The new school of thought in coaching is: If your team does not have a legit star, you run. This is the part where old misfit Nellie becomes a renowned coach and dare I say the father of small ball. He has made something out of Matt Barnes and Monta Ellis, heck he has even made Al Harrington center.

In this thought, Memphis, lacking superstar complex from perennial lack of wins, resorts to the run and gun to put fans on the seats. This is an effective way to make the games more exciting and fun to watch regardless of outcome. They have also made a star out of this scheme and his name is Rudy Gay.

With Gay’s emergence, Memphis may feel that trading Pau Gasol for better fits may be justified already by the salary commitment and the search for better fits. The only thing that concerns me with a possible deal would be taking one or two of their bad contracts along with the classic PF we covet.

According to blogs in Memphis, there are standing offers from the Bobcats and Atlanta for Gasol. There was an unacceptable offer from Chicago last year which hasn’t appreciably changed. Chicago does not have the pieces to fit Gasol’s price tag. Even if Chicago gave up Deng, it would overlap with Gay–the Memphis start over centerpiece. Memphis would do the deal in a heartbeat if Chicago had Chandler to trade.

Right now, it’s the proverbial rock and hard place.

In Memphis, the first step would be to make a statement of what type of team they intend to build, then a plan, and then steps to execute that plan. It would clearly be multiyear.

It appears that they would like a Phoenix style 8 player rotation team–with a few wrinkles added. They’d like a “star” to draw attendance.

The old plan was to build around Gasol and Miller. The current plan is around Conley, Guy, and Gasol. Fans at Memphis have more and more channeled their unhappiness at Gasol. Both Gasol and Miller have relatively costly long term contracts from the old plan.

As the Lakers have found with Kwame and Lamar, it is hard to trade players with expensive contracts–and the Laker contracts are relatively short term.

Be careful about limiting assumptions about what Memphis might do given the complexity of their problems.

Both Gasol and Odom are misfits in their current situations who might do better somewhere else.

That we know.

1. makes a move to the basket from the left block
2. Andrew gets a hand on the ball, partially blocking it
3. While midair, KG manages to recover and hold onto the blocked shot and somehow put it in the hoop.

WTF was that! I was with about 20 other people and everyone’s jaws hit the floor in disbelief. That man is a beast!

I, however, have a newfound hatred for the celtics. I’ve found myself liking em in recent years because they were young and scrappy, PP is a local dude, and they have some really good looking uniforms. But now, it’s ON! Ray Allen is a punk and Paul Pierce gets no more love from Los Angeles !

Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies had a very bad start, fired their coach, and almost traded Pau Gasol to Chicago. I’ve been following them ever since. They have a new coach, new style, and some new players this year. They were hoping to make the playoffs. Where do they stand?

This year is almost a repeat of last year: the Grizz are 8-22. Management has projected a 50 game observational period, but events may be forcing their hand. Here’s a short excerpt from a Grizz blog, 3 shades of Blue, on the topic, Business vs. Basketball:

“Is Pau the problem? This is his 7th season in Memphis and he has been the best player every single season. However, as has been noted before, he is better suited to being the #2 option on a consistent playoff contender. Grizzlies fans long ago soured on him being the man who would lead them to the Promised Land — have they now given up on him being suited up in Beale Street Blue altogether? If that is truly the case and the emergence of Rudy Gay, as well as the potential of Michael Conley are no longer enough to persuade fans to come out to games or that Pau can be a vital part of future success, then he must be moved….and soon. From a business perspective, if something is obviously negatively affecting attendance, then that issue should be dealt with ASAP. Last year, it resulted in the firing of Mike Fratello — this year it could be the trade of Pau. As Geoff Calkins noted and Gary Parrish recently told me, trading Pau could be the “shake-up move” that puts the team on the right path to title contention.”

Isn’t this the way that some of us are talking about Lamar and an NBA championship?

Bynum’s production mostly comes after he gets into position, which basically means that he can’t create on his own. Against a good defensive team that can quickly double him, he’ll just accumulate fouls and TOs.

Check out the latest post on http://www.laballtalk.com about the upcoming year and the seemingly unavoidable Lamar Odom trade coming up soon… hopefully!