Selling draft picks a bad move for Memphis Grizzlies

The hard part of being a Memphis Grizzlies fan in Australia isn't that they don't get shown on One HD or ESPN. Like, not even once in a season.

It isn't the issues presented by being in a different time zone, either.

It isn't not being able to read about your favourite team in the paper. It isn't that nobody else shares the same favourite team as you. It isn't the fact Rebel Sport sell the jerseys of half the other teams in the NBA.

No, the hard part of being a Memphis Grizzlies fan in Australia is probably exactly the same as being a Memphis Grizzlies fan everywhere - those mind-boggling decisions from those who run the team.

Owner Mike Heisley is known to do things on the cheap side, without all that much consideration for the, you know, basketball side.

And evidence of this pops up so often you question the point of following the team at all.

Heisley signed Allen Iverson at the start of last season, for example. It sold a lot of season tickets. It sold a lot of Grizzlies merchandise. But the one thing it didn't do was produce results on the court.

This was because, well, nobody thought about how Iverson might react to coming off the bench.

He hated it. He even told reporters after his first game that he "had a problem with my butt sitting on the bench so long," while also adding: "Look at my resume and that'll show I'm not a sixth man." It proved a major distraction and, to the surprise of few, the Grizzlies started the season 1-8.

Iverson was gone not long after, but by then it was too late. A few more wins in that early block of games and the Grizzlies would have been in the playoff race a fair bit longer than they were. They may have even gotten over the line.

But hey, the franchise got a little bit of extra revenue because of Iverson. So it had to be a good thing, right?

No, being able to sell playoff tickets wouldn't have brought in extra revenue, why would you bring that up?

Oh, wait. That's right. Making the playoffs would have brought in extra revenue.

And this exposes why Heisley's way of running the team is flawed. Success on the court leads to success on the balance sheet. It doesn't work so well the other way around.

In fact, every time Heisley makes a decision that puts money before basketball, the Grizzlies end up taking a step backwards on the path towards the place they really want to be. That is, in the playoffs and with lots of fans in seats.

This week's NBA Draft provided another unfortunate example. The Grizzlies traded the 25th pick to the Dallas Mavericks for, err ... cash considerations.

Yep, they sold a first-round draft pick for cash.

Sure, they had three first-round picks in all. Sure, Rudy Gay is probably about to get a great big contract that won't pay itself. But all that means nothing when you read just how much cash was involved - a paltry $3 million.

The line out of the Grizzlies organisation is that the $3 million will help sign Gay. But $3 million wouldn't put a dint in the sort of contract Gay was seeking late last year - a five-year $50 million deal.

Sure, he might not get that deal. But given he's a restricted free agent, having to overpay for his services is a very real proposition. The likeliness is that $3 million won't seem like much in comparison.

The worst part of it all was hearing Heisley say he could have traded the 28th pick as well. "I could have sold the 28th pick if I wanted to but we liked (Greivis) Vasquez," he said.

It just goes to show how far off the mark his mentality is. Talking like that won't get this team anywhere near the playoffs, let alone the NBA Finals, which should be the ultimate goal.

That's not to say every decision the Grizzlies have made has been disappointing.

The Pau Gasol trade - laughed at by the entire league when it happened - gave them Marc Gasol and a couple of other handy players, and allowed the team to rebuild almost from scratch. So it didn't turn out too badly.

The trade for OJ Mayo on draft night two years ago also turned out pretty well. Really bloody well, actually.

Bringing in the unwanted Zach Randolph proved to be a masterstroke too, even if issues off the court haven't completely gone away.

But the key theme in the above moves was not money. It was about being adventurous in a bid to become better.

You might say the Pau trade saved a fair bit of money, which is true. But the effects of that trade were more far-reaching than just that.

This week's trade with Dallas was about money and money only. Last year's farcical Iverson signing was about money and money only.

They weren't, sadly, examples of "being adventurous in a bid to become better."

If anything, both were simply more steps backward. The fans deserve better.