Here’s the Memphis Commercial Appeal with the big picture on the 2016-17 Grizzlies, who as usual enter the season looking like a squad who should continue to make the playoffs, but not compete for a championship:
 |
This week, the Grizzlies’ longtime “core four” of Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen will embark upon their seventh season together, during which they’ve never missed the playoffs, an active post-season streak that only the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks can top.
That continuity could be due for some disruption this season. Versatile, sweet-shooting forward Chandler Parsons, whom the Grizzlies lured over the summer with a four-year max contract, is the biggest free agent signing in franchise history and will immediately challenge the team’s pecking order. When he plays, that is.
Parsons will partner with Conley and Gasol in what the Grizzlies hope will be a new kind of core going forward, one predicated on more shooting, versatility and offensive skill level than that to which the “grit and grind” Grizzlies have grown accustomed.
This shifting style will be led by a new coach in David Fizdale, the former Miami Heat lead assistant, whom the team tapped after dismissing Dave Joerger, a successful coach who was never quite on the same page with the team’s front office.
