Memphis Grizzlies Off-Season Central: The Big Men.

(This is the third part in an ongoing series about the Memphis Grizzlies off-season.  You can find the first two parts here: Intro, The Big Decision.)

If you’ve been reading this site for any amount of time, you’ll know that the Memphis Grizzlies are built around their two all-star post players, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.

Most fans remember Randolph’s dominance in the 2011 playoffs and Marc Gasol’s breakout season in 2011-2012 as he made the western conference all-stars and moved out of the shadow of his more accomplished older brother.

Unfortunately, Randolph and Gasol can’t play 48 minutes a game, even if Lionel Hollins tried to do so with Gasol in the early going last year. Most teams carry at least two backup bigs, one to back up the 4 and the 5.

Basketball has evolved a little bit from the mid-2000s and it’s no longer necessary to have a guy over 7 feet and 330 pounds.  Smaller, quicker guys can be just as useful as throwback bigs.

The Grizzlies, for all of their success in the post the past two years, have some unique players off the bench when Gasol and Randolph have to hit the bench.

People forget this now, but the Grizzlies had one of the best reserve big men in the game in Darrell Arthur throughout the 2011 playoff run.  Arthur is only about 6’9, but can jump out of the building and defends the pick-and-roll as well as anybody on the Grizzlies team.

He also provided the Grizzlies with scoring off the bench, which they struggled with in his absence in this past season when he went down with an Achilles injury before the season ever started.

It was a crushing blow for a team that was already struggling to get good bench play in the first place, but now to lose one of their two most irreplaceable bench players? That’s a tough hole to dig out of.

The Grizzlies signed Dante Cunningham away from the Charlotte Bobcats to a 3 year/ $6 million deal after the injury, but he was in and out of the rotation all season.

Arthur will be a restricted free agent this off-season and is subject to the same Qualifying Offer that O.J. Mayo is.

While it’s unlikely that Arthur will command the same type of salary that Mayo will, the Grizzlies will still have a decision to make between him and their other restricted free agent, Marreese Speights.

Personally, if they’re only going with one, I’d rather if they kept Arthur.

For starters, after missing the entire season, he may not be as hot a commodity as it looked like he would be after the playoff run in 2011.  Bench players that have big playoffs often get overpaid and Arthur and Mayo were simply awesome against the Spurs and Thunder.

Arthur isn’t a typical big 4, but he helped the Grizzlies solve their floor spacing issues  with his jump-shooting, making him a small, but effective fit with Zach Randolph, but a great one with Marc Gasol.  Arthur being able to hit the 18 foot jump shot allowed either one to stand on the block on their own and score close to the basket.

Speights is a bigger body in a bigger frame, but isn’t as efficient offensively, or nearly the presence that Arthur is defensively, but really improved from the time he joined the Grizzlies to Memphis’ game 7 against the Clippers.

A bad playoff run may have hurt his value on the open market, but Speights can still play and contribute to a good team, as he did this past year.

He joined the Grizzlies in a time of need, where he had to step in and play well, and he did just that.

Still, as we discussed yesterday, the Grizzlies may need to start trimming some payroll and while keeping Speights and Arthur on board may seem like the smartest move, they may not be able to afford to.

Speights is an intriguing play because of a popular story that surfaced when he joined the team in January when Coach Joerger mentioned during an interview that he didn’t learn any post moves from his time in Philadelphia.  After an actual off-season working with the Grizzlies staff, could he take a big leap next year? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Also in the mix is Hamed Haddadi, who’s 7’2, a defensive presence, and a threat to foul on any play.

Haddadi was extended the Qualifying Offer last year, but later signed a one year deal, for less than the actual QO.

Haddadi’s playing time is always kind of sporadic, and last season was no different.  Hollins hesitates to play him, until the last three games of the playoffs when he actually played and played pretty well, as part of an energy group with Cunningham and the duo sparked runs to put the Grizzlies over the top in games 5 and 6.

In a perfect world, I’d like to see the Grizzlies bring back Arthur and Speights and maybe carry one 7 footer at a cheap price tag, but 7 footers generally demand a good chunk of change.

Having Speights and Arthur on the same team would give the Grizzlies a chance to be pretty flexible and go big or small at any given time.

That said, I think what they’ll eventually do is negotiate with Speights and Arthur and see who they can get for less money or years, sign him and cut a deal to fill the other open position, or even draft a young big with the Grizzlies owning their own pick in a deep draft.

I also think that Haddadi will be on another team next year, either because he’ll want too much money or he’ll want an opportunity to play more elsewhere.