| Wallace Responds to Scouting Issue |
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| Written by Chip Crain |
| Thursday, 06 August 2009 03:35 |
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I talked to Chris Wallace on Tuesday and asked him directly about his response to Geoff Calkins' article from Sunday's paper. As usual Wallace was very open, forthright and intelligent in his response. He gave his reasons for what happened, why he did it and gave me examples from the past to support his reasoning. Unfortunately I didn't have the call taped so I don't have the exact words. The good news for Grizzlies fans is that I don't have to transpose the interview so I can get it out quicker. When asked about the scouting moves Wallace stated that he didn't fire 5 people. Ryan West (Jerry West's son) and David Booth resigned. West took a similar job with the LA Lakers (no big surprise there) and Booth took an assistant coaching position at his alma mater in the Big East. For Booth this was a promotion of sorts and gets him on track for his ultimate career goals of being a head coach one day. Wallace supported his decision whole-heartedly and encouraged him to pursue the opportunity. The Grizzlies did dismiss three other scouts. One of the scouts was in Europe but Wallace feels that the team has great contacts in Europe already and the team still has another full-time scout working for them over there. That person has been scouting since 1990. He lives in Italy and gets tapes of every game and forwards those he feels are worthing talking about. Wallace mentioned that he talked to this scout practically once a week if not more every week of the year. The people Wallace is going to count on going forward include the Barone's, Kenny Williamson and the European scout as well as Wallace himself becoming more active in scouting. Apparently Gordan Chiesa is semi-retired and Mitchell Anderson is dealing with some health issues and neither person will be counted on extensively to assist in scouting this year. 5 people seems pretty low to me. But when I think about it maybe not. Having 5 people to scout the approximately 75 people from the major colleges and international leagues that are truly draft eligible isn't that difficult. Let's put this to a test. Print off the NBAdraft.net or Draftexpress.com mock drafts for next year and see how many names in next year's draft are completely left off their combined lists. More importantly, check out how many names are listed in the lottery now that are drafted in the first round this year and how many people not listed in the first round actually get drafted in the lottery. I imagine the number is quite small and the ones that are missed could have extenuating circumstances such as pulling out of the draft entirely or having big games on a national stage. Anyway, back to Wallace. I asked Wallace if 5 people was the smallest group he had scout for a team. Wallace's response surprised me. He said that it wasn't even close. He had two people in Boston total doing the scouting on that team and they drafted 3 all-stars during that time (Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson and Chauncey Billups). Then he said he TOLD CALKINS THIS BUT HE LEFT IT OUT OF THE ARTICLE! Wallace told me Danny Ainge upped the staff to when he took over? Anyone want to guess to how many? 5! The same number of people the Grizzlies have lowered their staff down to. Ainge and Wallace were able to find Rajon Rhondo, Al Jefferson, Leon Powe, Glen Davis, Kendrick Perkins and others with that group. Those players either contributed to Boston's championship run or were instrumental in getting the deals done to acquire Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Wallace also said he has never worked with a regional scout. Not in the 10 years he was in Boston nor the 25 or so years he has been in the business of scouting. In his time in the league he hasn't seen any evidence that larger staffs produce better scouting results. So restructuring the scouting department wouldn't sacrifice any quality of output. Everyone knows most of the names of the players that will go in the draft next spring. It's the order of those players that makes the difference between a good and bad drafting team. This isn't baseball with it's 60 rounds of a draft. There are only 60 people drafted in total. There are no high school players being scouted anymore. There are very few productive players being produced from small schools (Devan George, Lindsey Hunter and Flip Murray being the only non-division 1 schools with players active in the NBA today). In basketball the best players are recognized early on. By age 15-16 people know who is going to be great or not. There are exceptions (Marc Gasol wasn't considered a prospect at that age for example) but even in those rare exceptions teams have ample time to check these players out before a draft. So again the real trick is not who the players are but in what order do you rank them. During the recent draft Michael Heisley told 3 Shades of Blue that between 10 and 12 people researched players to be drafted and were involved in discussions all the way up to the draft. That draft produced Hasheem Thabeet who most Grizzlies fans have already labeled a bust so obviously more doesn't correlate to better in the fans eyes. Wallace also spoke about the Grizzlies roster and the bench as it looks for the upcoming season. He admitted that losing Warrick is going to be felt. There aren't a lot of players in the league who can jump off the bench and score points like Warrick can. However Wallace believes that the players they have coming off the bench will be more productive than people realize. He also mentioned that the team won't be running Hubie's old two team rotation. There will most likely be at least one starter on the court at all times. With 5 starters capable of scoring 30 points on any night (and each of the 5 starters did in fact score 30 pts or more at least once last season) strong bench scoring won't be as important. Wallace is still trying to iron out some details with Marcus Williams about signing but sounded optimistic about it happening. He also acknowledged that even with Williams' signing the team still needs to acquire one more player just to reach the league minimum on the roster. He was unsure exactly what position they would be looking at but he did say not to rule out another PG being added to the team. |
Comments
I am more interested in hearing more about the potential pick ups for next season. I am still hoping for AI, but I am pretty sure it won't happen. I believe we have the talent to surprise the NBA next yr...We are one scorer away. The 8 seed is not THAT far fetched. The only LOCKS in the west are probably LA and Denver. San Antonio, Dallas, Utah, and Portland will probably make it, but they aren't LOCKS and that still leaves two toss up spots.
That leaves two spots with Houston, Phoenix, Golden State, the Clippers all competing for it. I just don't see the Memphis bench being strong enough at this time to compete over an 82 game schedule. 3 rookies, a 2nd yr player and Marcus Williams doesn't install a lot of confidence for me. I wouldn't be really surprised however if the Grizzlies miss the playoffs despite having a record superior to the 8th place team in the East.
But while every single one of the moves could be justified and/or forgiven on their own, as a body of work the fans can see what is going on. If the Grizzlies owner were an ex-Vegas showgirl, we would be watching a real-life version of "Major League." But in the real world Thabeet doesn't turn out to be Cerrano, and Marcus Williams isn't Willie Mays Hayes. And then fans are left to cheer for a team with no shot at the playoffs that isn't even as entertaining or as likable as it could have been. The ridicule the Grizzlies are getting is 100% deserved even if/when it is misplaced.
As it is they picked the one player that has the least potential of becoming a star let alone a starter. From the highs of getting lucky and moving up in the draft and picking second and then taking the one guy that most everyone didn't want is like getting punched in the gut and my optimism has turned into cynicism.
They are doing some things very right. Too bad it hasn't been winning games. Winning will cure a lot of what ails the Grizzlies with the Memphis fans too but it won't be winning in one season. Remember that the Tigers had won the NIT and made the Elite 8 in the NCAA before the fans really rallied to support them again. I expect the Grizzlies will have to win a playoff game before Memphis fans start supporting the team.