bulls. Gasol was labeled a quitter who couldn't hack it when the going got tough, a soft, pampered baby who whines too much and was accused of giving less than maximum effort on the court. In short, he was called the Spanish Vince Carter. But those labels weren't true, especially the last one, as Gasol averaged career highs in points, rebounds, blocked shots, FG% and FT%. Last time I checked, players don't average 20 and 10 (20.8 and 9.9 to be exact) by not trying -- but maybe that's just me. Gasol didn't pack it in for the season or become a detriment to the team in any fashion. He showed up, did his job and didn't say another word about the trade request, except in answering questions about it. That's what a team player does.

Let's contrast that with what other players have done in recent months.

After succeeding in getting Shaq traded to the Eastern Conference, Kobe Bryant was The Man for the Los Angeles Lakers. Finally, it was his show and he was going to be the brightest star. Now, a scant three seasons later, he comes out and tells owner Jerry Buss to go rehire Jerry West, to find a way to bring in more talent to surround him with and then to trade him to a team with a chance of winning. In other words, turn the clock back a decade to when Kobe was the "young fella" and Shaq was the "Big Fella" and they were on the verge of winning titles? Is that what you want Black Mamba? Kobe made his bed and now he has to lie down in it. Kobe made his trade demand in a most public way, while on ESPN Radio in NYC. He put the Lakers organization in an awkward position, especially in light of how little superstar players usually bring back in recent history (see: Shaq, Garnett, Iverson). He hasn't been traded yet, but he hasn't rescinded the request either.

Speaking of Allen Iverson, how about we cover his story? He spent 10 seasons in Philadelphia, going through coaches and teammates like Pacman Jones goes through second chances. In December 2006, he demanded a trade with Minnesota and Boston being his preferred destinations. Philadelphia immediately agreed to ship him out, placing him on the bench for the remainder of his time with the team and trading him to Denver 11 days later. This followed several conflicts between Iverson and team management, including him missing mandatory events that resulted in fines. Again, a superstar player put his organization in a position of weakness by making his displeasure a very public event. It is very interesting that the Sixers played much, much better after the trade than they had done with AI on the squad.

Following his MVP performance in the FIBA European Basketball Championship, Russian star Andrei Kirilenko conducted an interview where he expressed his extreme displeasure with Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, his method of motivating his players, his system and Kirilenko's status on the team, having been relegated to 3rd fiddle with the emergence of Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams last year. AK-47 made several comments that bordered on the outrageous, including saying that he would be willing to void out his max-level contract so that he could play for another team or even go back overseas to play in Russia. While I agree that Kirilenko's talents would be better utilized in a different system, he signed a massive contract to play for the Utah Jazz who employed Jerry Sloan at that time. What has changed in two years? Kirilenko made the headlines with his tirade, leading many to speculate that he would actually follow through with his threats. Not many guys walk away from $63 million guaranteed, no matter how unhappy they might be, so I doubt Andrei will either. Yet again, a very public demand that lessens the player's return value and hurts his current team.

Finally, we come to Shawn Marion, the athletic freak of nature who has decided that he'd rather play for someone else than to remain with the Phoenix Suns. He has complained that he doesn't receive the amount of respect he feels he deserves, sulked about his status as the 3rd man on the totem pole and most recently whined about his lack of a contract extension -- even though he has two years remaining on his current deal. In short, he has been a petulant baby who will no longer be considered underrated because he complains about being underrated. That gets you kicked off the list, dontchaknow. Marion made his request today in the most -- you guessed it! -- public way possible, by phone interview with an Arizona paper, as noted by Zack in his post earlier today. That's right Matrix, go ahead and put your team (Top 3 in the NBA, by the way) squarely behind the 8-ball before training camp even starts.

So, in review, I see plenty of guys going out and running their mouths about how mistreated they are, even when they either create the situation themselves (Kobe, Iverson) or are in great situations and don't feel properly loved (Kirilenko, Marion). Then I see Gasol, quietly plugging along, having a career year, despite the fact that fans booed him after the trade request was leaked and the team had a Season from Hell. This post will probably come across as the rantings of a Grizzlies homer, but given the way other players are treating their teams these days, I'll gladly toot the horn of my hometown team.

What's the Plan?

Adm. Painter: What's his plan?
Jack Ryan: His plan?
Adm. Painter: Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan.
From The Hunt for Red October

If only the same could be said about the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies announced today via the ‘re-energized’ owner Michael Heisley that the search for a new GM will continue for at least another week. Great news I suppose. That means Chris Wallace and his dubious history at Boston is not being given the job…yet. But it does raise a few questions as well.

Like what is the plan? Jerry West announced his intention to step down as GM on April 17th. That was over 55 days ago. How is another week going to clear up what has been so uncertain since April 17th? And why are there two new candidates emerging now instead of earlier in the process? What was the plan starting back on April 17th to replace Jerry West? Was their a plan in place anticipating that Mr. West would retire? Why did the Grizzlies leadership never interview Sam Presti, the Assistant GM at San Antonio, who signed with Seattle. Shouldn’t Presti have been interviewed early in the process as well if the team was still looking at realistic candidates?

Did Heisley assume that alleged #1 pick David Griffin would accept the position and when he withdrew his name the team no longer had any idea who they wanted?

The only logical explanation I can think of for not interviewing Presti in the beginning is that the Grizzlies felt they already had their man. After all the only person to pull his name out of consideration was David Griffin. So it appears that Grizzlies had all their eggs in one basket and did other interviews for appearances only. Now that they didn’t get their #1 choice and Presti is off the market they need to start doing serious interviews to find a legitimate candidate.

I hope that wasn’t their plan all along. Can you imagine the business meeting discussing that stragegy?

Jerry: I'm retiring.
Heisley: Well I want you to help me pick a successor and don't we need a head coach too?
Jerry: Marc Iavaroni and David Griffin are your men. I will throw together a few other names but that is who you want.
Heisley: Fine well after we hire them what do we do?
Jerry: Well let me do the draft of course. I would love to get my picture taken with Greg Oden.
Heisley: Okay so that is the plan then...

This apparent lack of a cohesive strategy has been happening all off-season for the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies were regular chatty Kathy’s before the lottery with articles being posted daily about how this draft was going to change the face of the franchise. After the lottery it took 8 days for any news out of the Grizzlies leadership. It was like they weren’t even prepared with talking points for this outcome despite their being a far greater likelihood of the team getting the fourth pick than the first. Boston was equally devastated by the outcome and yet the next day Ainge and Rivers were in front of the camera’s spewing the company line about how the team was excited about the potential at the 5 spot and how this wasn’t the end of the world for the franchise.

What was the Grizzlies plan?

The Grizzlies hung their hats on Marc Iavaroni as their next coach but when the negotiations got difficult it appeared the team had no other plan of attack. If Iavaroni didn’t take the job what was the plan? Larry Brown was brought in a dismissed as a candidate soon afterwards. No one knows for sure if Donovan was actually offered a contract or not (and I don't believe that he was). Beyond those two names no one knows what the leadership of the Grizz had planned. Let’s see, the team doesn’t appear to have a plan on who they want as GM since Griffin resigned with Phoenix. The Grizzlies don’t seem to have a plan on what to do if they didn’t get a top 2 pick in the lottery. Luckily we will never know what the Grizzlies were going to do if Marc Iavaroni hadn’t accepted the Grizzlies offer.

Does this team have a plan for the future at all or are they going to continue to wing it until the draft?

Memphis and West: A Lesson in Failure

“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.”
-John Kotter

Jerry West has tendered his resignation effective July 1st, 2007. After 6 years at the head of the franchise West has decided the team needs a new voice to lead the franchise going forward.

When West arrived in Memphis he stated his vision to make this a model franchise. While few people really knew what that meant he changed the way the franchise was viewed by the fans and the league with just his presence. He made his first major move when he fired Sydney Lowe only 8 games into the new season. Hubie Brown was hired. Brown brought discipline and a mentality that winning is a process not an end result. He coached the Grizzlies to a 28-46 record that year.

When Brown succeeded the crowds supported Brown not because anyone bought into Jerry West’s vision or even understood what his vision was. They bought into Brown’s vision because he communicated this every night in the press conferences. Jerry West was given credit for being behind everything if Brown was this successful as the coach. Who cares if no one knew what West was thinking in his box in the sky, the success on the court meant he had a plan and we should trust him.

‘Trust in Jerry’ became a popular phrase around Memphis.

The next season the Grizzlies caught fire and during a beautiful 50 win year the Grizzlies could do no wrong. West was a genius winning the league’s Executive of the Year. Hubie Brown won Coach of the Year. Things couldn’t have been better in Memphis. Who cares if no one knew what West’s vision was for the future, the Grizzlies were on the right path.

Then things started to go wrong. First, Brian Cardinal was signed to a free agent contract larger than James Posey’s, the previous year’s team MVP. West paid far over market value for Cardinal and it raised a lot of eyebrows. Players began to express unhappiness with the lack of playing time under Brown’s system that had 10 players basically playing for 24 minutes a game. It really got weird when Brown complained that West was spying on him with an equipment manager. Even though the team was moving into a new arena and coming off a 50 win season and the first playoff appearance in franchise history, it seemed no one was happy. No one was on the same page. There was no shared vision of the future that everyone was working toward.

Then suddenly Brown was gone.

Thanksgiving Day he told the team he was retiring effective immediately due to health problems. In 2 months the Grizzlies had gone from an up and coming NBA team ready to take their place in the upper echelon of the NBA to a team in disarray without leadership and without cohesion. Within 8 days West brought in another old school coach, Mike Fratello, to take over the team. The rumor was that West wanted a disciplinarian coaching the team to control the egos and to get the players to focus on team and not individuals. What was left unanswered was the question of how Fratello fit into Jerry’s vision. Granted Fratello had a reputation as a disciplinarian but how would his coaching philosophy mesh with the vision West had for the team?

Fratello won a lot of games with the Grizzlies but also upset players and fans. West sat alone in his suite watching intensely. Fratello seemed to be the anti-thesis of Brown. He was short and curt in press conferences compared to Brown’s rolling monologues on the game. While Brown seemed to enjoy educating the press about the game, Fratello seemed to be irritated. Gone was the personality on TV that had him called the “Czar of the Telestrator.”

Fratello totally changed the manner of play on the court as well. The Grizzlies went from an up-tempo team that attempted to wear down their opponents with pressure and the depth of their bench to the slowest team in the league that apparently wanted to lull their opponents to sleep. Still West was stoic. The strong man behind his Forum suite’s glass partition never came out and explained how this move was getting us closer to his vision of the ‘Model Franchise.’

The termination of Fratello and hiring of Barone brought along a pronouncement that the team would be changing again to a running up-tempo style and true to his word Barone did give the fans that. He played the youngsters and the team ran the ball. Barone joked with the media, with the refs and even his own players. West barely said a word about how this move fit into his vision of the future.

And no one knows yet what West saw as the future of the franchise.

West has always been quiet, reserved and shy. His press conferences rambled from point to point and he often left people with no idea what he really meant. He did not express his vision of the future of the franchise. No one knew his strategy to get the team there. He motivated people in the short run by reputation but by being too closed and guarded in his plans for the team he didn’t have anyone buy into his vision of the future. People didn’t work together because very few understood what direction they were going.

Hubie Brown coached the team to run and use their athleticism to outscore the opponents. He didn’t run just to run. Everyone had a place on the court and Brown expected them to be in the right place at the right time but pressure and speed were valuable keys to the team’s success. Fratello wanted to control every aspect of the team. He preferred to slow the game down to make sure that he controlled what was happening. The Grizzlies went from one of the higher scoring teams in the league to one of the best defensive teams in two seasons. Under Barone the team became one of the highest scoring teams again in a matter of weeks. At no time were the fans involved or educated about the reason for these moves. What was the vision? West had 4 coaches in 5 seasons (Lowe, Brown, Fratello and Barone-and that isn’t including the 4 game stint of Lionel Hollins) and another one on the way this summer. Where is the plan? One minute the team is running the next they are taking the air out of the ball only to have it refilled with Helium. Is it any wonder the fans turned away?

If leadership is establishing a vision of the future and establishing a path to get you there then West failed to lead this team. A lot of things can be blamed on the owner but the failure to communicate a vision of the future lies at one man’s feet. He may have had that vision (and I suspect he did) but he failed to get the players to buy into it. He didn’t communicate this vision so the fans and the players had a hard time buying into it. Without that commitment and motivation the sacrifices weren’t made to help it succeed.

West is right about the team needing a new voice. Hopefully this time it will be one people can hear both on the team and in the community. To turn this franchise around it will need sacrifice on a lot of people’s parts. Things must change. The team has to create an identity that everyone can rally behind and all of this comes from the leader’s ability to communicate his goals and visions.

West didn’t fail in Memphis because he didn’t have a vision. He didn’t fail because he didn’t make sacrifices along the way to succeed. He didn’t fail because he didn’t cause change. He failed because he kept the vision to himself. Without the understood vision all the sacrifices and effort, all the attempts to motivate and inspire eventually fall on deaf ears. One man can’t do it alone.