O.J. Mayo has been rumored to be moved for Josh McRoberts of all people but seems to be a good shooting guard. Clearly he had his gambling indecent on the plane with Allen but why exactly are you guys trying to move him? From watching his defense seems acceptable (not Tony Allen levels but not he's certainly not Kevin Martin either ). He sports an acceptable .514 eFG%, gets some steals, defensive rebounds and assists while limiting turnovers and having a reasonable usage%. I've heard that you're even running him out there as your backup PG right now. Is he going to be too expensive to keep, is he a locker room cancer please let me know why he's (rumored to be) perpetually on the trading block.

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With news coming down today that Zach Randolph could be missing at least two months, it looks like some pretty rough sailing ahead for our Memphis Grizzlies. While a lot of fans may be tempted to abandon ship, all is not quite lost. Our Captain may be down, but we still have a really solid first mate in Rudy Gay, and a great anchor in Marc Gasol, not to mention a pretty solid navigator in Mike Conley. (These nautical analogies doing anything for anybody?) It's not going to be easy without the big fella', but the Grizzlies can do more than just tread water in his absence. We'll need certain guys to step up and play above their heads, and we'll need to take advantage of winnable games. If we can do that, we will have a winning record by the time ZBo returns.

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Ok, so I get kind of ill with all the "trade Rudy" talk.

At least once a week since June, I've come across a "Rudy Gay Trade Proposal" somewhere on the web. On some level I can understand these ideas, but I'm almost positive that none of them have ever been written by Grizzlies fans.

Call me sentimental, but I love having Rudy on this team. I remember how much promise he showed during his rookie season, and how he effortlessly eased into the star role once Pau Gasol was traded. I remember his game winning-shots and his moves that probably only 3 or 4 guys in the entire NBA are capable of. Most of all, I love the fact that this Grizzlies team has three guys on it that are stars (Zach) or are damn close (Rudy and Marc). That's why I get really irritated everytime I read somewhere that we ought to trade Rudy for James Posey and Paul George (I'm looking at you, Bill Simmons).

Fortunately, I think I have a solution. What follows is a comprehensive list of trade candidates for Rudy Gay for the 2011-2012 season. This list is divided into two categories: guys who I would trade Rudy for without a moment's hesistation and guys I would consider trading Rudy for. Next time, a non-Grizzlies fan uses Trade Machine to get Rudy to his team, I will simply refer them to this list.

Guys I would trade Rudy for:

LeBron James

Kevin Durant

Dwayne Wade

Chris Paul

Deron Williams

Derrick Rose

Kobe Bryant

Dirk Nowitzki

Dwight Howard

Guys I would consider trading Rudy for

Andre Iguodala

Blake Griffin

Kevin Love

LaMarcus Aldridge

Danny Granger

Luol Deng

John Wall

Russell Westbrook

Carmelo Anthony

Josh Smith

Chris Bosh

There you have it. If a player isn't on this list, I don't want to see Rudy and him in a Trade Machine Scenario. Anybody have someone to add to (or take off) the list?

There may or may not be a full or even partial season of NBA basketball for us to follow this year. This week's round of labor negotiations will be, by all accounts, kind of a big deal as far as that goes. But it's always good to be prepared, yes? With that said, the SB Nation family of NBA blogs will be previewing a theoretical season, with fingers crossed.

Up first, Mavs Moneyball takes a look at our division rival and, oh yes, World Champion, Dallas Mavericks. Enjoy.

Just saw this and thought it was kind of interesting. Obviously no fans want to see an extended lockout, but will it really affect the Grizzlies more than other teams? Are there enough touches to go around between Randolph, Gay, and the rest of the team to make another post season run whenever basketball returns?

Anyways, here is the link to the article. It isn't too long and should only take a few minutes to read. I look forward to hearing thoughts from the Grizzlies' faithful!

Sure you've all seen the video circulating around of Josh Selby putting in work this summer in Baltimore, playing against Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks. Josh went off for a sexy 48 points, including one glorious dunk that reportedly sent a man in the audience home in an ambulance. Oh he wasn't hurt... just in SHOCK at the awesomeness that was Mr. Selby.

Link to the Slam magazine post and video after the jump...

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           Ok, let me get this out of the way first: I am an unabashed draft junkie; I draw more pleasure from watching the NBA draft than watching the Playoffs. The fact that I don’t watch college basketball makes this all the more ironic (if I wanted to watch broken offense and terrible defense I’d watch the Timberwolves...HEY-O!). When it comes to the NBA, I have only two unshakeable convictions: 1) never trade away draft picks unless you’re getting more (or better) picks back and 2) never sign a crappy veteran when a rookie is perfectly capable. Naturally, the Grizzlies have done their damnedest to piss me off by violating the former 3 years running. Whatever man, I’m kind of totally over it; I’m sure Dominique Jones will have a bad career anyway.

               I’m sure that you’re probably aware of the fact that the Grizzlies only possess the 49th pick in this year’s draft. Granted, many fans aren’t too upset about this—this draft is considered to be, at best, wretched by most basketball pundits. It’s worth noting that those same pundits declared the 2009 draft class to be “the worst EVER!!!1!!!” and it turned out to be pretty strong. Regardless, history tells us that, in even the worst drafts, there is still talent to be had in the 2nd round. Drafting 2nd rounders is tricky, but it’s not the crapshoot that it’s sometimes made out to be. If the Grizzlies go into the draft room with the correct philosophy, they should be able to come away with a decent player. The following are my strategies for finding that 2nd round gem.

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10AM on Saturday untill 1PM there will be a meet & greet event at the FedEx Forum. There will be at least one Grizzlies player there. Check out your upcoming seats (or prospective seats), tour the locker room and take some shots on the court.
This event is to try and get more season ticket buyers. I received an email about it and they said that they would validate our parking there.

Hope to see you there!

Sorry, but my small brain always reverts to the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" when thinking of O.J. Mayo. So after getting past that, here are my thoughts on our gifted shooter, O.J. Mayo.

O.J. is, in my opinion, the biggest question mark on the roster. We all know he can shoot the lights out, yet he is a bench player, for the most part. He made an effort to play defense in the playoffs, but was sloppy at best. He twice made the papers last season because of displays of poor character. I've been following the NBA since the late '70's and have seen a lot of O.J. Mayo's. They enter the league with a lot of promise, only to slowly fade, get traded, and then are forgotten. Only Coach Hollins and G.M. Chris Wallace know how he will be helping the team, if at all, next season. The "almost trade" to Indiana told me that they had seen enough. The Grizzlies, as a team, found that precious ingredient needed to be a contender last season, and that is heart. Did O.J. also find it in himself? I honestly don't know. As I am writting this I am hoping that he is working his butt off at this very minute, to be a better player and more importantly, a better teammate to the other Grizzlies. I like O.J. Mayo. I want him to be here next season, but only as a dedicated player and teammate. If the Grizzlies sign Gasol, which most believe they will, this team should be playoff bound for many seasons. Will O.J. be a part of this? My gut tells me that O.J. will be traded before camp begins. I hope it is the cold pizza I just ate, but I don't think so.   

 Hamed Haddadi has probably seen his last game in a Memphis jersey, which will be hard enough on us Grizzlies fans, not to mention Darrell Arthur getting beat up more while playing out of position when Marc gets some rest every game. That's the picture if they take their time to sign Gasol.

Sign him now so we can try to keep Hamed. If the salary cap is lowered after Gasol is signed, deal with that then. It can't be as bad as losing him. We can't lose both of our big men. If Haddadi leaves as a free agent, we still need a back up center, and we won't get one as good as Haddadi.

Sign Marc and sign Hamed, or I'll have to go into the "Fire Chris Wallace" t-shirt business.