Chris Wallace

So the Grizzlies decided as has been expected and anticipated for the past few weeks to go with Chris Wallace as the new General Manager/VP of Basketball Operations. I have gone on record many times as saying this hire does not excite me a whole lot. Obviously you can say that just by the fact that he comes from a team that had the second worst record in the league this year and has really been floundering for a while now.

I understand Wallace is not to blame for all the Celtics problems, Danny Ainge has the ultimate decision making power right now and Rick Pitino had total control when Wallace was first brought in. In between the two Wallace was the man running the show. During that time he had a mixed bag of results. He drafted Joe Johnson in 2001 which was a good pick although he later traded him for veterans to help the Celtics win right away which they did, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals that year, but ultimately that trade hurt the future of the team because the other two first-round picks they had in 2001 were spent on Kedrick Brown and Joe Forte(passing on the likes of Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas) who were busts, but hey the draft is a total crapshoot and he is not the only one who has ever made bad draft picks. Wallace also made the terrible decision to sign Vin Baker to a large contract which hurt the franchise for years afterwards.

So the track record with Wallace is not great, it is not terrible either. My problem with the hire comes from the fact the Grizzlies didn't look at an obvious candidate like Sam Presti from the Spurs who is credited with discovering Parker and convincing the team not to trade him for Jason Kidd a few years later. We all know how that has worked out for the Spurs. Presti, who has since taken the Sonics GM job, and some other assistant GM's from successful franchises should have been interviewed and considered before Wallace. David Griffin fit that bill and the Grizzlies offered him the job, but once he turned them down, it seems they elected to settle for a lesser candidate instead of finding another Griffin type. The Grizzlies organization could use a young new mind, who has been around a successful organization to lead them into the future. Wallace is not that. Wallace is more Jerry West which is why in the end, I believe he got this job. Jerry can deny it all he wants, but the bottom line is Wallace got this job in large part because of Jerry and their relationship.

Having said all this, I am more than willing to give Wallace a chance to prove me and the other doubters wrong. When it comes to coaches, GMs etc. I believe you judge them in two areas. You judge them as a hire right away based on how much sense the hire makes and what kind of fit the person is with the team along with many other factors. You then judge their performance a few years down the road based on how well they perform in their role. Just because someone appears to be a bad hire, that does not mean they will not be successful, just as someone who appears to be a good hire(i.e. Marc Iavaroni) is not guaranteed to be successful. An example of this is Jerry West. When Jerry was hired I don't think anyone could possibly looked at it as anything other than a great hire by Michael Heisley. Now down the road, we can look back and say his performance as President of the team was average at best. That doesn't make the hire bad, the hire was still great, it just didn't work out as great as people expected.

I will say this about Wallace, during his introductory press conference he said all the right things. He took responsibility for the Joe Johnson trade saying it was a mistake. He is a very stand-up guy who seems to be very personable and approachable. He also says he has thick skin and understands that criticism comes with the job and he is ready for it. So I wish Wallace the best and hope he leads the Grizzlies to an NBA Championship. I will judge his performance here with an open mind and I think he deserves at least three years before making any determination. Right now, all I can say is that the hire is questionable.

By the way, I am still on record as saying I would take either Al Horford or Mike Conley Jr. if I was the Grizzlies. Whichever one of the two Atlanta does not take would be mine. The reason I like Conley if Horford is not there, is that I think he can be a lot like Tony Parker. He may not be a great shooter, although he will get better, but he can get to the rim whenever he wants and that is something you can not teach.

Now on to the U.S. Open. I watched this week anticipating a complete disaster because Oakmont would be too tough. However, I thought the USGA did a nice job of watering the greens enough to keep them receptive to good shots so that things didn't get ridiculous. There were still some holes that I didn't necessarily like(a 300-yard par 3, really?) but others were great holes, especially number 17. I thought it was a complete genius hole and wish the 17th hole at every major championship could be the same. The risk-reward of a drivable par 4 with extreme rough all around it is great and it provided a lot of excitement on Sunday.

All in all, I really enjoyed the Open. I still can't figure out why Tiger can't come from behind on Sunday to win a major, but until he actually does it I will never figure that one out. Angel Cabrera and Zach Johnson have now both come from behind on Sunday to win a major, but Tiger never has, go figure. Anyway, you had to enjoy seeing Angel Cabrera win it. He held nothing back all week. He kept blasting his driver 350 yards and was hitting great irons and made some huge putts. He looked like a guy having fun despite how nervous he had to be on Sunday and you have to like that.

Speaking of Tiger, his round on Saturday was maybe the best ball-striking round I have ever witnessed. If he could have gotten some putts to fall, he easily could have shot 65. He has now finished 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd in the last four majors and I am guaranteeing right now you can add another 1st to that at the British Open. I really believe he could win the British Open virtually every year and may win 8-10 of them before he is done.

A few other random thoughts:
I hate the summer television season, but Hell's Kitchen is definitely one show worth watching during this time of year.

I have never seen any of the Godfather movies, nor a single episode of "The Sopranos," I may be the only person in the world who can honestly say that. At least I have seen "Goodfellas."

Rob Fischer and I were part of a taping of a show called "The Wandering Golfer" which is on the Fine Living Network. The host of the show Gia Bocra played with us last week in the 3-person scramble at Tunica National. It was interesting to play golf with a microphone on and cameras filming you, but we had a great time and Gia was a lot of fun. The Memphis episode of the show, which features a lot of other things they did while here as well, is scheduled to air sometime in August. I will be sure to post an update when I know. I am not sure where you can find the Fine Living Network on Comcast here locally, but I know it is channel 232 on Directv.

That is all I got for today. I promise to start posting more often.