A choice excerpt:

On if he thinks AI’s unwillingness to play a supporting role is hurting his chances of finding a team that will be a good fit for him:

“I think so, but he doesn’t think he needs to. Here’s what happened - when he thought about coming with me he said coach I don’t care if I start, you just give me an opportunity to start. And I said that’s fair. I hope I do that with all my players. But I told him that if he came with me, I have two guards sitting there and they would be unhappy, and I didn’t think that was fair. So when the Memphis situation came up, I looked at their roster. One, he made more money with them which I thought was a factor. And two, they just had Conley and Mayo and he was under the opinion that he would get a chance to start. Well, he missed all of training camp and I think that hurt. And then he was a little impatient. But the real factor was his family wasn’t with him. His family’s in Atlanta and I think they didn’t want to move to Memphis. And I think that was the major reason he wanted to leave.”

1. Bench Play: I wrote in my pre-game post that I would be interested to see how the team's three rookies faired tonight, and that getting solid contributions from DeMarre Carroll and/or Sam Young would be a key to victory. Well, all three rookies gave the team good minutes tonight.

Carroll had 10 points (4-6 shooting) and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes and made some of the energy plays that are key to his game: Stepping up to take a charge from a rumbling Craig Smith, following his own miss for an offensive rebound, finishing plays around the rim off setups from teammates.

Young played 12 minutes and was an efficient scorer with 6 points on 3-6 shooting. He missed a dunk off a terrific Marc Gasol feed, but made a Tim Duncan-esqe mid-range bank shot that I'm almost certain was intentional. After shooting an abysmal 5-24 over the previous four games, Young has gone 10-17 in this two-game win "streak." And I think that's far from an accidental correlation.

As for Thabeet, he came back from injury to give the team respectable back-up center minutes: 4 points (2-4 shooting) and 4 rebounds in 11 minutes with a nice weakside block on an Al Thornton drive. Thabeet's complete lack of fluidity on the offensive end is discouraging — he scored his first basket on an alleged baseline jump hook that was more like a flukish jump "push" and one offensive rebound that should have been a putback dunk came up dry as he was unable to gather himself to get back off the floor in time. But we all know now that we aren't judging Thabeet by typically #2 pick standards: He needs to become the next Joel Pryzbilla before he can start thinking about being a poor man's Mutombo. Thabeet's rookie season is about baby steps, and he took one tonight.

Overall, the Grizzlies got 31 points from a group of bench players who had averaged a collective 17.2 coming into tonight.

Check back later tonight (or in the morning) for a full post-game report.

Let's do this.

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• Grizzlies-Clippers: Two storied franchises face off in a bitter grudge match.

The Clippers have lost four of five games since beating the Grizzlies 113-110 in Los Angeles November 7th and are now playing not only without top pick Blake Griffin but second-year emerging star Eric Gordon, who is out with a groin injury. The Clippers come into FedExForum — much like the Wolves did — on the second night of a back-to-back set, having lost 110-102 to the New Orleans Hornets last night. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies have had three days rest and have had a chance to start putting the Allen Iverson distraction behind them.

The Grizzlies played the Clippers well in Los Angeles — the team's first game following Iverson's butt-soreness-prompting departure — building a slim lead midway through the fourth quarter but executing poorly down the stretch (a previously hot Rudy Gay forcing too many shots). Gay had a three-point look to tie at the buzzer, but missed (and foot was on the line anyway). Tonight the Grizzlies get to make up for one that got away.

• Jamaal Tinsley: Not the veteran free agent guard Griz fans were expecting to see.

Let's take a look at Tinsley, past, present, and future:

Glory Days: Jamaal Tinsley's been a non-entity for so long that it's easy to forget how good he was not so long ago. Here's an excerpt from John Hollinger's last Pro Basketball Forecast book previewing the 2005-2006 season:

With Indiana's three best scorers suspended, Tinsley shifted his energies from setting up others to scoring himself. He raised his 40-minute scoring average by six points and more than tripled his rate of free-throw attempts… Also, Tinsley has improved as a shooter, making 37 percent on three-pointers for the second straight season after struggling with the jumper early in his career.

Defensively, Tinsley is one of the best guards in basketball. He has good quickness and fast hands that plucked two steals a game. Moreover, he's a good rebounder for a guard and is big enough to defend shooting guards if the situation requires.

Overall, he's on the cusp of becoming an all-star point guard if he can ever stay healthy. Tinsley has played only 92 games the past two seasons and has limped through Indiana's playoff defeats in two straight postseasons. While much of the attention will be on Ron Artest, Tinsley is arguably a bigger key to Indiana's championship hopes. If he's in one piece in June, the Pacers will be tough to beat.

Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins comes clean — at least from his perspective — with the Philadelphia Inquirer's Phil Jasner:

Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, a onetime Sixers guard who won a championship with the Portland Trail Blazers, views the situation as "strange."

"He got hurt in training camp, so I hadn't even had a chance to fit him in," Hollins said. "But I do know that every issue was addressed before we ever started. Our owner told him he was being brought in to mentor the young guards, to come off the bench. He didn't blink.

"I said he could compete [with Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo] for a starting spot, see whether it works. I asked him if he could handle it if it turned out he would be coming off the bench. He didn't blink.

"I told him I wasn't out to prove I was the boss; I wasn't out to break him. I told him, 'You're stubborn, and I'm stubborn, but if we react to each other like that nobody wins.' He laughed."

These comments from Hollins echo some off-the-record info that began to drift around FedExForum in the past week, push back against the idea that the team hadn't fully discussed potential roles — including coming off the bench — with Iverson. But as long as Iverson was under contract, team officials were always vague about their meeting with Iverson. That has clearly changed now.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• Byeverson: We hardly knew ye, A.I., but we sure felt your impact.

The Memphis Grizzlies today released the following statement from General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace.

“The Grizzlies and Allen Iverson have come to a mutual agreement that because of personal matters that forced him to leave the team on November 7, Allen will step away from the game at this time, allowing him to focus on those matters.

“As a result, we will be ending our contractual agreement with Allen, which will allow both parties to move forward. We wish Allen the best.”

The initial read around the country was that no other team would have interest in Iverson, but it looks like there may be one exception: The New York Daily News' Frank Isola is reporting that the New York Knicks management will look to meet with Iverson to explore a potential signing.

1. Finally, a Win: Okay, so it wasn't an impressive win: The Timberwolves are one of only three teams with a worse record than the Grizzlies (also: Knicks, Nets) and heading into tonight were the only team with a worse point differential. The Wolves, already missing their second best player, Kevin Love, all season, were playing tonight without their best, Al Jefferson. They were also coming into Memphis on the second night of a back-to-back set against a Grizzlies team coming off two days rest. And the Wolves threw out potentially one of the worst starting lineups you will ever see in a regulation NBA game: Jonny Flynn, Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, Nathan Jawai, and Ryan Hollins.

Despite all this, the Grizzlies had trouble shaking the Wolves, going into halftime with a 45-45 tie before turning up the defensive intensity and pulling away. But, hey, with all the losses and upheaval the Grizzlies have been dealing with lately, they'll take it: "It's a big win for us from that perspective," coach Lionel Hollins said of breaking the seven-game losing streak. "You have to get some wins so [the players] will believe in the system and believe in themselves."

First, there's a new Griz player in town in the form of former Indiana Pacers point guard Jamal Tinsley, who the team signed today. Tinsley is on the roster but will not be with the team for tonight's game. He's expected to rejoin the team for the next practice and, potentially, make his debut Wednesday against the Clippers.

I've been doing family stuff all day until just now so I haven't had time to talk to many people about the Tinsley signing, but I have been told — for whatever it's worth — that the signing is unrelated to Allen Iverson's status with the team. There's been some scuttle that Iverson could be back with the team before Thanksgiving, but team officials would not put a timetable on his potential return.

I'll have more to say on the Tinsley signing in the post-game report.

As for tonight, the Grizzlies are facing a team that's been even worse (in terms of both record and point differential) and is missing its two best players in post tandem Al Jefferson and Kevin Love. Further, the Wolves come to FedExForum on the second night of a back-to-back with the Grizzlies coming off two das of rest. No excuse not to win this one.

As will be the norm this season, no live-blogging tonight. I will throw out the occasional tweet as seems warranted but will focus on the game and working on my post-game "three-pointer." Look for that later tonight.

Let's do this.

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1. No Iverson: This should have been Allen Iverson's home debut for the Grizzlies, but apparently he's only interested in playing basketball if everything is on his own terms. So instead of helping his team, he made a cool $35 grand or so sitting at home stewing. In a game where the team struggled to score and the backcourt rotation outside of O.J. Mayo combined to shoot 6-22 from the floor, even a petulant, freelancing Iverson would have been helpful. Then again, so would Hakim Warrick or any number of less flamboyant free agents the team could have signed instead.

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• The Iverson Era was supposed to be fun and interesting even if — especially if! — it descended into chaos. Then why am I bored with it already?

I spent this past weekend in deepest, darkest Arkansas, in the internet-free zone that is my mother's house, and when I finally returned to town Sunday night it was into a lengthy to-do list of on- (and, um, past-) deadline Flyer and Memphis magazine work. This is all to explain why I am the very last person with any reason to comment on the latest twist in the Allen Iverson saga to get around to doing so.

The one benefit of coming in last is being able to gauge the general reaction. The bad part is that pretty much anything worth saying on the subject has already been said. So I'm going to try to keep my commentary brief. (Warning: When it comes to basketball, I always fail to live up to this promise.)

Predictably, the local media reaction has seemed to be a matter of choosing sides, assigning primary blame to Michael Heisley, Lionel Hollins, or Allen Iverson. But I refuse to choose sides in a debacle in which everyone comes out looking bad. A pox on all their houses.

A.I. almost a Clipper?

Iverson can ponder what might have been when the Grizzlies visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. Back in July, the Clippers seriously contemplated offering him a one-year contract paying up to $4 million so he could be a “Vinnie Johnson-type” player, a source with knowledge of the talks said. Denver Nuggets assistant Tim Grgurich, who was considered for a job on Mike Dunleavy’s staff over the offseason, also strongly recommended Iverson to the franchise.

The Clippers, however, were concerned about how Iverson’s addition would affect the development of second-year shooting guard Eric Gordon, along with other chemistry issues. The Clippers cooled on the idea after Iverson told Dunleavy in a phone conversation that he would have a serious problem with coming off the bench.

The possibility of signing Iverson became a dead issue once the Clippers acquired guard Sebastian Telfair and swingman Rasual Butler. But had A.I. been fine with coming off the bench, he could very well be with the Clippers now.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• Griz Advice? Feed beasts on the block.

1. Slow it Down, Pound it Inside: The Grizzlies three most dynamic scorers are O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, and Allen Iverson. But the team's most efficient scorers have been interior tandem Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. Randolph is averaging 20 points a game on 56% shooting. Gasol is averaging 18 points a game on 60% shooting. Each player is averaging four offensive rebounds a game and shooting better than 78% from the foul line. They have also established quick chemistry together, hooking up on several high-low plays.

With Randolph so-far correcting the sloppy shot selection that had grown to infect his game in recent years and a slimmed-down Gasol making a mini-leap as an offensive threat, the Grizzlies suddenly have one of the best offensive frontcourts in the league. On most nights, this is where the team's advantage will be and the team has been at it's best when exploiting it. But with all the firepower on the perimeter, it's been too easy for the team to neglect feeding the beasts on the block. Wednesday night, in losing to the undersized Golden State Warriors, Randolph had only nine field-goal attempts, with 6 of those coming in a first half in which the Grizzlies were only behind by one point.

Slowing the game down a little and focusing on the interior game could also help the team's porous defense as the Grizzlies don't have great depth and have been losing track of outside shooters in up-and-down games.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• Allen Iverson: Butt getting sore.

Iverson's post-game public reaction to playing 18 minutes off the bench — “I had no problems (with the hamstring). I had a problem with my butt sitting on that bench for so long.” — was not a surprise, but was still preposterous.

Two specific reasons:

1. Even if his role were not in question and it were clearly established that he were going to be a starter, in his first game back from an injury after a dormant offseason and not a second of game experience with this team, Iverson was going to come off the bench and play limited minutes. It was inevitable that Iverson would complain about a bench role if the team tried to keep him there. But to complain about it after this game is an act of extreme self-absorption.

2. The comical "my butt hurts" quote has understandably gotten the attention. But I'm more bothered by this:

“If we’re winning games with me in that (reserve) role, I would be a (jerk) for fighting that,” Iverson said soon after pointing out: “I came off the bench and we still lost.”

Iverson cites this game as evidence that the team is better with him as a starter? Not only is this one game, but it's his first game back from injury, it's the second night of a back to back on the road, and the team lost in overtime. And this is somehow definitive proof of how he needs to be used and gives him license to be outwardly disruptive after the game?

Rudy's Extension: The Grizzlies and Rudy Gay have until midnight tonight to agree to a contract extension and have made some progress according to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski:

Gay, a 6-foot-9 forward, has been seeking an extension comparable to the five-year, $60 million deal the Indiana Pacers gave Danny Granger(notes) last year. Memphis has offered $50 million over five years in recent days, sources said, but will still need to close the gap before the NBA’s deadline on Monday.

One league source says a shorter contract — three years for $33 million-$36 million — has also been discussed with Gay’s reps from Octagon.

My take: If the Grizzlies are offering 5 years and $50 million, Gay should snatch it up. I think that's a little too rich for what he's proven. Anything beyond that is silly. I like Gay, but he needs to upgrade his defense and integrate his offense into the team context a little better before he'll be worth a contract averaging eight figures per year.

The Grizzlies had two big problems tonight — turnovers and defending Chris Bosh — and improved in these areas over the course of the game. The Grizzlies had 5 turnovers in the first 5 minutes, and 12 in the ensuing 43 minutes. The early turnovers were a bad product of good things, though — over-aggression and over-passing as a result of trying perhaps too hard to play team basketball. The Grizzlies gave up 25 points to Bosh in the first half. "Only" 12 in the second.

And most promising was how the team responded to late adversity. Going down 8 — their largest deficit of the game — two minutes into the 4th quarter, the team called a timeout, and then came back to outscore Toronto 35-19 over the final 10 minutes.

Not live-blogging this but am going to experiment with something new by trying to get my Twitter feed to run on this post and comment there occasionally. As always, I'll monitor any comments or questions on this post, or you can talk amongst yourselves. Let's do this.

Twitter feed seems to be working, but you have to refresh the page for new "tweets"

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Allen Iverson practiced with the team Thursday but still looks unlikely to play tonight. Look for him to make his Griz debut on the road next week.

I will not be live-blogging tonight but will set up the usual game template here for in-game comments and will likely be making occasional commentary via my Twitter feed. You can follow me on Twitter at @ChrisHerrington.

The Raptors enter the game on a high, having won their home opener 101-91 over Lebron James' Cleveland Cavaliers. Three potential keys to tonight's game:

1. "Interior" Defense: On Opening Night, the Grizzlies got torched by probably the league's best-shooting guard tandem in Rip Hamilton and Ben Gordon. Tonight they'll face a different but also similar challenge: Probably the league's best perimeter-shooting frontcourt tandem in Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• The jury's still out on Mike Conley's upside and fit.

Two years and one game into his NBA career, Conley's outside shooting is ahead of schedule, but there are a couple of other aspects of his game that have lowered my initial expectations. One is his athleticism and the other is how he uses it.

Conley is certainly a good enough athlete to be a quality starting point guard, especially if his shooting progress continues, but he's not as electric as he seemed coming out of Ohio State. He now looks like a good athlete for his position, not a great one, and this limits his upside.

The other problem has been Conley's timidity. While not quite the athlete I first thought he was, Conley still has the quickness and handle to put a lot of pressure on defenses. But he doesn't do this nearly often enough. Conley should be breaking down defenses in the halfcourt and streaking past defenders in transition with at least some regularity, but these explosions have been too rare. If Conley can begin to use his speed more, he can still be a high-quality starting point guard. If he doesn't, then it's not going to happen.

"I'm disappointed for our team and our fans," coach Lionel Hollins said in his post-game press conference, and that about sums it up. Now, the Grizzlies will play a Toronto Raptors team Friday that won its opener tonight against Lebron James' Cleveland Cavaliers and then embark on a five-game road trip. 0-7 isn't hard to visualize.

But first, tonight's game:

1. Backcourt Annihilation: Detroit is a guard-oriented team this season and their deep backcourt rotation completely demolished their Grizzlies counterparts tonight.

Allen Iverson is not listed on the active roster tonight but was out shooting a few minutes ago and looked pretty good. GM Chris Wallace suggested earlier today that he would likely debut on the upcoming road trip.

I will be live-blogging tonight's game, so check back here throughout the evening as the Griz try to get off to a good start.

Let's do this.

Looks like Villanueva will start for the Pistons, so we'll get a look at that match-up with Randolph early.

Sam Young is dressed and shooting around, so it looks like he'll play. With Iverson out and Jaric in the wilderness, the Griz need him.

Your officials for tonight: Eddie F. Rush, Bennie Adams, and Joe Forte. I expect much less coaching rage (from both benches) than we saw in the preseason.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• This is not the Allen Iverson fans wanted to see on opening night.

Lil Rounds and Three 6 Mafia will be in the house tonight, and so will I. Though it will be the exception, not the norm, this season, I will be live-blogging the opener. So check back here around game time. And local readers be sure to pick up a print edition of the Flyer around town today, which features a preview piece on the team and a few predictions for the coming season.

In the meantime, here are few things to think about relative to tonight's game:

1. No Iverson: It looks like Allen Iverson will miss the team's opener as he still hasn't been able to conduct a full practice with the team. This will somewhat dampen the excitement of opening night and will mean Iverson will miss one of two chances this season to play against the franchise he had such a bad experience with a year ago.

This also would have been a good game to see the Grizzlies work through all their possible backcourt combinations, as the Pistons are likely to play some three-guard sets and probably some minutes with a small backcourt, perhaps with Will Bynum and Ben Gordon on the floor together.

As it is, with Iverson out, Marko Jaric not with the team, and Sam Young perhaps questionable, the Grizzlies will face off against a backcourt-heavy Pistons team with a rather thin group of guards. Look for the team to use a double-point-guard backcourt of Mike Conley and Marcus Williams some in this game, and for Conley's ostensibly improved three-point shooting to get an early test.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• What will O.J. Mayo be? Shooter? Point Guard? Do-It-All?

This is an important question in that the answer should help determine much of what the Grizzlies do with the rest of their roster, and one of the problems I had with the team's offseason is that the franchise itself didn't seem to be operating with a clear idea of where Mayo was headed and kind of players would help him maximize his skills.

Is Mike Conley a good fit alongside Mayo long term? If not, was there a guard in the draft — Tyreke Evans? James Harden? Stephen Curry? — who made more sense? The answer, pardon the pun, is surely not Allen Iverson.

The way the Grizzlies build their backcourt going forward should be contingent on where and how Mayo needs to play and what teammates can best help him do that. The Grizzlies — with a GM who seems intrigued by the idea of Mayo at point guard and a coach who seems unusually opposed to even testing that notion — don't seem to have a strong handle on the question.

After a stellar rookie season, there's more info to draw from in analyzing Mayo, so let's take another look at which direction Mayo's career could head, breaking down the three general types of player he could become: