2009-2010 Finish: 43-39

That Storied Season!

What an amazing season for the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that seemed to come out of nowhere and surprise the league by winning the NLL Championship, beating the 76ers in six games. Under the steady guidance of GM Rasho, the Grizzlies clawed past tougher conference rivals like Denver, Oklahoma City and New Orleans to be anointed the NLL champs.

Rasho made only three trades all season long, all in the preseason. The first sent forward Rashard Lewis to the Clippers, along with Alando Tucker and Omri Casspi for the Argentinean Manu Ginobili and Josh Boone. He would later trade Boone back for Tucker and Roko Ukic. The other deal was pretty inconsequential: Matt Harpring, Kelenna Azubuike and Byron Mullens to Milwaukee for Reggie Evans, Javaris Crittenton and Joe Alexander.

The Grizzlies played decent ball, but one key to success was having a minimal number of players on his roster. Terrified of the luxury cap, Rasho only kept 12 guys and many of them were on the IR or suspended (Crittenton for gunning for Arenas). In Week 6, the league more or less forced the team to sign Devean George.

The team finished in the fifth seed, but star and big man Chris Bosh was out for weeks with an injury. When the news came down that Bosh would sit out the first round of the playoffs, Rasho choked on his potica and demanded a re-evaluation. Everyone knew Bosh was getting sick of playing for a small market team like the Grizzlies, but he seemed legitimately hurt.

Luckly, the Grizzlies drew the equally demoralized Thunder in the first round. Written off even by their own GM (when Chris Paul went down Magritte even lost his desire to trade and rushed to the ER), the Thunder didn’t strike in those games. In fact, the Grizzlies took them down in five games.

Next up was New Orleans. A tough team featuring Andre Iguodala, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo, the Hornets were heavily favored to win. However, Bosh declared himself healthy enough to play, NO GM Daved didn’t trust his roster and benched starters and the Grizzlies rolled over the Hornets in 6 games.

The Western Conference Finals were uncharted territory. Kevin Garnett led the Jazz over Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant and he was ready to take down Bosh and the Grizzlies. In a series that went for seven games, both teams traded blows as Manu killed them from beyond the arc and Joakim Noah kept the pace under the glass. With the Jazz blown off, the Grizzlies faced the Sixers in the NLL Finals!

Though eventually matched, the faster Grizzlies outgunned the Sixers and beat them four games to two making them the NLL CHAMPS! But a dark cloud hung over the team. Bosh demanded a trade, S-Jax hinted he may leave during the FA season and Ginobili’s time may have run out. On top of it, David Stern is talking about cutting the franchise out of the league via contraction. The question isn’t will the Grizzlies repeat, it’s who will the Grizzlies be, if anyone at all?