Give Me The Rock

Patrick and I have decided to go from Worst to First with our fantasy team previews, so I’ll be kicking things off with the phantasmagorical Memphis Grizzles.

Patrick’s good bud Matt Buser had this to say about Memphis’ new PG Mike Conley Jr:

Conley has a good chance to be the starting point guard for the Grizzlies next season. He’ll be in a battle with Kyle Lowry and, to a much lesser extent, Damon Stoudamire heading into the season. Conley has the speed, athleticism, and pure point guard abilities to be the early favorite for the job in the Grizzlies’ new up-tempo offense. What he does lack is a consistent jump-shot, although he averaged 52 percent shooting on 7.9 field goal attempts as a freshman because of his ability to blow past defenders and score around the rim. His popular NBA comparison is Tony Parker, but T.J. Ford’s 2005-06 season would be a better standard in terms of expected first-year production.

Conley is worthy of a late round “rookie” pick. He’s certainly got some scoring options with Gay, Miller, Warrick, and Gasol out there with him. Should be some good assist numbers there.

As for everyone else:

Pau Gasol is a stud. He checked in at 21/19 on the Player Rater (the first number is with TO as a category, the second is without). That’s based on averages so it doesn’t take into account number of games played, but it’s obvious that Gasol is a 2nd round pick.

Mike Miller is a strong second fantasy option when you’re looking at the Grizz. He was number(s) 38/35 at the end of the season, making him a 3rd round pick in 12 team leagues. Hard not to be a good pick when you play 39 minutes a game. His numbers might be down since he played a lot of games without Gasol last season, but the minutes will still be there, and the 2.9 three-pointers are no joke. He was bombing threes all the way until he was injured.

Kyle Lowry was at 123/141, but his numbers will probably be down with Conley’s arrival, making him a late round pick at best.

If Hakim Warrick can increase his minutes and cut down on the turnovers, he could be a good late round pick. He was at 194 with TOs included, but up to 155 if you don’t have turnovers. As we all know, players usually cut down on their turnovers as they get more experience, so Warrick should be headed up the player rater if even if all his other numbers remain the same.

And now I kind of see why the Grizzlies were the worst team in the league last year. I mean, fantasy performance is not necessarily an indication of real life performance, but when your best fantasy player misses the first 2 months of the season, and you only have 1 other guy in the top 100, it’s certainly not a good sign.

Hopefully Patrick has his Celtics preview ready to go, because I’m about 5 days past deadline with this one. That’s what happens when no one wants to yell at you because you’re the owner’s son. Or cause you’re the owner.