Unsurprisingly, Memphis Has Issues

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.

First is the Rubio Conundrum. Ricky Rubio has great handle, terrific length, great instincts, and tremendous basketball for his age. You know, a kid his age, being just old enough to vote and buy dirty magazines in this country (18. I'm not up to speed on adult publication restrictions in Spain, sorry). He very well could have gone first overall if another team had gotten the lotto bounce. So this is an easy decision, right?

Except take a look at Memphis. The attitude of the city, the demographics, college mentality of the city. What about this situation makes you think drafting an underdeveloped, Euro-style, Spanish kid is going to be the answer for revitalizing a franchise on or off the court? And haven't the Grizzlies kind of committed to Mike Conley after trading Kyle Lowry to the Rockets? You could argue this makes Conley expendable enough to trade for a forward, but who else are they going to get? The addition to Rubio falls in the same vein as hinging their hopes on Pau Gasol. Pau Gasol was a world class player who led the team in several categories and even helped get them to the playoffs before being bounced in the first round. But if you ask many Memphis fans, he wasn't going to fill the seats. Sure, winners fill the seats regardless, but since the Grizzlies are looking for a longterm development into a winner, they need someone to sell tickets now. Rubio is likely not going to do that, no matter how much he makes basketball geeks freak out.

OK, so let's say the Grizzlies decide to pass on Rubio. Nice kid, not for them. So say they decide to go with Thabeet. Can't teach 7-3, after all. Great athleticism, tremendous size, natural shot blocker. OK, that's great. And since the Grizzlies have Darko Milicic, they can afford to be patient with Thabeet, who's so raw your butcher thinks the dude's pink. Except, the way it looks now? Darko won't be returning. So the Grizzlies will be replacing an offensively limited, big body with natural athletic talents who needs years to develop for ... an even more offensively limited, bigger body with more nautral athletic talent who needs even more years to develop. Got it.

The Grizzlies have finally managed to land a top three spot in the draft, when they've already got something resembling a talented core. An offensive big man who can score and complement Marc Gasol could be the missing piece to get them to progress (Jordan Hill, stand up, say hi!). But the way the "best player available" argument breaks out, the Grizzlies are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Again.