Girizzlies Release ENTIRE Scouting Staff

But Geoff Calkins puts the appropriate spin on the act..

((HT: Memphis Commercial Appeal/Calkins))

The Grizzlies really should get rid of their ushers.

The seat numbers are right there on the tickets, aren't they? Can't people find their own seats?

Then they should cut back on dancers. So many dancers. Wouldn't one really good dancer be enough? Especially if it were Linea?

One ball boy should be plenty, too. Let the kid run back and forth between the two hoops.

And one combination radio/TV guy. Why should the Grizzlies pay for Pete Pranica and Eric Haseltine to call the same game?

I bring this up because the Grizzlies recently decided to let go of their scouts. Yes, all of their scouts.

"I prefer a smaller group," said Chris Wallace, the Grizzlies GM.

You have to love Wallace, don't you? He could have put a positive spin on the yellow fever epidemic.

"I prefer a smaller city," he'd have said.

Last season, the Grizzlies had five full-time amateur scouts. David Booth, Ryan West, Ed Manning, Ray Jones and Marin Sedlacek.

This season, the Grizzlies will have no full-time college scouts. Booth, West, Manning, Jones and Selacek are all gone.

A couple of them fled the building; a few more were let go. The Grizzlies will use a part-time scout to help them keep on eye on players in Europe. They do not plan to make any hires.

"We had a restructuring," said Wallace, and I guess you could call it that.

The Grizzlies restructured their scouting department the way the city restructured the old Baptist Hospital. With well-placed dynamite.

To be sure, it's highly possible that a vacant scouting department could do just as well as the former scouting department. Wonder where Troy Bell is today?

Wallace makes the point -- a fair one -- that scouting in the NBA is not like scouting in the NFL. A team makes a couple of picks a year. Any moron can identify the top few players. Wallace, Tony Barone, Tony Barone Jr. and Kenny Williamson -- all still with the franchise -- can get out there and see those players themselves.

But it's hard not to look at this move as additional evidence that the Grizzlies care less about basketball than the bottom line. No scouts? For a team that has said it is committed to building through the draft?

Of course, who needs basketball people around when the owner doesn't pay attention to what they say? If he did, Hakim Warrick ((pictured, thanks Lance Murphey MCA file)) would still be on the team. Nobody on the basketball side endorsed Heisley's decision to let Warrick walk.

Heading into the offseason, Wallace described Warrick as "one of the most potent bench scorers in the league." At the press conference introducing Hasheem Thabeet, head coach Lionel Hollins said he'd be mixing up the names "Hasheem" and "Hakim" all year long.

Or, not, as it turns out. The Grizzlies pulled their offer to Warrick because they didn't want to give him $3 million a year, or exactly as much as the Milwaukee Bucks then agreed to pay the guy.

Never mind that the Grizzlies said they needed more scoring off the bench. Never mind that they said they needed more veteran leadership.

The Grizzlies' second unit now consists of three rookies (Thabeet, Sam Young and DeMarre Carroll), one second-year player (Darrell Arthur) and one free agent (Marcus Williams, though the signing isn't official yet) who wasn't able to stick with the Nets or the Warriors.

So how do you put a positive spin on that? If you're not Wallace, I mean?

How do you resist the conclusion that Heisley has settled on a strategy that values dollars over wins?

He can't sell the franchise so he'll run it as cheaply as possible. He'll use the Grizzlies' cap space to facilitate trades for other teams. The Grizzlies will be rewarded with "cash considerations." They'll be the Memphis Grizzlies & Money Launderers.

If Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo develop into stars and the fans come back, great. If not, Heisley can hang on, keeping his losses down, and sell the team to an out-of-town owner when the penalty for breaking the lease is less prohibitive.

It's not a bad strategy for running a business, actually. Just a demoralizing way to build a basketball team.

No scouts. No Warrick. No scorers off the bench.

Someone better call Linea.