You have to be shitting me: http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/t...griz-fail-to-land-randolph-and-much-more.html "The Grizzlies had agreed in principle to acquire power forward Zach Randolph Thursday night but Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling later nixed the trade, according to two NBA sources. During the NBA draft, executives from both teams hammered out a package with Randolph and Darko Milicic as the key pieces. Griz guard Greg Buckner would also have been included in the transaction." This from a guy who has always been concerned with the bottom line. He had a chance to dump Zach and he doesn't?
Well.. if there was ever a GM that would lie about having to cut costs and then take on a contract like Zach's, it's no surprise it's Chris Wallace.
I'm not a Zach fan, but he would have made the Grizzlies better in the frontcourt as a legitimate low post scoring option -- Sterling would have actually gotten the short end of this stick, even though it would have rid him of an albatross of a contract. My guess is that with Zach entering the final two years of his deal, having him on a team is starting to look a lot less harmful, and the year after this he'll actually be a massive asset as 17 million dollar expiring contract in 2011.
That's not getting enough back! I can understand wanting to dump his contract, but there a quite a few teams out there that could use ZBO's low post game.
PG Conley SG Mayo SF Gay PF Zach C Thabeet I guess it wouldn't be that bad, depending on how much Thabeet could mask the defensive mistakes of his entire team.
Zach is making a TON of money, but (a) he can still play at a high level, and (b) his contract only runs two more years. I'm surprised that the Clippers would not have taken the relief and run because... well, because they're the Clippers. I agree with HCP, though, that Zach would have been a big help to the Grizzlies on the front line. I don't think it would be "Bonzi pushes the Grizzlies ahead of the Blazers in the playoff chances"-level impact, but they could really use him. Ed O.
They'd still suck ... at least in the near term. Thabeet looks like a taller Theo Ratliff clone to me, with less of a motor so I'm really dubious about what kind of impact he'll have at the next level (probably a terrible man-to-man post defender, but a decent weak-side shot blocker) Zach will give them some inside scoring which they'll desperately need, but Mayo is kind of a selfish player based on my limited observations of him and I think with Zach, Mayo and Gay all being scorers with little interest in defense that team is in trouble until and unless they add a good wing defender and until/if they learn to play good team basketball. Lionel Hollins has his work cut out for him.
The Clippers did not trade Zach because there were rumors of that Griffin kid being a hard worker and a straight arrow - so they need Zach to show him the ropes! (Ricky Davis can't devote enough time to corrupt both Griffin and Eric Gordon).
