After the blowout visceration of Memphis last night, maybe a fair time to ask this question of the ESPN advanced stats guru and inventor of PER. He walked into a situation where Memphis was already good and had already been to a Western Conference Finals before he ever got there. He inherited a team which was already good—especially on the defensive end.
Yet, other than perhaps the firing of Lionel Hollins, the hiring of Dave Joerger, the player additions of Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, Mike Miller, Vince Carter, and Mario Chalmers—have we seen anything really moving forward in Memphis as far as basketball operations from the VP of basketball operations. I haven’t seen a thing. When I make my preseason picks on Memphis, I just automatically pick Memphis 6th because they’ve done nothing I can discern to make any forward move as a serious contender in the West beyond being precisely what they were before the arrival of John Hollinger. Conversely–Jerry West at Golden State has played a tremendous role in the Warriors’ evolution as a championship team.