The obvious choice as to who should become the Grizzlies new head coach is Frank Vogel, whom the Pacers dismissed last week, Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal opines. Vogel has the track record of success and experience with younger players that the organization is seeking, Calkins writes. However, there should be some concerns regarding Vogel’s offensive acumen, which was one of the franchise’s issues with former coach Dave Joerger, and it isn’t clear if the former Indiana coach would be interested in joining a team that may well be on the decline, Calkins adds.
The scribe also notes that while GM Chris Wallace and Lionel Hollins met Monday night at a Memphis restaurant, it would be very surprising if the team were to rehire its former coach. After the issues the front office reportedly had with Joerger, it’s doubtful Memphis would hire another coach who butted heads with the front office during his tenure with the team, Calkins adds. The Grizzlies went 214-201 in parts of seven seasons under Hollins.
Here’s more from out West:
- Despite showing that he is capable of being a building block for the Mavericks, Chandler Parsons‘ injury history should give the team pause if the forward opts out of his deal and Dallas looks to re-sign him this summer, Bobby Marks of The Vertical writes in his offseason primer for the club. The Mavs would be wise to put in injury-protection language pertaining to Parsons’ balky knee in his next contract, Marks adds, but it may be difficult to get the forward to agree to that given the amount of teams with ample cap space that are likely to compete for his services.
- The Suns highly value the predraft interview process and believe that how a player performs under that type of pressure carries over to how well he responds to adversity on the court, writes Matt Petersen of NBA.com. The team was extremely impressed last year when it spoke with Devin Booker, whom it selected with the No. 13 pick, assistant GM Pat Connelly told Petersen. “He definitely stuck out in the interview,” Connelly said of Booker. “It’s not an easy thing to go into a room with a bunch of people you don’t know. We’re just one of the teams there. We had our early prep feel for Devin, but he came in and he was very confident. He answered questions really well, never got flustered in a situation. Some of the stuff you saw on the court with him now – walking into a new situation or being put in a new situation and looking like he was comfortable – it was the same thing there.”