2007-2008
Finish: 52-30

What went well
The Memphis Grizzlies are a team in the upper echelon of the NLL year-in-year-out. They are a team to be reckoned with, even being in the same division with NLL powerhouses Dallas and San Antonio. GM Deckard is one of the more respected GMs in the NLL and is highly regarded as guru in spotting talent. He is highly regarded as the Billy Beane of the NLL, mostly making trades to accrue draft picks and not letting go of any talent of significance. He is a GM that is not too outspoken, but gets the job done. He is noticeably committed to winning, no doubting that.

In saying that, it has been several years since Memphis has had any significance in the NLL playoff run. Last year, the team, who was seeded 2nd in the Western Conference, squeaked by the Phoenix Suns in seven but was outlasted by eventual NLL champs Portland in seven games. The same happened two years ago, beating the LA Clippers and losing to San Antonio. That being said, the Grizzlies had no answer to the Paul Pierce/Zach Randolph combo last year, as the entire NLL came to witness as well.

The team started this off-season by not making any noise of note in free agency. They lost overpaid and under-serviceable bigman Kwame Brown and swingman Mickael Pietrus. They did, however, re-sign Kelenna Azubuike along with late draft picks DeAndre Jordan of Texas A&M and 2nd rounders, Richard Hendrix and Mike Taylor.

What went bad
Other than losing Kwame Brown to free-agency, nothing else went too bad for this powerhouse, unless you are a Kwame supporter, of course! The loss of Mickael Pietrus is a soft blow as Azubuike , Alando Tucker and Matt Harpring can more than fill that loss.

The Star

Rashard Lewis, GF -
Lewis may at times look like an out-of –position bigman that’s getting overpaid, but, for the most part, he looks more and more like an elite NLL player game by game. He has a decline in points and rebounds last year, and that might be attributed to playing out of position. But, this year looks to be a better year for the high school product out of Dallas, TX. His 17 PPG and almost 5 RPG should see increases as he less double teams with the likes of Chris Bosh and Marvin Williams as his front court mates.