FanHouse DarkoMilicic

Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal emptied his notebook on the paper's Grizzlies blog. The most incredible (if not uncredible) rumor had Clippers owner Donald Sterling nixing a trade which would have sent troubled/troubling Zach Randolph to Memphis for Darko Milicic and Greg Buckner. Darko instead went to the Knicks for Quentin Richardson and cash. Z-Bo remains directly in Blake Griffin's path and peripheral vision.

I have absolutely no clue why Sterling would nix a deal like this. The Clippers had nearly a full season to realize Randolph isn't worth it. He scores frequently but inefficiently, which is spyspeak for "he takes way too many shots." He's a great rebounder ... but so are Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman and Griffin. Randolph will make more than $33 million over the next two seasons, while Darko (a far better defender than Z-Bo) has a $7.5-million contract which expires after 2009-10 and Buckner's contract can be bought out for about $2 million.

There was a lot of activity in the NBA this week, and we're not just talking about the draft. Some of the NBA's big names and better teams were in on it.

Here's a quick look at the trades that went down and what they mean:

The Deal: Phoenix sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland for Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, a second-round pick in 2010 and cash.

The Thinking: The Cavaliers get an aging O'Neal, with the hope that he can have a productive year playing alongside LeBron James. The only way this trade is a success is if the Cavaliers are the 2009-10 NBA champions. For the Suns, trading O'Neal means that they are beyond tinkering and are leaning toward turning over the personnel of a team that missed the playoffs last season.

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A potential trade sending Darko Milicic to New York in exchange for Quentin Richardson has been rumored for a couple days now. Adam Silver announced it has been consummated. The Darko Knicks jersey immediately becomes the greatest shirt in the history of synthetic garmentry.

One big takeaway from this deal is that Memphis will apparently take back $2 million in extra salary, unless New York is forking over some dough not yet reported. Darko's flight opens up the frontcourt for Hasheem Thabeet, who (I assume) will turn Marc Gasol into a power forward. We'll see how that works out -- Gasol isn't exactly fleet, and 7-foot-3 centers typically lack lane agility. Luckily, Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo are fantastic defenders on the perimeter. Oh, wait ...

Blake Griffin went first, of course. There was no drama about that -- Clippers VP Andy Roeser essentially let the cat out of the bag with his unbridled praise for Griffin minutes after winning the NBA lottery. The real question mystery started at No. 2, and the Grizzlies answered that question by going with Hasheem Thabeet from Connecticut.

Thabeet is a bit of a project offensively, but that's to be expected -- unlikely most prospects who practically grow up in a gym, Thabeet has only been playing the sport for seven years. Will he pan out? Or will he follow the path of another failed No. 2 pick who happens to be Thabeet's new teammate, Darko Milicic, who never found stardom before settling into the life of a role player?

Time will tell, just like time will tell if Thabeet and Darko will ever share a locker room -- with Marc Gasol already anchoring Memphis' frontcourt, Milicic is rumored to be on the block. Stay tuned. (Update: That didn't take long -- Darko was traded to the Knicks for Quentin Richardson and cash.)

So, you may or may not have seen the feature we did for the NFL Draft in which we took every single team and decided who the worst draft pick in the history of that franchise was. And it was so awesome and fun to do (and totally not time consuming at all) that I decided to roll it out for the NBA as well.

So, for every NBA team, we give you a horrible draft pick -- either a straight bust, or player picked ahead of another player who was far better, etc. -- and then a snarky reason as to why said pick was the worst in franchise history. Your suggestions in the comments, please. And happy draft day!

On Tuesday night, fortune finally smiled on the Memphis Grizzlies. After constantly finding themselves on the wrong end of an errant heel from Lady Luck's rumba, they got their turned to dance with her and ended up with the No. 2 overall pick. Finally fortune smiles on the downtrodden. Or did it?

Mike Dunleavy doesn't appear to be bluffing regarding the Clippers "obviously" drafting Blake Griffin. Which means highly touted Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio would fall to Memphis. Their other option is UConn big man Hasheem Thabeet. On the surface, this looks like a win-win situation for the Grizzlies. But if we dig deeper, it may turn out to not be so great after all. Par for the course for the Memphis Grizzlies.

There was some questionable, low quality video floating around the other day of Darko Milicic ripping his jersey open in frustration during the Grizzlies' game against the Rockets. Thankfully, the team itself has provided us a better look at the clothing carnage, and has posted it at NBA.com for all to see. Or, you can just watch it right here.


I don't know how many other teams in the league would be willing to add video of something like this to their website, but there honestly isn't much else worth talking about in Memphis these days, so why not? The team is auctioning off the now famous jersey, with the proceeds going towards signing LeBron in 2010 the Memphis Grizzlies House at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

[via BDL, TrueHoop, and many other fine, fine NBA-themed websites.]

Maybe this can be attributed to general niceties or legitimate spite over a break-up, but comments from Memphis players on new teammate Marc Gasol which lump in references to brother Pau sure say something. From the Memphis Commercial-Appeal's Ron Tillery:

"Whereas Pau is a guy who would rather play out on the perimeter, Marc doesn't mind banging with guys," swingman Rudy Gay said. "He's doesn't mind confrontation down there (in the paint). That's kind of refreshing. He wants to be his own player, and he's working toward that. He's definitely asserting himself."

And the narrative of Pau as a sissy continues. It could be argued this is the most damning assertion yet: Gay is a nice guy, and this particular comment seems less directed at boosting Marc's name than drawing a stark contrast. That could have been the leading question, for all we know. But NBA players are savvy enough to skate around something like that.

Meanwhile, there hasn't been indication that Marc will get the starting nod over Darko Milicic at center. Enough if Darko maintains his spot, here's to guessing Gasol will make gains quickly. Darko blocks shots, but isn't nearly the rebounder you'd expect him to be and is slow of foot. He's also unbearably awful on offense. Seems like Gasol could at least match the production, save perhaps in the blocked shots column.

Via BDL, Ronald Tillery writes at The Memphis Edge that a recent Grizzly practice got all sorts of heated. That's a good thing.

For the first time in Memphis Grizzlies history – and I'm the only beat writer the team has worked with – a fiery, healthy, competitive spirit is evident AND we're talking about practice.

Tillery tells of O.J. Mayo getting furious at a pick-up loss and getting into it with Darko. (!) Also, Mike Conley's two pips, Javaris Crittenton and Kyle Lowry, have gone hard after each other and Rudy Gay is popping off at teammates. As Tillery repeats, this is good news.

Memphis has a severe talent deficiency, at least until Conley and Mayo develop and one of the bigs (Darrell Arthur, Darko, Marc Gasol, Hamed Haddadi) joins Hakim Warrick among the living. But energy and spirit can make up for a lot in the long march of the NBA season. Last year, the team's only fire seemed to come from Mike Miller and Lowry (and occasionally Warrick). Pau Gasol resembled a dead man walking. The veterans Memphis added in the Gay-Love swap aren't exactly your everyday leaders (Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric).

So the kids propelling the team's effort will have to be the way it's done. Who knows how many wins it could possibly mean -- that's not the important part. Again, this team needs development. That work is only buoyed if the game is exciting and fun, something the cats can't get enough of. Having spirit means you're in more games, and that means the good feelings bubble up. (Sacramento was in a similar situation last year: the loud effort provided by guys like Mikki Moore and Francisco Garcia helped keep the most important players driving and playing hard ... at least from my vantage point.)

Just when you thought -- err, when Darko Milicic thought -- Zach Randolph would be freed from his pressure-bound, weighty shackles in New York City with a swift send-off to lovely Tennessee, well ... stop thinking that, I guess. Newsday's Alan Hahn reports that not only is the Memphis deal dead, but that there is absolutely nothing else cooking on Z-Bo. Camp starts in a week, and Randolph's getting those sneakers ready.

The apparent sticking point in both this prospective swap and the odd rumored Clippers talk earlier this offseason is the lack of interest by Knicks boss Donnie Walsh to crank over a draft pick. Famously, Isiah Thomas used up most of the good ones while in power. NYK does hold its own 2009 pick, but the 2010 edition belongs to Utah, a hand-me-down from the Kurt Thomas-Quentin Richardson deal in 2005. That means the Knicks can't swap 2009 or 2011's pick. 2012 seems really far off to be giving up a pick just in order to lose some salary.

In addition to these logistical problems, Hahn reports Randolph is said to be in poor shape right now. I'd love to be shocked (and to be honest, Z-Bo was said to have good work ethic in practice in past years), but this sour situation -- the team clearly has little use for him -- will continue to drag everyone down until resolution. Eddy Curry, he'll work hard to try to start off right with the new regime. (It probably won't work, considering his massive and slow and Mike D'Antoni plays speedball.) Even Stephon Marbury will try. If Z-Bo is being so heavily discounted by the bosses, will he find any will within himself to perform? The Knicks, I'm sure, would prefer not to be in a position to find out. Alas ...