Van Memphis GM Enrique walks into the conference room in the newly minted town of Van Memphis, formerly Elder South Dakota, the halfway point between Vancouver's General Motors Place and the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The location is desolate, hard to get to, and perfectly fitting for the road the Grizzlies appear to be headed. He looks even more unkempt than usual, and not in am "I'm barely trying way" as per usual, but in more of a "OMG is he going to ever get good news again" kind of way. He looks like he hasn't slept since the offseason started. As he steps in front of the podium, he takes a breath and lets out a huge sigh before beginning...
GM Enrique: Hello and welcome, to the beginning of another season in Van Memphis Grizzlies basketball. Before we begin to talk about this years team, I'd like to talk about how we got here:
GM Enrique: 2 Seasons ago, we decided to throw money in Free Agency towards older veterans who could help us win games after back to back to back losing seasons. we felt we were languishing with our young team led by Michael Finley with other young players. So Michael Finley asked us to decline his option for that offseason in order to either get him more help or to let him walk. That offseason, we recruited James Posey & Calvin Booth to join Finley, Bobby Simmons and our young squad consisting of Kyle Lowry, Andrew Bynum, Jose Calderon, and David Lee. It was an interesting group, but it worker. The change was immediate, as the veteran presence and infusion of talent immediately led to a 50 win season (+16 games), Bobby Simmons's first All-Star game, and a playoff berth. But we knew we had a timebomb on our hand. James Posey, and to a lesser extent the other two veterans, had immediate setbacks in training camp. At that point the decision was made that in 2 seasons we would decline Poseys option.
GM Enrique: Last season, knowing once again the plan with Posey, we brought more aging veterans with a returning Calvin and bringing in the Big Bear Shaquille O'Neal. We ran away with the Division Crown in a weak Midwest with 50 wins once again. Kyle Lowry and Bobby Simmons were now All-Stars, and with that, many of our fans thought that we should bring back that group for another run. However, we felt our decision to decline every option we had was justified as we scrapped by the Spurs in a seven game battle to barely preserve our "Never lost in the first round" title. We received another blow when we were dealt with swiftly by the eventual Western Conference champions in the Kings.
GM Enrique: That brings us to today. Armed with a ton of capspace, we had a few decsions to make about the direction of the team. In the draft, we were able to snag Toney Douglas. A combo guard, we hope that he can help partially fill the void left by Jose Calderon. With RFA, we were faced with the task of trying to keep Andrew Bynum. We made progress on a 4 year deal, before our fellow Canadian team, the Toronto Raptors offered him a max 4 year offer sheet. We decided to allow him to walk. We loved what he brought to the team and it will no doubt be hard to replace that. We wish him all the best in Toronto
GM Enrique: Which brought us to FA. We knew we had two routes, once again going after big names, or attempt to build and develop depth and talent with younger players with potential. We decided to go the big name route and were promptly shut out. We were still able to bring in some of the talent that we wanted, but we know we messed up in that we lost some of the more intriguing names out there. We did make the decision that, that we wanted Bobby to finish his career here. Essentially we wanted to give him a deal that we knew would potentially hurt us eventually since he was always on the cusp, but also reward the work that he's put in, constantly improving from the 23rd pick in 2001 to a 2 time All-Star with us. He encompasses what we look for when we choose our players and this will serve as a reminder of that.
GM Enrique: Which brings us to today. Post TC, Bobby appears to have lost a step athletically, while still improving in other areas. Some of you have heard that All-Star Kyle Lowry is on the block, but this has been the standard operating procedure with him here and nearly every player coming off their rookie deals. We will remain transparent with him, and if he is interested in playing somewhere else, we will try to accommodate that as best we can, even though we'd like him to stay.
GM Enrique: If there's one thing I'd like to tell Grizzlies fans, it's this: Strap in. Its gonna be a long and bumpy road. We saw that even with back to back seasons of 50 wins, we werent good enough to go against the better teams, and while I'd like to always be in the playoffs, I'd like to give our team a chance at our first title. To do that, we need to take a step back and evaluate all of our options. Don't be surprised to see changes and a new look and direction to our team.
GM Enrique: Now if there are any questions, I'd like to open the floor:
