I remember someone posted a new topic talking about several teams that can be a threat to us in the season and then eventually in the playoffs. That was very well prepared by the way. But I think we are forgetting a rising team that can be a real threat to the Lakers, and that is Memphis.

We all know that with Boston adding Rasheed Wallace, who is on his last few breaths especially Garnett, with the signing of Ben Gordon and Villanueva to Detroit, with Shawn Marion packing his bags to Dallas including Marcin Gortat and possibly Michael Redd for Eric Dampier (expiring contract), with Paul Millsap possibly going to Portland, a young, energetic, defensive yet talented team like Memphis is also a team to keep an eye on.

Last season with the trade for Mayo on draft night it seemed like Memphis was a rising, young team that could be a presence in the playoffs for quite a while starting a couple years from now. But there are a few players on their roster who Memphis still has, who they know that if they kept them, their organization won't move forward to make the playoffs. For example, Darko Milicic, Adonal Foyle (who was later traded to Orlando), Antoine Walker, Quinton Ross (although i like the guy) ,that hideous, can't make lay-ups in the paint, former top 5 USTA nationally ranked tennis player Chris Mihm, and Greg Buckner. Although Memphis was pretty busy thus far in the off-season i believe that Memphis handled their situation pretty well and made a great load of smart moves.

1) Trading Darko Milicic for expiring contract of Quentin Richardson (who was later traded for Zach Randolph). Now that Memphis has Randolph down low they have a perfect mix of offense and defense with Thabeet and Randolph probably starting down-low.

2) With Greg Buckner, Hackim Warrick, a dude named Mike Wilks and Chris Mihm as free agents, they can let go of them and make room for upcoming players which brings us to the draft.

3) A draft night that, which in my opinion, turned out to be the best for Memphis due to the smart pickups. With Hasheem Thabeet an intimidating defensive player down-low, Sam Young a very skillful, athletic, defensive-minded player with good overall shooting (a poor man's trevor ariza but more built), and Damarre Carroll, a player who needs improvement in areas like mental toughness, agility, and the continuation of improving his perimeter shooting. Those were great additions.

With the off-season moves that Memphis made, and the smart pickups that they made (in my opinion the best draft night out of any team), their depth chart should look something like this


C - Thabeet/Gasol/Haddadi
PF - Randolph/Arthur
SF - Gay/ Carroll/ Miles
SG - Mayo/ Young
PG - Conley/ Lowry

So the only improvements to make next season is probably the addition of a backup PG, or maybe an addition this year hence the statistics brought by marcus williams in today's summer league game (just a suggestion not the best option but if he continues to perform this way, why not?)


Let me know about your opinion