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Forgetting about his questionable past decision-making and speaking strictly from a basketball sense, there may not be a worse fit for the Grizzlies than Z-Bo. Immensely talented, he commands the ball to the point where coach Lionel Hollins is going to have to play through him.
Problem is, O.J. Mayo has to have the ball, too. So does Rudy Gay. Both ranked among the top 20 in the Western Conference in turnovers last season, which doesn't count all the bad shots they took.
The hope is Randolph can make life easier for them, but given his tendency for taking complicated looks, odds are the Griz will lead the NBA in poor looks taken over multiple defenders. Mike Conley, facing a career crossroads as he tries to live up to his billing as point guard for the decade, gets to try keeping them all happy. On paper, that looks like an impossibility.
Randolph is a better low-post scorer than Lee, but hammering it into him and playing inside-out is only going to expose what poor shooters Memphis' young wings are. He is also a ball-stopper on a team that already has a couple of players who prefer isolation in order to capitalize on their athleticism.
Lee, who took Randolph's job in New York last season and wound up leading the NBA in double-doubles, was better-suited to run the floor, rebound and infectiously affect the energy of his teammates.
Randolph and infectious have been used in the same sentence before, but energy has never been a term that followed. Selfishness and losing have. This is who you're bringing on board to play an essential role in the formative years of young cornerstones Mayo, Gay, Conley, Hasheem Thabeet and Marc Gasol?
As impressive an offensive weapon as he is, Randolph is disruptive. He's as intrusive as too much cilantro, ready to overpower the rest of the ingredients. It's worth asking why he's been brought in, other than to simply fill out a roster and field a team, which sounds hopelessly trivial.
What's the vision here? Are we honestly supposed to believe that Randolph is going to come in and do so well that the Grizzlies will be talking extension with his people by this time next year? Is he really a better fit than Lee would've been, suddenly emerging into the franchise anchor of a winner - something he's never been?
All Randolph-to-Memphis guarantees is a few more of those raucous lottery parties they throw at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Rumor has Allen Iverson potentially interested in joining the Grizzlies, too. Sure, that would blow up any chance Conley has at making it, but it's not like they're strangers to whiffing on a top-five pick - like Stromile Swift.
Speaking of which, he's out there to be had. Why not bring him back for a second tour?
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