Jerry West leaving Grizzlies

[BAMAPHIN 22]

Jerry West will leave as the Memphis Grizzlies' director of basketball operations July 1, saying he's "not a youngster" and weary of the turmoil surrounding the team.

West, one of the NBA's great players and executives with the Los Angeles Lakers, will end a five-year stint with the former expansion franchise.
West, who turns 69 in May, had been under contract only through this season and said Tuesday many factors played into his decision.

"I'm not a youngster anymore," said West, who disclosed his plans during an end-of-season meeting with reporters.

"I think the wear and tear of the season, particularly like this (has been tough). There's been a lot of turmoil here. The ownership thing have made it very difficult to concentrate on what we need to do here to improve our basketball team."

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-grizzlies-west&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

[dominizzo]

I would tooo Jerry

 

[GreenMonster]

West was never able to pull the trigger on a big trade to bring in a superstar like he did in LA. He also made a few bad picks in there, and the Grizz never really got going and never had a great core group under his watch. Pretty tough to win in the West with Gasol and a bunch of 3rd and 4th tier guys.

 

[Roman529]

I never understood why he left the LA Lakers for the Memphis Grizzlies. I bet he will be working somewhere in a couple months...he is the type of guy who doesn't like beinf retired.

 

[ChambersWI]

West was never able to pull the trigger on a big trade to bring in a superstar like he did in LA. He also made a few bad picks in there, and the Grizz never really got going and never had a great core group under his watch. Pretty tough to win in the West with Gasol and a bunch of 3rd and 4th tier guys.

like the draft where he traded the rights to Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins (neither of whom are world beaters) for Troy Bell (cut after 1 year) and Dahntey Jones (nothing special). Or getting Antonio Burks and Andre Emmett (neither of whom are in the league). Or thinking that a combination of Stromile Swift,Ryan Humphries,Jake Tskakalidis, and Lorenzo Wright were good compliments for Gasol? Or the contract he gave Brian Cardinal?

But everybody knew West was going to resign soon. In liht of the bad moves he made recently, I thought he had a very good draft last year, but Kyle Lowry broke his wrist (and he was having an impact on the game when he was in), and Gay(as I said all last year leading up to the draft) would not be capable of giving the offense needed when Gasol got hurt. Plus they have no big men outside of Gasol that can score (Warrick is not really a big, and Roberts and Johnson are good hustle players, but nothing more).

If they get Oden, the team will improve right away because it takes pressure off of Gasol down low. They'll improve if they get Durant, but even with his height, he is a SF; though that woud allow Miller to go back to the bench.