Tonight I have just read in a story from the Memphis Commercial Appeal that Grizz Coach Lionel Hollins called out the team at practice today. His main complaint the team lacks leadership ! I was & still am shocked. I mean ALL YEAR! Coach Hollins & the Grizz TV crew having been talking about Mike Conley JR's leadership. This is not me attacking Conley, while I think he is part of the problem he is not the main one. The main problem with the team & "leadership" IS THE COACH!! But lets go back to last Friday when former grizz Kyle Lowry went off & outplayed Conley. Lowry was traded to the Rockets a few years ago because in part he was unhappy being Conley backup. Lowry had outplayed & took over the starting point guard job. This is before Coach Hollins came in tookover coaching the grizz & gave the starting job back to Conley. Yep, the only reason Conley got to start was because Hollins said so. Moving on, there had been talk of giving OJ Mayo a chance to play point. Hollins has been & still is against this! He said OJ can't be a point because of his scoring abilty, that he can't lead the team, run a offence or & I will get back to this later get his teammates involved. That he would be a shoot first point guard. Finally OJ got his chance in summer league for 2 games before Hollins said he was done. Why because Hollins said so. Since then OJ, who Coach Hollins said was a shooting guard, now comes off the bench, behind the rookie Henry. They there is the contracts both Conley's & Rudy Gay's. Some of the other guy are not happy.Zach Randoph is probably one of them. Z-bo was a leader last year & a all-star. He was there best player & averaged a double-double. Z-bo was the main scoring option last year. But not this year. This year the main scoring option is Rudy. Marc Gasol also had a good year last year. When he got hurt the team had trouble. They can't resign him yet but they might not have enough money for them both. Plus OJ's contract will be up soon/ Knowing this the Grizz gave Rudy a max deal & resigned Conley for 5 years for 40 million. I don't know if he agreed with Rudy's deal, but I know he supported the Conley deal. Since then the offence or what the Grizz call a offence is centered around Rudy Gay & Mike Conley, the guys with the new deals. Z-bo & Gasol get ball sometimes but even against small teams, the offence stays the same. OJ over the last 2 years has played good. This year OJ is in a slump & is not shooting well. While starting he did not get the ball consistently. He gets the ball more now that comes of the bench with the backups. The change in the offence is likely a reason players are unhappy.
Now focusing on Conley, Coach Hollins said he is the leader. That he would & can get his teammates involved, & run a offence. Conley is considered a pass first point guard.Conley everbody says has improved over his years of starting. He has. how ? BY BECOMING A SHOOT FIRST POINT GUARD!! Mike Conley scores points. He don't get a lot of assist. just under 7per game the year. he had, 5per last year. He get 2 steals so he is very good this year at that, but steals lead to points usually for the stealer not assist. He is scoring 15.5 a game. His big game, like the one against the Lakers, he had a big scoring game. He is not getting the other guys involved. The offence is isolations for Rudy & Conley, Gasol pick & roll. This is what Coach Hollins said OJ can't run! I would be in a slump to if somebody told me that! Should be noted that last year they used a OJ isolation to & they run it we he comes of the bench. There games where I can't understand why they don't just give the ball to Gasol or Zbo, & get out of their ways. Why can't Conley get OJ & Rudy involved together. Why does the Grizz pass first point guard shoot so much.
The Story That Lead to this Rant!
http://www.commercialappeal.com//news/2010/dec/04/hollins-calls-out-memphis-grizzlies-says-team-lack/
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