<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Stromile Swift will be spectacular. There's a pretty good chance that he will be spectacular against the Rockets, either in the first preseason game Oct. 10 or the first week when the Rockets are in Memphis Nov. 7. Spectacular, however, is not enough. Now ? and it's about time ? it will be what he does the next night, and the night after that. Swift has breathtaking talent. Even his unsatisfying one season in Houston was enough to demonstrate that. But he had convinced the wishful-thinking Rockets that he was ready to become more than an occasional tease of talent, remarkable as he could be. They wanted him to grow into a reliable performer and an every day worker. They needed him to compete when Dirk Nowitzki snarled in his direction. To me, he looked like a guy that would always be a heart-breaker, a guy that would seem capable of so much, but fall short in the end. But now that he was sent back to the Grizzlies in the deal to get Shane Battier out of Memphis, his team more than wants him to be an every night player; the Grizzlies need it. Pau Gasol's injury offers the sort of opportunity Swift did not have in his first five seasons spent behind Shareef Abdur-Rahim and then Gasol. Now heading into his seventh season, Swift is needed more than he has ever been before. In the loaded Western Conference, the Grizzlies might not be able to fall too far behind the pack early and certainly cannot expect young Hakim Warrick or Rudy Gay to pick up Gasol's scoring load. All these years it was natural to wonder why Swift did not produce and it looked as if it did not matter enough to him. But now, he's needed. Swift was never going to be the featured guy with the Rockets as long as Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady stayed healthy. When they were hurt last season, he did not fill the void. He'll get a chance again. Spectacular talent always gets another chance. Whether he does more with it this time with the Grizzlies will go a long way toward measuring his career, and the Rockets' draft-night trade.</div> Source
