The Grizzlies need 18 wins this season to avoid such an embarrassment. They may get that many, but not a whole lot more. Hill inherits a team that finished third from the bottom in rebounding and next to last in scoring. The Grizzlies didn't reach 100 points until their 19th game of the '96-97 season; they cracked the century mark just 12 times and failed to reach 80 on 15 occasions. Vancouver lost 41 games by 10 or more points, the most such blowouts in the league last year. And the Grizzlies took the "NBA at 50" theme in the wrong spirit, becoming the fifth team in league history to finish at least 50 games out of first place in its division.

"We certainly have to show improvement," says Hill, the team's third head coach in its three seasons. "We have to establish an identity as a team. It's totally unrealistic for us to suddenly become a .500 team. Still, I expect significant improvement this year."

There's at least one reason to expect the Grizzlies to be better: Rookie Antonio Daniels will start at point guard in place of Greg Anthony, whom Vancouver did not re-sign. Anthony shot a miserable 39% from the floor, considered passing only a second option and was too small to defend against the bigger point guards in the league. Bowling Green's Daniels, the fourth pick in the draft, is a pure point man who looks to distribute first and score second, has decent range on his jump shot, is quick enough to get into the lane, and has the size to handle himself defensively.

"He understands the role and responsibility of the point guard," Hill says. "Too many point guards today have a scorer's mentality. Antonio can score, but he's a true point guard."

Daniels, who resembles a bigger, stronger version of Minnesota's Stephon Marbury, should do a much better job than Anthony of creating opportunities. A clever point guard, for instance, can often create foul situations, but with Anthony running the court, the Grizzlies attempted the fewest free throws in the league in '96-97 (21.1 per game, 4.2 below the NBA average). With his slashing style, Daniels should get his teammates to the line more often.

Like his fellow backcourt starter of last season, shooting guard Anthony Peeler shot under 40% from the field—making the Grizzlies the first NBA team since the 1964-65 San Francisco Warriors to have two primary guards who each were worse than 40%. Of the backup guards, only Lee Mayberry, at .403, was above 40%. "Our backcourt scoring is a concern," says Hill.

Not surprisingly, Vancouver was searching for a free agent to add offensive punch to a guard corps that includes second-year man Chris Robinson and Mayberry, who has played the most games (408) of any active player never to have appeared in a playoff game.

The Grizzlies bolstered the frontcourt through the addition of veteran power forward Otis Thorpe, acquired from Detroit in exchange for a future first-round pick. Thorpe should be able to create more space inside for Vancouver's top scorers, small forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim—who placed third in '96-97 rookie of the year voting—and center Bryant Reeves.

Thorpe also should be able to teach his new teammates the finer points of interior defense. Reeves, for instance, blocked fewer shots last season (67) than Milwaukee forward Glenn Robinson, who has never been particularly interested in D. Nevertheless, the Grizzlies have been so encouraged by Reeves that they rewarded the third-year man out of Oklahoma State with an astounding six-year, $65 million contract over the summer—which should make him consider changing his nickname from Big Country to What a Country!

Hill had a .647 winning percentage in 3 1/2 years in Orlando but was fired last February basically because Magic guard Anfernee Hardaway no longer wanted him as coach. Hill says the ugly episode has neither hardened him nor made him bitter.

"I'm extremely proud of what we accomplished in Orlando, and here I understand the expansion situation—the growing pains and the pitfalls."

There will be more of both again in Vancouver.

—Tim Kurkjian