Well, today is the first day NBA teams are able to approach free agents from other teams. Fortunately, the Memphis Grizzlies have the most salary cap space to work with this summer. However, the free agents pool is not as deep as usual. There are no young All Stars available like there will be in 2010. The only All Stars that had a chance to be on the market (Kobe, Boozer, Okur), all decided to weather these uncertain financial times under the security of the final year of their guaranteed contracts.

The Grizzlies find themselves in need of a starting power forward who can grab them double figure rebounds every night. There are two likely applicants for this position: Paul Millsap and David Lee. Neither of these two are likely future All-Star candidates and both are considered blue collar, hustle type players that should make them easy fan favorites wherever they play. The big question is: how much are they worth to the Memphis Grizzlies?

For someone who has been an advocate of not jumping into this free agent pool in favor of waiting until the 2010 draft to find our future power forward, I am doing a 180. Looking at the salary structure of the Memphis Grizzlies and the competitiveness of the NBA as a whole (and the Western Conference in particular), it would seem that the best course of action might be to grab Millsap or Lee if the cost of acquisition is not to high and their contract is properly structured.

The reason why I have changed my stance is because the Grizzlies are likely to get their future power forward in the 2010 NBA draft whether they sign someone or not. This is due to the overall youth and inexperience on the team and the competition in the NBA among teams that will be between 35 and 50 wins next season. As of right now, the teams that you can guarantee will be better than Memphis WITH Lee or Millsap: Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets, Trailblazers, Mavericks, Jazz, and Hornets. I left off the Suns and Rockets due to their unsettled rosters but at least on of those teams still figures to be better than us next season, which leaves us, back in the lottery. The East should see every team except New Jersey, Milwaukee and New York battling for a playoff spot which will probably mean the Eastern Conference will dominate the bad part of the lottery again (10-14). So signing Lee or Millsap will have little impact on our 2010 draft due to the deepness of the draft with power forwards. So the Grizzlies might as well sign one or the other but which one?

I think both Lee and Millsap are equally tiered players. Neither is likely to be an All-Star and they can’t create offense for themselves or others. So you are getting a player that can get you 13-15 points a night plus 10 boards without having to run plays for him. That is pretty valuable for a young team that got killed on the boards.

David Lee is the more dynamic offensive player. He is capable of finishing equally well with both hands, has an improving 15-foot jump shot, and is pretty good in the pick and roll. He is also capable of defending the pick and roll but does not provide much in the way of a defensive presence or even weak side shot blocking. He is also a little older than the Grizzlies core at 26 and would be on the other side of 30 at the end of a 5 year contract.

Paul Millsap is more rugged than Lee. He also has an improving offensive game out to 15-feet. He has more game off the dribble but it is not a staple of his arsenal. Millsap provides more of a shot blocking threat but also struggles more against longer players. I am not sure this bodes well for a team in a conference with Gasol/Bynum/Odom and Aldridge/Oden/Pryzbilla. Millsap is also a bit younger at 24 but seemed to run out of gas last season under the duress of his first time getting more than 20 minutes a night. I have a feeling his body will not hold up to 35 minutes/82 games.

Comments

Vega

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Millsap or Lee would be nice, but there is no way that Heisley will give them any sort of realistic offer. Quite simply, he's too cheap.

Wednesday 01 July 2009, 04:45

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