FanHouse Rudygay

DENVER -- With Monday the deadline to sign a contract extension, Memphis forward Rudy Gay said it will take a deal of about $50 million over five years to get his signature.

"I think I should be in that range,'' Gay told FanHouse before his team's 133-123 loss to Denver on Sunday night at the Pepsi Center.

However, Gay said the Grizzlies have yet to offer a deal worth as much as $50 million over five years.

"Yeah, you're right,'' he said.

Saturday is Halloween, but don't expect many NBA owners and general managers in this shaky economy to dress up as Bill Gates and throw money around.

Oct. 31 is the annual deadline for one-time first-round picks entering their fourth seasons to be eligible to sign extensions that would kick in for their fifth seasons. For stars, it's a chance to land their first really big contract.

But much is silent as the deadline approaches, meaning the overwhelming number of eligible players from the 2006 first round will become restricted free agents next summer. Three players from that draft -- Andrea Bargnani of Toronto and LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy of Portland -- have inked extensions, but not a lot more activity is expected.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Grizzlies are not a joke. They are the punchline. That's where they've fallen to. They aren't even the setup for the joke. They're just mentioned as the end point.

A little under two years ago, Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace (and by that, we mean owner Michael Heisley) traded Pau Gasol for cap room and some loose junk. The only valuable component they got out of the deal was Marc Gasol. The move elicited everything from mockery to outrage from pundits and even league personnel. Things have not improved considerably since.

Josh Childress started for an NBA team. Von Wafer played significant minutes on an NBA playoff team. Linas Kleiza once scored 41 points in an NBA regular season game (this ain't no summer league, man!) And they're all members of Olympiakos B.C.

Now since Childress decided to taste the awesome flavor of Dolmades, there has been no great exodus. However, that's now three NBA-quality players that aren't even the huge stars on OBC. Which begs a question. We know the NBA elite boast teams that could defeat them pretty handily, but how would Olympiakos do against the low of the NBA?

Allen Iverson needs to lay low for a while.

After establishing himself as a potential Hall of Fame guard, with offensive skills never before seen in the league and establishing himself as a perennial winner who's only flaw was that he was surrounded by insufficient backup, the last year has done a lot to tarnish that reputation. After being traded to Detroit he was an outright disaster, unable to find his place in the offense or in the locker room. Meanwhile the guard he was traded for, Chauncey Billups, lead his team to the Conference Finals.

As a free agent this summer, Iverson needs to go somewhere quietly and rebuild his image, much the same way that his old coach Larry Brown has in Charlotte. But it might be another small market team Iverson ends up with. One that now features an... eclectic makeup of personalities.

Iverson might be headed South for the Winter.

It's been such a wild year for the Phoenix Suns that the trade deadline rumors that swirled around Amare Stoudemire almost seem like they didn't even happen. But happen they did, and the fact is that the Suns were openly trying to deal their young All-Star to anyone who would listen -- including the Memphis Grizzlies.

There were plenty of unsubstantiated rumors about where Stoudemire could possibly end up, but Memphis was apparently a legitimate possibility, at least from the Suns' standpoint. The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the details of how it all could have gone down.

Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins is 8-22 since taking over for Marc Iavaroni in late January. Iavaroni was fired after the Grizzlies started the season 11-30.

In case you're scoring at home, that gives Iavaroni a .268 winning percentage compared with Hollins' .266. But Hollins should get credit for at least one thing: He's not selling false hope like a lot of other coaches. In fact, he's not selling hope at all, really.

Hollins peddles reality.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Miami has two options this summer. The Heat can continue to be a legitimate one-man band, or it can get hooked up with some shady underground biotechnician and clone Dwyane Wade. Your choice, Heat.

Wade went ballistic (again) with 42 points on 34 FGAs and 13 FTAs. He added four rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block. And only one turnover. I mention turnovers quite frequently in Doing Lines, but just to be sure you grok my spit: one turnover in (effectively) 45 offensive possessions Wade is personally responsible for is ... unreal. Those 3.4 turnovers a game might look like a lot. But account for how much of the offense rests on his shoulders and ... yeah. B-E-A-S-T.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

"The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress." -Philippe de Comines

It's also paved with the 2008-2009 Memphis Grizzlies and their fans.

The Grizzlies entered the season with a bizarre self-awareness. They were a young team with a coach that preached speed and aggression, but who had been told by his boss to instill defense, or else. They had lost their longtime franchise player in a rebuilding trade that resulted in much of the league mocking them, then pulled off a brilliant draft day trade to acquire O.J. Mayo. They had a deep set of guards, a great combination of young frontcourt players, returning superstar Rudy Gay, and a possible superstar in O.J. Mayo. And they were still expected to only win only 20-25 games.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Pitting the league's scoring leader against one of the worst defensive teams in the league guaranteed predictable results: fireworks. As Tom Ziller said in Wednesday's Guide, "Dwyane Wade could very well score 70, block Shaq's shot and set himself on fire at midcourt. Anything is possible."

I laughed when I first read that, but after Wade stormed out with 19 points in the first quarter, I began to worry if Shaq would remember to stop, drop and roll.