Are You Feeling A Draft? <\/p>\n
The Upside of Upside<\/p>\n
You may have heard that the NBA Draft is right around the corner, taking place on June 23rd\u00a0\u00a0and 24th. The Grizzlies enter the Draft with three of the first 32 picks (3, 16 and 32), and as such there\u2019s a significant portion of Grizz Nation that has spent the last few weeks deep in speculation. What will the Grizzlies do? Will we make a trade? Who will we select?<\/p>\n
If you think you know, you don\u2019t. Because nobody actually knows what will happen. There are endless possibilities and permutations, each dependent on prior moves and picks. It\u2019s a riddle inside of a puzzle, with no way to predict how it all will shake out.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spent the last few weeks up to my neck in learning about the Draft prospects, sifting through the various measurables as Gary Parrish and I have worked on Grind City Media\u2019s hit property, the\u00a0Draft Board Breakdown<\/a>\u00a0show. Off the top of my head, I can tell you how many three-pointers Caleb Wilson made last season, Christian Anderson\u2019s height without shoes, or how many times Keaton Wagler dunked last season. (Those answers, by the way, are seven makes, six-foot-one, and zero dunks.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But the main thing I\u2019ve focused on as we approach Draft season has been the argument around drafting proven skill versus finding upside. Upside means you have room to improve, ways you can get better. But upside also means you\u2019re not as good at certain things as other people. Like I noted earlier, Caleb Wilson made seven three-pointers last season. He also only attempted 27 three-pointers. Clearly, shooting three-pointers wasn\u2019t something he was asked to very often, and he made about a quarter of his attempts.<\/p>\n Does Wilson have upside as a three-point shooter? Sure! At the same time, look at a player like Cameron Boozer, who is often placed alongside Wilson in mock drafts. Boozer made 54 three-pointers last season and attempted 138, good for a 39-percent average. So, does Wilson have more upside than Boozer as a three-point shooter? Well, I don\u2019t know. Because who\u2019s to say Boozer, a full year younger than Wilson, doesn\u2019t have room to improve as well?<\/p>\n All this endless speculation and discussion is what makes the NBA Draft so fascinating to me. Despite knowing some facts, I don\u2019t know much more about what\u2019s happening in team\u2019s war rooms than anyone else. Like everyone else, I\u2019ll be watching to see what happens, and you can watch live with us on Grind City Media. If you\u2019re in Memphis, you can come\u00a0join us to watch the Draft<\/a>\u00a0live with us at FedExForum.<\/p>\n There are a million ways it could all shake out. The only way to truly find out is to watch.<\/p>\n Haters Gonna Hate<\/p>\n At the start of the hockey season, my friends and I decided we would each root for a random hockey team. One friend grew up in Michigan, and has been a lifelong Red Wings fan. I spent a chunk of my life in New York City, so I selected the New York Rangers. My friend Brandon hails from Mississippi and wanted to choose a Southern team, so he picked the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n Fast forward a few months, and this week the Stanley Cup began with Brandon\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes arriving as the hottest team in the NHL. Naturally, I immediately became a devoted fan of their opponent, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Do I know anything about the Golden Knights? I do not! But what I am intimately familiar with is how to be a hater.<\/p>\n Hating is a skill sports fans have honed for decades. We have teams that we like and root for, but perhaps more importantly, are the teams that we don\u2019t like, the teams we root against.<\/p>\n Hating is how I morphed into a Spurs fan the last few weeks, when they squared off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Am I a Spurs fan? No, but I am a fan of ethical basketball, which necessitated my rooting against the Thunder. I\u2019ve been a Mets hater almost as long as I\u2019ve cheered for the Atlanta Braves. And don\u2019t even get me started on the New Orleans\u00a0Aints.<\/p>\n Sometimes we do not cheer for what we want; we cheer against what we do not want to happen. Haters gonna hate.<\/p>\n Cover Story<\/p>\n It used to be a big deal when you were named to be on the cover of a video game. It was like being on a magazine cover, or getting your own signature shoe: You were somebody who mattered, and being a cover star was something special.<\/p>\n Last season\u2019s regular cover of EA Sports\u2019 College Football game featured Alabama\u2019s Ryan Williams and Ohio State\u2019s Jeremiah Smith. A \u201cdeluxe\u201d version of the game had its own cover, where it seems like all were welcomed.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s deluxe version of the game features\u00a0a wild collection<\/a>\u00a0of college football stuff. Hey, there\u2019s Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, hands on hips, smirk on face. Dante Moore is shrugging, Kewan Lacy is showing his grill. Last year\u2019s\u00a0deluxe edition<\/a>\u00a0was even more stuffed with personalities, from Kirby Smart to Reggie Bush.<\/p>\n Being on the cover of a video game may not have quite the same currency as it did a few years ago, but let\u2019s be frank here: the people on the cover don\u2019t matter in the end. Maybe it gets us talking a bit, helps us keep the game in mind as a possible purchase the next time we stumble into the digital PlayStation store.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, the folks on the cover won\u2019t have much impact on whether or not I spend my fall playing NCAA 27. What matters most, as it does every year, is what\u2019s in the game.<\/p>\n Odds and Ends\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are You Feeling A Draft? 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