Lineup and Rotation Still Unknown

After more than a week of training camp, Coach Iavaroni gave the team a day off. The time hasn't been long enough to determine who is starting and who will make the primary rotation. Iavaroni said that no lineups have been determined.

"Is anything shaking out right now? No," Iavaroni said. "We haven't played any games. That's where we'll decide who is going to start and how we'll rotate, and have combinations. I'm going to sit down with the coaches (today) and decide which direction we want to go."

Iavaroni has said that nobody except for Pau has a guaranteed spot in the starting five. It seems reasonable to expect that Miller and Rudy will start at the wing positions. How the rest of the rotation shakes itself will be the most interesting aspect for the remaining time in training camp and preseason.

My favorite position battle is at the point. Right now I think the starting spot is Damon's to lose. During the Blue and White scrimmage, Damon started on the same team as Pau, Mike and Rudy and played really good. Tillery reported that during last practice, Damon was on the same team as Miller, Gay, Pau, and Darko. Those five are probably the consensus starters right now for most Griz fans. Looking at the pictures taken during practices, Damon usually has the same color jersey on as Pau, Rudy and Mike. That is why I believe that the starting point guard spot is Damon's to lose.

However, everything will most likely change once the Grizzlies start playing other teams. On Tuesday afternoon (Memphis time), the Grizzlies open up preseason games playing Unicaja. Chip thinks that Damon, Mike, Rudy, Pau and Darko will start and I agree with him.

I still think that within the first month of the season (if not by opening night), Mike Conley will be the starting point guard. Conley's ability to play and push the team to such a fast pace will earn him Iavaroni's trust. Right now it may look like a now-healthy Damon has the upper hand, it is still just a matter of time before he gets passed over. Damon understands this.

Even though Damon might be the favorite to start at PG and Conley looks to be the most competent contender, Kyle Lowry should not be counted out. I fully believe that as long as Lowry is healthy, his tenacious defense and knack for making big plays will force his way to the court, especially in the 4th quarter. I predict that Kyle will become the biggest fan favorite this year for his gritty, bulldog style.

The backup wing position is another competitive battle (assuming Miller and Rudy start). I have no idea who will come out on top between Navarro, Kinsey and Jacobsen. Kinsey is the worst shooter of the three, but a better defender. I also have a feeling that if Damon or Lowry finds themselves third on the point guard depth chart, that either of them could see some spot minutes at the 2 if Iavaroni chooses to go super-small (Damon for his shooting and Lowry for his defense and ability to get to the rim). That could hurt the court time available for Navarro/Kinsey/Jacobsen. Working in the other direction is the possibility of Rudy playing some at the 4, opening up more minutes for the Navarro/Kinsey/Jacobsen trio.

There is one prediction I do feel confident making regarding the Grizzlies position battles. Stro will not be apart of it. Like clockwork, Stro already has a knee injury. Although minor, I have a feeling this will be the start of a string of small nagging injuries for Swift.

Edit (10-8-07, 3:55 pm): Check out Chris Herrington's take on Camp Battles.

Grizzlies Coverage In Spain

The Grizzlies are in Spain. No surprise to anyone reading this site.

What some fans might be surprised at is the level of coverage we have to devour.

First, I'd like to praise the blogging Ron Tillery is doing (did I just say that?) over at the Memphis Edge, the blog ran by the Commercial Appeal (go check it out, you'll also find some great posts from Chip there, like this one). I'm happy to see the CA sending Tillery over to Spain. He has photos and even some videos. Here are some highlights from his first few posts from Spain:

--The Grizzlies flew in style.
--Lots of media there to greet the Grizzlies. Ok, ok. Lots of media there to greet Pau and Navarro.
--Mike Conley likes McDonalds.
--Lowry returned to practice and looked 100%.
--Stromile has a sore knee (don't act so surprised).
--A number of Grizzlies along with Kenny Smith met with children at a local hospital.

But that is not all we have from Spain. Grizzlies.com is posting a ton of photos from each day. They have photos getting off the plane and of the first two practices. I especially like the photos from the 2nd practice. It seems the photos posted on the Grizzlies webpage are taken by Joe Murphy for Getty images. Even more of his photos of the Grizzlies are found at Yahoo. There are some cool pics of Mike and Pau at a EA Sports NBA Europe Live Tour event.

(off topic...while I'm writing this post, I just got captivated by one of those new black/white Grizzlies commercials...nicely done, IMO...there are a number of commercials using the phrase "New Game" and all of them are quite good...I have seen a couple of different ones tonight, three I think, and my favorite is of Hakim and Rudy playing one-on-one in an empty gym.)

TrueHoop has a post talking about how Blog Crazy the Warriors are. That got me thinking about how the Grizzlies now having 3 players blogging. Casey Jacobsen is starting up a blog on grizzlies.com. Here is the link to his first post. He thinks the Grizzlies will win a lot of games this year. Hak and Conley both have updated their yardbarker blogs. Does anyone know what team has the most players contributing to some sort of blog on the internet? 3 has to be close to the most I would guess.

Going back Tillery's coverage of the Spanish training camp trip, I got to thinking. Why isn't there this much coverage while the Grizzlies are in Memphis? Why couldn't have Tillery posted blog posts on the Memphis Edge about the training camp practices here in Memphis? The media saw a good amount of the practices here. Chris Herrington wrote a great post about what he saw. I see no reason why Tillery can't provide more Grizzlies coverage by utilizing the blog format on the Memphis Edge like he has for this Spanish trip. I hope he does during this season.

Herrington's Practice Notes

Go over to Beyond the Arc and read Chris Herrington's training camp notes on what he saw at today's practice. Unlike in the past, the team is actually showing the media legit practice time instead of just free throws. As usual, Herrington is a must read for Griz fans. Herrington mentions that Conley looked great. Navarro looked a little weak. Rudy looked like Rudy. Darko looked disinterested during team huddles. And a high-five tweaked Stro's finger.

News and Notes

Over on Grizzlies.com they have a write-up about Media Day, which was held yesterday. There are also plenty of photos and player portraits to peruse, including the one shown here. Rudy Gay caught a fish "this big".

(Copyright 2007 NBAE. Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Grizzlies announced that they signed two free agents to the training camp roster yesterday -- Kasib Powell and Dontell Jefferson.

Dontell Jefferson is a 23-year old 6'4", 195-pound guard who played two seasons with Atlanta Metropolitan College, then transferred to the University of Arkansas for his final two seasons. He then played professionally last season with the NBADL champion Dakota Wizards, where he averaged 9.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 3.7 apg and 1.37 spg. He was coached there by David Joerger, who was recently hired as a Grizzlies assistant.

Kasib Powell is a 26-year old 6'7', 215-pound forward who attended Texas Tech for 4 years. Powell played professionally overseas in Bosnia, Greece, Russia and Greece. Last year, Powell averaged 9.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.0 apg and 1.4 spg for Spartak (St. Petersburg, Russia) in the Russian Superleague. He attended the training camps of three different teams the past three years: Orlando Magic (2006), Chicago Bulls (2005) and Minnesota Timberwolves (2004).

In other news, it looks like the rest of the sports world has caught on to the story we reported here on Shades of Blue four days ago -- Mark Price is the shooting coach for the Memphis Grizzlies. When news breaks, we're first on the scene with the duct tape.

Marlon Morgan has a nice column in the Commercial Appeal, detailing the fact that the team is actually healthy for this season's training camp -- a big difference from last year's disastrous start. He's got quotes from Brian Cardinal, Damon Stoudamire, Marc Iavaroni and Tarence Kinsey, all of whom are ready to prove that last season was an aberration and that this team was a lot better than their record indicated. Damon, in particular, seems to have a chip on his shoulder going into this season, which could result in him playing a lot more minutes than many fans would have expected after the selection of Mike Conley Jr. on draft night.

Finally, I urge all of you to read Geoff Calkins' column in this morning's Commercial Appeal titled "There's nothing hopeless about the Grizzlies this season". In it, Calkins details just how much things have changed from the standoffish, keep-at-arm's-length approach the organization had employed for the previous few seasons when dealing with its fanbase. The column is highlighted by President of Business Operations Andy Dolich offering his parking space so that a longtime season ticket holder would renew for this season. It is a new era in Memphis for the Grizzlies, so I think everyone should be willing to give them a chance to prove themselves to the community at large.