Friday Incredible Brain

Tonight following the show from 6-6:30 stay tuned for the first Grizzly pre-game we will be doing on weeknight home games. Chris Herrington from the Flyer, who you hear on the show and is the leader in Grizz analytical insight and out-of-the-box thinking about the Grizzlies, will be my co-host.. BB Kings on Beale is the title sponsor and I encourage you to support them and the show by making it your stop before or after the games. I love BB Kings, it is Memphis, and could not be happier with having them on board.

Calkins predictably wrote about how great Pau is with Gasol's return coming in the next few games. Here is one of the quotes... "Consider the flotsam Gasol has had as teammates. Can you think of any really good, close-to-All-Star-level players he's had the opportunity to play with during his six years in the league?
Tim Duncan has Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. Amare Stoudemire has Steve Nash and Shawn Marion. "

I have addressed this point of view a hundred times. Pau is not Tim Duncan, Pau is not Amare Stoudemire. He's not Steve Nash. The fact of the matter is this... it is more about those particular players than the players around them. All of the sudden, if Duncan was in the place of Pau, Miller would be awesome, and the other players all seem better. I will never understand how that is hard to understand. Superstars make the other guys better. I have no idea why it is always about who else is on the team. To constantly throw Pau in a category of a bonafide superstar like Duncan or Nash does a disservice to Pau and the players he has played with. He's not and will never be that guy. An offense that runs around Pau cannot win a playoff game. You think Tony Parker as a rookie wins more because of Parker, or could it be that he is on the team with Duncan? It is so absurd, yet professed as a fair point of view. But then again, there has never been a negative word written about Gasol in this town.... ever. When Pujols goes 0-5 in big spots, even in an incredibly easy media town like St. Louis, everyone doesn't blame the other players in the line-up. They put Pujols on the spot. Why? Because he is the guy. Gasol will never know how great he has it here media-wise until he goes to another city. And again, this team was built with Pau in mind, so when you lose him, you are gonna be awful. When the Grizzlies were good without Gasol in the past, the team was not built around him. And guess what... those "average" players won at a higher clip when he was out. How was that possible?

Thoughts...

Yao is the best center in the NBA, and it is not close right now.

Alex Smith is much, much better than I thought he would be.

I like when Joey Porter talks crazy. Especially about a guy like Kellen Winslow.

How many games are the Sixers gonna lose before they get a deal done for A.I.?

If the Davis group bid does not go down, will Heisley keep the Logo's hands tied?

I saw a story saying Jeff Bagwell was retiring. I thought he already had.

Holler.