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New digs, a flashy point guard and two talented rookies still won't end the woes of this success-starved franchise

By Chris Ballard

The new-look Williams has even taken up golf, but for the Grizzlies a last- place finish will again be par for the course.  David E. Klutho Enemy Lines An opposing team's scout sizes up the teams "You don't want to give young and eager teams like the Grizzlies a chance to stay in the game, particularly on their floor. Jump on them, try to break them right away. ... They'll have trouble scoring in the half-court because Jason Williams gets panicky as the shot clock goes down. He was a good pickup in terms of selling tickets and bringing excitement, but in the long run he's not going to get it done. It's a telltale sign when your starting point guard's not on the floor for most of the fourth quarter, which is what happened to Williams in Sacramento. Brevin Knight will end up helping these guys a lot. ... Several years ago Pau Gasol was a guy who stood around and launched shots from the outside, but the veterans he played with in Barcelona wouldn't let him be a baby and toughened him up. He's got great skills, and he'll be a real factor for them. Their other big European rookie, Antonis Fotsis , has skills but he's not ready. ... The key guy is Michael Dickerson -- he's just a solid, solid player. He's not really a runner, but if he gets a step on you, he can finish. And the Grizzlies don't need another runner; they need a guy like Dickerson who can defend and, at the other end, come off screens and shoot it. ... You team him up with Shane Battier and you've got the start of something real nice. Battier's a big guy who can step out and make shots -- Matt Harpring with more offense. Then you add in that he's a solid person, like Dickerson. But Memphis is still a few years away, down there at the bottom with the Nuggets."

His new hometown of Memphis appears to have inspired heretofore inconceivable changes in NBA bad boy Jason Williams. After being sent to the Grizzlies (along with Nick Anderson) for Mike Bibby (and Brent Price) in a draft-day swap of point guards, the former King arrived in the resting place of the King and proceeded to: buy a house; become a first-time father (he had a son, Jaxon, with his girlfriend in September); grow out his scalp stubble into respectable short brown fuzz; and -- break out the Dockers and the Amstel Light! -- take up golf, often hitting the links with team owner Michael Heisley.

Driving this conversion from White Chocolate to white bread is Williams's giddiness at having left Sacramento, where his penchant for wild passes and matador defense endeared him to fans but not to coach Rick Adelman, who preferred the steadier Bobby Jackson late in games. In Memphis, country-club JDub will be given the reins to the offense, free to pull up for crazy threes and generally incite on-court chaos. Whether he is the Grizzlies' long-term answer at playmaker is unclear -- he signed a six-year contract extension last week -- but he should at least sell tickets and make games interesting. "I'll miss the guys in Sacramento, but I was ready to move on," says Williams, 25. "It was time for a new start."

The same could be said of the Grizzlies. During six seasons in Vancouver they set an NBA standard for awfulness by becoming the fastest franchise to amass 300 losses. (It took a mere 377 games.) Last spring Heisley U-Hauled the operation to Memphis, where a $250 million arena and a name change are expected by 2004. The Grizzlies also tore apart their roster and rebuilt -- again -- by dealing their two best players, Bibby and forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim. In return they got Williams, No. 3 draft pick Pau Gasol and three role players in swingman Anderson, point guard Brevin Knight and center Lorenzen Wright.

By "going young," as general manager Billy Knight curiously describes Memphis's trade strategy -- Abdur-Rahim and Bibby are all of 24 and 23, respectively -- the Grizzlies have ensured at least a few more years of being blown out regularly. Indeed, the only drama at the 20,142-seat Pyramid this season may well be which of its tenants, the University of Memphis or the Grizzlies, will have more victories. (The Tigers won 21 last year and the Grizz a franchise-record 23, so things don't look good for the latter.)

There's hope, though. Gasol, a 7-foot forward from Barcelona, may well turn into the franchise player the Grizzlies need. Memphis's other prized rookie, Duke forward and all-around Human of the Year Shane Battier, played well in the L.A. summer league and is a natural leader; he was barking out defensive positioning to his veteran teammates on the first day of training camp.

On offense, coach Sidney Lowe plans to take advantage of the Grizzlies' young legs by having Williams push the ball, something that bodes well for the team's main question mark, 21-year-old forward Stromile Swift, the second pick in the 2000 draft. Unless he was finishing on the break, the almost freakishly athletic Swift looked confused as a rookie. After spending the summer playing in two leagues, training with offensive specialist Kiki Vandeweghe in Los Angeles and attending Pete Newell's big man camp in Hawaii, he's in excellent shape and will get every opportunity to step into Abdur-Rahim's old starting spot. "He had a good summer," says Billy Knight. "Now he needs to bring it on the court every night."

To be competitive, Memphis also needs Williams to bring it every night -- and not heave it into the third row. Even if he reverts to his old ways and the losses start piling up, the Grizzlies can still fall back on one surefire crowd-pleaser. Can anyone say Elvis Bobble-head Night?

Issue date: October 29, 2001

Click here to look back at CNNSI.com's preseason Grizzlies preview.