FanHouse Rudygay

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.

On Thursday, reports indicated that Memphis had dropped out of bidding for Amare Stoudemire due to the high price Phoenix sought. But apparently the Grizzlies' gaze just shifted east: Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reports Miami, Memphis and Phoenix are discussing a deal that would land Amare in South Beach, Rudy Gay and Shawn Marion with the Suns, and Michael Beasley with the Grizz.

The Heat gets the deal's best player, ready to help Dwyane Wade contend today. Phoenix gets what it has wanted -- cap space (Marion's deal ends this summer) and a cheap, young stud. But what exactly is Memphis doing here?

Memphis has been a team that has been a bit tangential to the whole Amare Stoudemire Sweepstakes -- there's been reported interest and/or contact, but the only rumor out there (Rudy Gay and Mike Conley as the main parts) seemed a bit too rich for the Grizzlies.

Apparently, Memphis management agrees. Ron Tillery of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reports Memphis owner Michael Heisley has rejected Phoenix's (supposedly firm) offer, and the Grizz are out of the Amare derby.

The NBA held a contest, decided by fan vote, to determine the final contestant in the 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest, brought to you by Sprite (in case you missed that). Turns out that Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, and the rather amusing Joe Alexander of Milwaukee couldn't do what a 6-foot-6 Spaniard shooting guard could do.

Portland's Rudy Fernandez has been selected to join defending champion Dwight Howard, Rudy Gay, and Nate Robinson in the event. This according to Jason Quick of The Oregonian.

As far as Rudy's odds, he's definitely staring up at a pretty big (say seven feet) disadvantage. Howard is the most prolific Dunk Contest Winner of the last decade, Rudy Gay has an amazing set of skills for the event, and Robinson is the token Short Guy. So Fernandez is going to need to bring something pretty impressive to pull this off. I recommend dunking over the Darius Miles' cap space. That's a pretty long way.

Every time I sit down to watch a Grizzlies game, I know I'll be getting one of two teams.

The Good Grizzlies are young, athletic, and hungry. They play defense with focus and intensity, they rebound, they rely on terrific plays from Rudy Gay slashing and OJ Mayo nailing jumpers, and Marc Gasol beasting around the interior. Their role players don't turn the ball over, and Hakim Warrick provides the spark off the bench while Marc Iavaroni manages good rotations and timely, effective timeouts.

The Bad Grizzlies make immature decisions, foolish passes, execute poorly, get freaked out on defense when a team comes right at them, fail to crash the boards and let Kyle Lowry shoot a lot.

Today was a Good Grizzlies day.

There's a lot to be said about the Grizzlies' 102-82 win over the Mavericks, which snapped a 13 game losing streak to the division "rivals." And a lot of it has to do with things like Jason Kidd, Erick Dampier, and Devean George, three of the starting five, combining for a whopping five points and six assists. There's surely a lot of negativity on the Mavs' plane tonight, but they should save some respect for the Grizzlies, who put out their most complete performance in several weeks.

And as has become the norm, O.J. Mayo was at the front of the charge.