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You still got Lowry thoOriginally Posted by franchise3
https://twitter.com/#!/ChrisVernonShow@ChrisVernonShow OJ Mayo - "I'm home, baby. Mr. Heisley told me this morning I wasn't getting traded. last 48 hrs a mental roller coaster."
FlyerGrizBlog Chris Herrington
As I wrote last night, can't see Griz signing McRoberts given tax constraints. Names to keep an eye on: Troy Murphy, Jason Smith, Leon Powe
Ronald Tillery: Marc Gasol isn't practicing today. He is receiving treatment for ankle injury apparently suffered in LA. Griz will waive Mikki Moore 2day 2 minutes ago
Ronald Tillery: Gasol injury not serious. He's day-to-day 1 minute ago
So, X is out for a month with an ankle injury. Sam Young has a sprained ankle. Marc is receiving treatment for his ankle and I heard somewhere that Arthur has a sore achilles.
@Jared_Wade Talking About Practice podcast with @ZachLowe_SI. We talk CP3/Stern/Grizzlies: http://t.co/VGiWbK8A
http://t.co/VGiWbK8A
Griz fear Arthur lost for the season
Grizzlies forward Darrell Arthur left practice this morning with a serious Achilles injury and the fear is that he might be lost for the entire 2011-12 season, according to sources with knowledge of situation.
An early diagnosis by the team's medical staff indicated that Arthur might have suffered a torn left Achilles. The 6-9 reserve had just returned to practice after missing time with a sore right Achilles.
The Griz were already thin at the power forward and center positions.
This is the second time a serious injury will curtail Arthur's career. He missed four months during the 2009-10 season because of surgery to repair a partially torn right pectoralis muscle.
Arthur is entering his fourth NBA season. He emerged last year as a solid backup to Zach Randolph at power forward with his mid-range shooting and rebounding.
Link
Awful news for DA and the Grizzlies if true.
Grizzlies face tough decision now that they have a championship window
The Grizzlies play in the league’s second-smallest market, trumping only New Orleans, and they have been consistent money-losers even when they win. But their moment has arrived, and it is a moment that will test the new collective bargaining agreement and the league’s undisclosed revenue-sharing plan — the products of a lockout intended to help prop up small-market teams.
However they did it, the Grizzlies have accomplished what every small-market team is supposed to in order to win: They have assembled a four-man core on three cheap deals and one big one (Zach Randolph), and then paid the price when those three cheap pieces became eligible for their first big NBA contracts. They have about $50.5 million committed this season to Mike Conley, Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and Randolph, and their bill for just those four players will jump to about $58 million in 2014-15, per ShamSports and other sources. Depending on Gasol’s exact starting salary and what the Grizzlies have agreed to pay Josh Selby this season, they might be as little as about $500,000 or $750,000 under the league’s luxury-tax threshold — a tough place for a money-losing small-market team to be, though the Grizzlies actually paid the tax six seasons ago.
Will they go there again? That depends on a lot of things, including the willingness of owner Michael Heisley to spend money and whether the tax line — set around $70.3 million this season — jumps faster than the salaries tied to Memphis’ key players over the next half-decade.
But if you look at the history of small-market teams who cracked the elite, you’ll see all these poor sisters have spent when they sensed a championship window. The Kings, doing so poorly now they nearly moved to Anaheim this season, sported top-five overall payrolls twice during the height of the Chris Webber era. The Spurs have paid the luxury tax three times in the last six seasons, though only once (in 2009-10) did they pay more than even $1 million in tax penalties; San Antonio had the luxury of keeping its spending to that level in part because one of their core stars (Tim Duncan) was so great they could subsist on cheap role players — until Duncan’s game slipped a bit, and they took the high-priced gamble on Richard Jefferson.
The Grizzlies have a championship window now. They took the Thunder, perhaps the conference favorites as things stand today, to the full seven games last season without Gay — the precise sort of perimeter scorer who could have punished Oklahoma City for ignoring Memphis’ outside players. That series validated their six-game win over San Antonio, an outcome the skeptical might have chalked up to Manu Ginobili’s late-season elbow injury and a uniquely favorable matchup against a team that often plays Matt Bonner at power forward. With several other Western Conference powers in decline or transition, it wouldn’t be outlandish to rank Memphis No. 2 in the conference, behind only those same Thunder.
But you need more than four quality players to win, and already Memphis faces a major test now that Darrell Arthur, the team’s third-best big man, might be out for the season after tearing his right Achilles. Arthur made a huge leap last season, emerging as a pick-and-pop threat and active defender who used his speed to roam around, squelch pick-and-rolls and challenge shots. His loss moves Hamed Haddadi into the third big man role, and while Haddadi has put up nice numbers in very limited minutes, those minutes have been limited for a reason: Haddadi is slow afoot and has struggled with fatigue in the NBA.
The Grizzlies could use the mini mid-level exception, valued at $3 million this season, to chase a free agent such as Kris Humphries or Kenyon Martin (if Martin’s Chinese team releases him), but doing so would take them at least $2 million over the tax line. They could try to trade for one of Utah’s big men, such as Paul Millsap, but doing so would almost certainly cost them O.J. Mayo and might still end up adding to their payroll. It will be difficult to find a trade that results in Memphis sending out almost precisely the salary it takes in, thus having no impact on their cap figure. This is why they were so ready to deal Mayo for Josh McRoberts, a cheaper alternative to bolster their front line.
Going $2 million over the tax line is not a small thing, even if the new CBA promises some tax remittance for teams that barely exceed the initial threshold. That extra $2 million brings another $2 million in dollar-for-dollar penalties, and the penalty ratio jumps to $1.50-to-$1 starting in 2013-14. It is a serious expense. But if a championship contender in a small market can’t squeeze out a little extra, then the lockout will have accomplished nothing fans will ever feel. The point of lowering the players’ share of basketball-related income from 57 percent to 50 percent and instituting a more “robust