Good job Memphis

Y'all know I'm a Laker hater... but sometimes I gotta spread the hate a little, so this post is for the Memphis Grizzlies. Seriously, don't let the Net's 0-6 start fool you, they've been struck by quite a few injuries (Harris, Yi, CDR, Lee). No, the worst team in the league by far is the Memphis Grizzlies (1-5). I don't know how anyone thought acquiring Zach Randolph over the summer would have been a good thing. Yeah, he's always a 20-10 type of guy and he's even averaging a career best 3 apg this year, but those are probably the emptiest stats in the league. Every team he goes to just gets worse and I bet you thought that wasn't possible with the Grizzlies, but check this out...

The Grizzlies are now giving up a league worst 115 PPG, up from 99.3 PPG last season (18th). They're also third worst in opp. FG% (50.6%) that's from 6th worst last season (47.3%). They're also third worst in points differential (-9.8), from 5th worst last season (-5.4). All this despite suffering no major injuries to their entire roster and getting a spectacular start from 2nd year center Marc Gasol (16.3 pts, 11.7 rebs, 1.5 blks, 58% FG).

And what about their 2nd overall pick from last year? You know the guy they picked ahead of Rubio, Evans, Curry, Jennings, and basically everybody not named Griffin. Well, apparently Hasheem Thabeet is just not good enough to play sometimes... at least according to Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins.

"In the (Western Conference), there's going to be nights he can't play," Hollins said. "He can't play against Golden State. He can't play against Phoenix. It'll be about matchups, but he'll get his time."

Um, 2nd overall picks shouldn't be situational bench players, they should be damn near studs. Well unless you're that other 2nd overall pick... but Thabeet isn't an 18 year old unknown Euro project. He played 3 years of NCAA ball at a major college (UCONN) with lots of tournament exposure. You should know what you're getting when you draft him. Yeah, yeah, there was also that other high pick guy that did 3 years at a major college and turned out to be a major bust. But at least that bust played 30 minutes a game for 78 games in his rookie campaign... Thabeet isn't even getting a chance to play. Good job Memphis!

You know... Thabeet is supposed to be defensive minded (2x Big East Defensive Player of the Year) and the Grizzlies are obviously terrible at defensive. I'm pretty sure the leaner/meaner Marc Gasol can play some spot PF. Why not roll the both of them out there for a bit (and give Z-Bo a rest) and see what happens. Maybe just 3-4 minutes at a time, 1-2 quarters a game. They're already losing and getting blown out more often than not... the twin towers experiment can't be that much worse, can it?