The Memphis Grizzlies have descended into turmoil, but general manager Chris Wallace remains steadfast in keeping his core of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol in town.
It began with the Grizzlies firing head coach David Fizdale on Monday a day after the team dropped a game to Brooklyn Nets making it their eighth loss in a row. In that game, Fizdale benched Gasol in the fourth quarter, an action that didn’t sit well with the franchise star.
On Wednesday, the Grizzlies lost their ninth straight game in an outing against the Spurs. After the game, Wallace made sure to shoot down any notion of moving his stars and going into full tank-mode.
Following from Tim MacMahon of ESPN,
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace won't consider rebuilding by trading stars Marc Gasol or Mike Conley: "We’re bringing a number of young guys along, and we think we have two guys that are big-timers and we think are going to be big-timers for years to come. So why back off of that?"
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 30, 2017
“We have no intention to trade Marc,” Wallace told ESPN when asked if the franchise might consider dealing the 32-year-old big man. “We never seriously considered that at all. We never placed any calls to any teams in that regard. So that’s not happening.
“It’s not just Marc that this whole equation is about. It’s also Mike Conley, when he comes back. We’ve got two guys among the elite in the league at their respective positions that are still very much in their window with an awful lot of tread left on their tires.”
Memphis has long been the gold standard of sustained success in the NBA, making the playoffs seven years in a row. In that time span, the Grizzlies held a winning record. Wallace is aware of the rarity of that type of fortune and is no rush to restart.
“We’re full speed ahead,” Wallace said on Wednesday. …we’ve got a team when fully healthy and we get everything together is more athletic, more versatile and more potent offensively than we’ve had for a number of years. Even though the going has been a little difficult early, there’s still 62 [games] to play. We believe in this team. We’re hoping — got our fingers crossed — that we’ll get everybody healthy soon.
