Welcome to the latest installment of 30 Teams, 30 Years, 30 Drafts featuring the Memphis Grizzlies. This series takes you through each of the teams’ draft picks from 1978-2008 and evaluates how they fared. As we all know the Grizzlies are a relatively young team. The highlight of their young drafting career has clearly been drafting Pau Gasol, who in my opinion will be a Hall of Famer, if only because of the HOF’s international wing. Nothing else too exciting in their 13 years, but they deserve a page nonetheless. They finished with an average score of 2.652, which is honestly a little better than I expected since over the span covered they only made three playoff appearances, all of which were first round playoff exits.
Total Score: 2.652
Let us know in the comments below who you think their best and worst draft picks were.
To see how the score was calculated, check out the intro post here.
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1- I was kind of shocked to see that Reeves was pretty successful before injuries derailed his career, as I pretty much only remember the bust part of his career. What I was not shocked to learn was that Bryant now owns a large cattle ranch in Oklahoma. I feel if you forced me to guess where Reeves was right now, that is exactly where I would have guessed.
2- Shareef was your typical great stats on a bad team guy. He played 10 years in the NBA before finally appearing in the playoffs with the Kings. It wasn’t that he was a bad guy or some type of team cancer, because all evidence points to Shareef being a great guy. It just seemed to be mostly a case of bad luck.
3- Somebody out there either has an unhealthy obsession with C.J. or one of his friends or family members is a wikipedia editor because his page is way too long for someone who was pretty much an international journeyman.
4- Bibby’s family is has a crazy athletic pedigree. His father was former NBA player Henry Bibby. His uncle, Jim Bibby, was a former big league pitcher. His brother in law is Eddie House. He has one cousin, Shaun McDonald, who is former NFL WR. Another cousin who was a forward for the English Soccer Club Nottingham Forrest. You may only know who Nottingham is though if you are English or play FIFA soccer. Also somebody propped up Bibby’s corpse this year, put it in a Knicks jersey, and tried to pass him off as a current NBA player like it was a year long Weekend at Bernie’s movie.
5- While Francis never actually played a game in a Vancouver Grizzlies jersey he was drafted and it was two months before he was traded. For the purpose of this project only draft night trades change what teams get credit for drafting certain players.
6- Pau is a borderline Hall of Famer as it is. The international wing of the NBA makes him all but guaranteed to get in.
7- 2004 was the ultimate all or nothing year for the Grizzlies. They had a lottery pick that was only number one protected. If they got the number one pick, they kept it, anything else and it went to Detroit. Oh, and LeBron was the number one pick. The ended up getting number two, it was shipped off to Detroit and Memphis ended up with Troy Bell who played only 6 NBA games. So, the greatest player of his generation, or Troy Bell. Like I said, all or nothing. I’m quite sure Jerry West aged a decade in the half hour that was the draft lottery.
8- In 2009 Antonio was shot during a robbery. He survived after several surgeries. The man who shot him would eventually be sentenced to 97 years in prison for 2nd degree attempted murder and a few other crimes.
9- We will guess that Hakim gets 6 more starts throughout his NBA career.
10- Sometimes I wish I had a TARDIS so I could go back in time and place bets on things like Mike Conley Jr. will make a better pro than Greg Oden. I could have gotten some serious action on that.
11- I like OJ Mayo, he’s a nice player. However Memphis had Kevin Love at 5, and gave him away. I’m willing to bet Memphis wishes they could have a mulligan on that one. Gotta take away some points for that one.
View the previous teams and their scores here:
Boston Celtics – 3.885
Philadelphia 76ers – 2.561
Toronto Raptors – 2.659
Orlando Magic – 2.861
Charlotte Bobcats – 2.225
New York Knicks – 2.471
New Jersey Nets – 2.49
Atlanta Hawks – 1.258
Miami Heat – 2.743
Milwaukee Bucks – 3.616
Chicago Bulls - 2.93
Cleveland Cavaliers – 3.176
Indiana Pacers – 2.762
Washington Wizards – 2.359
Detroit Pistons – 3.877
Minnesota Timberwolves – 2.838
New Orleans Hornets - 3.24
