Ramon Sessions $8,000,000 $7,200,000
Toni Battie $6,292,000 N/A
O.J. Mayo $4,165,560 $4,456,200
Roger Mason $3,780,000 N/A
Marc Gasol $3,240,000 $3,480,000
Rudy Gay $3,280,997 $4,422,784
Jarvis Hayes $2,062,800 (Team Option) N/A
Travis Diener $1,740,000 (Player Option) N/A
Hamed Haddadi $1,627,779 $1,600,000
Ian Mahinmi $899,700 $1,623,959 (Team option)
Greg Monroe $4,171,000 $4,304,400
Earl Clark $2,284,000 $2,453,880
Mikki Moore $2,000,000 $2,000,000
Ronnie Price $2,500,000 $2,500,000
Total (with options): $46,043,836 Roster Before:Marc Gasol 28/Darko Milicic 20
Darell Arthur 20/Hakim Warrick 28
Rudy Gay 38/Greg Buckner 10
OJ Mayo 38/Marko Jaric 5/Javaris Crittenton 5
Mike Conley 28/Kyle Lowry 20
Roster Now:Marc Gasol 30/ Tony Battie 8/ Mikki Moore 10
Greg Monroe 28/ Earl Clark 20
Rudy Gay 32/ Roger Mason 10/Jarvis Hayes 6
OJ Mayo 32/Roger Mason 10/Ronnie Price 6
Ramon Sessions 30/Travis Diener 12/Ronnie Price 6
Team Goals:-Get a shooter for the bench (x-completed)
-Get a real power forward that won't get pushed around so much (x-mostly completed)
-Get a point guard that fits the players around him or choose one of my point guards to move forward with. (x-completed)
-Improve the bench with solid players (x-completed)
-Make the team more balanced with young players that can already help the team, project players, and solid veterans. (x-completed)
The core of the Grizzlies team that I got was already pretty good with Mayo/Gay/Gasol, so I made the decision to attempt to build around them. To me it looked like the bench needed some major upgrades, and especially some shooters. To begin to achieve this goal I traded away Darell Arthur, Marko Jaric, Darko Milicic, Javaris Crittenton, and Greg Buckner for Roger Mason, Chris Wilcox, Damien Wilkens and Johan Petro. Part of these trades were to rid me of the salaries of Milicic and Jaric, but I was also able to get a power forward that would help me in the short term, a solid center, and one of the best shooters in the nba to strengthen my bench. Later on I was able to trade Wilkens and a player acquired in another trade for Tony Battie--then in free agancy I also added Mikki Moore, Jarvis Hayes and Ronnie Price to my bench.
In my biggest trade of the game I sent out Mike Conley, Chris Wilcox, Hakim Warrick, and some future picks for Ramon Sessions, the third pick in the draft (Greg Monroe), and some expirings. Warrick and Petro were not in my future plans, so really it was more of a Conley for Sessions and the third pick from my point of view--not bad at all.
Why my team is better now--Looking at the depth chart it becomes pretty obvious that the new Grizzlies are much better than the old Grizzlies.
Center: Marc Gasol/ Darko Milicic vs. Marc Gasol/ Tony Battie/ Mikki Moore
Milicic is a decent player, but he really did not fit in with the Grizzlies. He is a cancer player, and a soft rebounder. Moore and Battie are both savvy vets that will grab those loose rebounds and provide offense when needed.
Power Forward: Darell Arthur/Hakim Warrick vs. Greg Monroe/Earl Clark
Monroe is clearly a better prospect than Arthur. He has a great touch within 18 feet to the basket, runs the floor, makes great passes, and is a decent defender to boot. Clark is in the same mold as Warrick but with a bit more height, and a lot more length which makes him a better fit at the power forward.
Small Forward: Gay/Buckner vs. Gay/Mason/Hayes
Really this comes down to who you would rather have backing up Gay. Do you want a top five three point shooter and a great hustle-fundementals player, or a very,very old and broken small forward with four million due for the 2009 year (1 million less than Mason-Hayes)?
Shooting Gaurd: Mayo/Jaric/Crittenton vs. Mayo/Mason/Price
Again it comes down to the backups. For 8 million you can have an old washed-up player that never was much good, and a young player with no real skill-set other than athleticism; or you can have one of the best 3-point shooters in the nba and absolutely the most athletic 6-2 guy in the league that can actually run an offense and hit free-throws--all for under 6 million.
Point Gaurd: Conley/Lowry vs. Sessions/Price/Diener
This is about the only position where the backups are not the main story, but rather the starters. Sessions and Conley both took over their teams in February, Conley averaged 14p 5r and 4a, Sessions averaged 18p 4r and 7a, as well as established himself as one of the best point guards in the east.
But the backups also do factor into this discussion, Price plays at about the same level as Lowry did, and Diener adds a three point shooter from the one that Memphis never had before. Both are good change ups from Sessions and will help the Grizzlies significantly.
The Future:Looks pretty bright for the Memphis team. Most of my core players are extremely young, and have not reached their full potential yet.
Player/Age
Earl Clark 21
Greg Monroe 18
OJ Mayo 21
Rudy Gay 22
Marc Gasol 23
Ramon Sessions 22
Ronnie Price 25
Roger Mason 28
Ian Mahimni 22
Hamed Haddadi 23
A lot of these players are already pretty far along in their development and it is scary to imagine how good they could be, most notably Gay, Mayo, and Sessions. Others are already showing flashes of what they could be--Price who was starting for Utah at the beginning of the season is an excellent athlete and a good change of pace player, in the last 5 games Marc Gasol has averaged 19p and 9r (as of March 14th). There are others in my lineup that are being developed for specific roles. Eventually one of Haddadi or Mahimni will become the backup to Gasol, Clark will backup Monroe and Gay in the future, and Monroe who at 18 is already 6-11 240 pounds, is the future for my team at power forward.
I also will have a lot of cap space in 2010 that I can choose to use with Mason, Hayes, Deiner, and Battie coming off the books
(about 13 million in expiring contracts) plus the 10 million in cap space I have now. This way, if it looks like one of my players is not going to work out I can throw the max at one of the many 2010 free agents, most notably for this team Lebron and Bosh.
Draft Picks:09 LAC 1st -- #3 Greg Monroe (unprotected)
Monroe to me looks to me in the mold of David West and Chris Webber (West's scoring game and Webber's passing and ball handling). He has a great touch on his jumper, and is most effective within 15 feet of the basket (although he has proven he can hit the college three consistently). The knock on him has always been that he is not the best rebounder, but he has started to shake that label at Georgetown, almost averaging a double-double in his Freshman Season. He is a lot less raw than most 18 year olds that come into the nba, and he already has an "NBA body", he is 6-11 240.
09 MEM 1st -- #9 Earl Clark (unprotected)
Looks like a larger version of Danny Granger. He is much longer, and a bit taller though which fits him well at the power forward position. He has been stellar at times during college, and bad at other times--in a lot of ways the way his college career is going reminds me of Rudy Gay, and we know how well he has turned out...
10 MEM 1st
10 DET 2nd
11 MEM 1st
11 MEM 2nd
12 MEM 1st
12 MEM 2nd
Transactions:1) Thunder trade/Grizzlies receive:
Chris Wilcox -- $6,750,000
Damien Wilkins -- $3,100,000
Johan Petro -- $1,939,893
Total: $11,789,9838 x 1.25= $14,737,366 +$100,000= $14,837,366
Grizzlies trade/ Thunder receive:
Darko Milicic -- $7,020,000
Marko Jaric -- $6,575,000
Darrell Arthur -- $977,160
Total: $14,572,160
This first trade was just an effort to rid myself of two bad contracts for some players that would be able to get me some value later in the game. To me Arthur does not look like a player that will be a starting power forward, so I thought the risk of trading him was low. Petro is a young prospect who might or might not have been a good addition to my team, in the end though he just ended up being part of another trade.
2) Spurs trade/Grizzlies receive
Ian Mahinmi -- $841,000
Roger Mason -- $3,500,000
2009 Houston 2nd
Total: $4,341,000 * 1.25 = $5,426,250 + $100,000 = $5,526,250
Grizzlies trade/Spurs recieve:
Javaris Crittenton -- $1,381,560
Greg Buckner -- $4,010,005
Total: $5,391,565
Crittenton is not a very good player at all, just an athelete trying to fit the mold of a basketball player. I knew to begin the season that Mason would be the solution to the Grizzlies three-point shooting woes, but I did not know exactly how good he would be (of course it has been shown that he is fantastic). I was banking on Mahimni to be a good replacement for Arthur, but he unfortunately has not played this year so I do not know if I achieved that goal or not.
3) Bucks Trade/Grizzlies Receive:
Francisco Elson -- $1,700,000
Adrian Griffin -- $1,711,000
Damon Jones -- $4,460,186
Ramon Sessions -- $722,517
Jason Hart -- $2,400,000
Malik Allen -- $1,300,000
Clippers' 2009 1st
Total: $12,641,924 x 1.25 = $15,802,405
Grizzlies Trade/Bucks Receive:
Chris Wilcox -- $6,750,000
Mike Conley -- $3,630,480
Hakim Warrick -- $2,119,102
Johan Petro -- $1,939,893
2009 Houston 2nd
2010 Los Angeles Lakers 1st
Total: $14,439,475
This was the big trade that pretty much shaped the future of the franchise. Since Ridnour went down Sessions has been good for about 17 and 8 per game, and has become the center piece of the Milwaukee offense without Redd. Conley has been good since the departure of Iavoroni, but I feel that Sessions will be a much better player, and his size matches him better with Mayo on defense. The other big thing I received was the first that turned into Greg Monroe, a player that I believe will become one of the better power forwards in the nba. I felt that the rest of the pieces in the trade were inconsequential, I traded expiring players I did not intend to bring back, for other players I did not think I would bring back.
4) The Grizzlies pickup Jarvis Hayes
5) The Grizzlies release Adrian Griffin
6) The Grizzlies terminate Antoine Walker's ungaurenteed contract; The Grizzles also announce that Damon Jones, and Jason Hart will not be receiving contract offers to play for us next year.
7) Grizzlies trade/Bobcats receive:
G/F Damien Wilkins -- $3,300,000
PF Malik Allen -- $1,300,000
Total: $4,600,000
Bobcats trade/Grizzlies receive:
PF/C Tony Battie -- $6,292,000
Total: 6,292,000
I feel that this was one of the better trades that I was able to make. Battie has been solid all his career, and is on a large expiring contract for the 2010 season so he is good potential trade-bate, or else an excellent role player on a bloated one year contract—fine with me.
8) Pacers send/Grizzlies receive:
Travis Diener -- $1,740,000
Grizzlies send/Pacers receive:
Francisco Elson -- $1,700,000
A very minor trade to get rid of one of my centers and get an excellent 3rd string point guard that shoots 40% from three.
9) Memphis resigns Ramon Sessions
Year 1: $8,000,000
Year 2: $7,200,000
Year 3: $6,480,000
Year 4: $7,200,000
Year 5: $6,480,000 (Player Option)
I have already explained how much I like Sessions, but I think the contract I signed him to is one of the steals of the game. I expected him to get somewhere about 9 million per year, but I was able to save about seven million off of what I expected him to get.
10) Memphis signs Ronnie Price
Year 1: $2,500,000
Year 2: $2,500,000
I plan on trading Lowry, and I felt that Price was the best backup point guard available. He was excellent for the Jazz without Deron, although I might have been able to get him for less.
11) Memphis signs Mikki Moore
Year 1: $2,000,000
Year 2: $2,000,000
Moore is another one of those excellent role players that you just love to have on your team. If Monroe or Clark are not playing well he can step in and take the slack, and if Battie is traded he will have an even bigger role.
12) Grizzlies trade/Mavericks receive:
Kyle Lowry -- $2,034,996
Mavericks trade/Grizzlies receive:
Protections off of Memphis 1st
2010 DET 2nd
Lowry was not in our long term plans, but our pick was so getting the protection off it was worth getting rid of Kyle, and the 2010 DET 2nd was icing on the cake.
Annoyed rant over.
