Sportsfrog.com

A lot. As usual. I already mea culpa’d on the Josh McDaniels thing. In fairness, end of season mini-collapse aside, hard to call the first year for McDaniels in Denver anything short of a somewhat qualified success. At the least, he wasn’t a disaster.

Next on the list of things I was wrong about: my bitching over Memphis’ acquisition of Zach Randolph. Let’s put in context just how wrong I was. I went with the Randolph-is-a-team-killer theme. He may have been in the past, but he sure as hell has not been for the Grizzlies. In fact, he has shown an instinct for team ball that I had no idea he possessed. The Grizzlies are 15-16, and that is, believe it or not, their third best 31 game start in team history. And that record includes their recovery from the 1-8 Iverson-era disaster of a start to their season.

Randolph’s part in that? Immense. He, Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay have formed what is arguably one of the top two or three front lines in the NBA. Seriously. Randolph, who is not on the All-Star ballot, deserves a spot on the Western Conference team. For the month of December? He’s averaging 24 and 14. For the season he is at 20 and 11.4. He has been an offensive rebounding revelation, and, in a ridiculously good breakdown of his improvement from The Memphis Flyer’s Chris Herrington, the improvement appears to be not an accident. He has foregone jumpers to some extent, to really do some damage on the interior. And it shows in his improved shooting percentage and in the fun two-man games he is running with Marc Gasol.

As 2010 gets here, the reality is that a Grizzlies team that reamins frighteningly thin on the bench has the corp of a starting five in place that makes them borderline playoff relevant, even in the Western Conference (and even with one of those five being Mike Conley). They are entertaining to watch, and acquisition of Randolph has been a huge part of their success. And I sure as hell did not see that coming. Score one for Grizzlies owner Mike Heisley and figurehead GM Chris Wallace.

That’s the bottom line.

Loaded with cap space, a free agent market replete with power forward candidates who would have filled the hole at the 4 for Memphis (David Lee, Charlie Villanueva, Paul Millsaps) and the Grizzlies come back with Zach Randolph in a deal that didn’t even rid Memphis of the Marko Jaric contract. There is no rational explanation for this. And, no, Bill Simmons, this is NOT Chris Wallace behind these moves. You want to challenge yourself? Change the target to Michael Heisley. It is Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley pulling the trigger and running the show. And the moves being made seem calculated to make following the team as painful as possible for the four remaining Grizzlies fans. Out of spite.

My theory? Heisley is still steaming that local ownership interests won’t bend over and take it Beecher-style with regard to Heisley’s insane asking price for the team. In response, he has launched a three year campaign to inflict as much misery as he can on the fanbase, just because he can.

So, on a Grizzlies team that is teeming with youth, you add one of the notoriously awful teammates in NBA history, guaranteed to ignore coaches, loaf, and generally put up his 20 and 10 while assassinating the team he is on. And likely to get in a fight with a teammate. I was not a fan of the DeMarre Carroll selection at 27 in the draft, but I hope Carroll is tough enough to knock Randolph the fuck out when the inevitable fight starts.

So, awesome.

Michael Heisley. Because he can.