4:36
[Comment From Zack Randolph]
Am I better than Pau Gasol…you know, because Memphis is going to pay me what they didn’t want to pay him.
4:36
KDonhoops: How incredibly sad, because it’s accurate.

When I read that, I immediately checked the salary numbers… and they’re right (first of all, it’s simply remarkable that Zach Randolph was ever offered a $16 million/year contract; it’s easy to forget how awful Portland used to be). That’s unbelievable. The Grizzlies are easily the worst franchise in the league, and possibly in all of sports, simply because they totally fail at being cheap. The Pirates and Clippers suck, but at least their owners don’t spend all that much cash. The Grizzlies try to shed salary, and then they make stupid moves like this.

I get what TSB is saying (though I think he’s really misinterpreting that interview with Heisley; I didn’t see anything in there you wouldn’t see from Les Alexander or Jerry Buss), but part of being a GM is dealing with you employer’s payroll expectations. Nobody forced Wallace to shed salary by dealing Gasol. Nobody forced him to find help in the frontcourt by trading for Randolph (and if Heisley was dictating these moves, then Wallace needs to do a better job of showing why he’s wrong). And yet he makes these moves, and he has alternatives available (certainly in regards to Randolph, I don’t remember what the Grizz had in 2008 very clearly). People aren’t criticizing Wallace because he hasn’t made significant noise in the playoffs, they criticize him because he has utterly failed to turn the Grizzlies into anything more than a joke.