I'm to blather on some more about Darko moving onto greener pastures away from a team that will surely not contend for a title in the next 6 years unless Dwight Howard becomes the next Shaq (I can't even talk about the Rashard Lewis signing, it was so self-evidently wrong-headed of Otis Smith to do that trying to explain all the reasons it was so foolish would become a doctoral thesis (I believe a similar paper is what got Chad Ford his college degrees)). So without further ado, and without putting parenthesises within parenthesises anymore today, I bring you Darko to Grizzlies: The Breakdown Part #2 Bullet Style:
Switching Conferences: Darko will be switching to the more dominant conference in the NBA for the first time in his career with this move. The East has had a dearth of true quality big men for many years now while the West has thrived. Moving to the West means more Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett to guard for Darko and less Jason Collins. So, since his competition will be more difficult, if Darko simply matches his production from last year it will in reality likely mean he has improved since he is performing the same in more difficult circumstances.
Age: He is still only 22 years old. Everyone likes to throw out that Jermaine O'Neal did very little during his early years in the league, but most big men at least show more signs of dominance by this age and league tenure than Darko has. He probably wont hit his prime for another 4 to 5 years, but everyone has to realistic start to think now, how good will his prime end up being if 4 years into the league he is still only this good?
Style of Play: Much of this goes back to part #1 where the team he left and the team he is going were discussed, but with new coach Mark Ivaroni coming from the Suns system the Grizzlies should continue to play uptempo like they did last year (Memphis=7th in pace, Orlando=26th). This should be a good thing for Darko because it will help mask the fact that he still is not even close to being a potent offensive threat by helping to create easy shots from him in transition as his still impressive athleticism will allow him to get up and down the court quickly. If Darko can start the year producing well due to the style of play change, it may help build in confidence in his game which will improve him all-around. His new coach was the big men's coach for the Suns as well so Darko is now being taught by the former tutor for Amare Stoudamire, which can only be a plus.
Motivation: Darko's new contract is nice, but its no where near what he could get paid if he finally developed all the potential that was originally seen in his game. When his new deal ends he will be 25, the perfect age to command top dollar from every team in the league as an elite player. This monetary reason alone should be great motivation for Darko to improve over the next 3 years. Its impossible for me to know how internally motivated he is to reach his ceiling as basketball player because he simply wants to, but as we have seen time and time again during contract pushes, money potential brings out the best in players.
Benefits to Memphis: Memphis made an amazing deal with this singing. They had to trade nothing to get a promising young big man at probably below market rate who in 3 years if he does not develop enough could be traded or if he has developed into a good enough player, signed by Memphis even if they are over the cap. The only way this deal can turn out bad for Memphis is if Darko stops producing at the level he currently is which will likely not happen because of discussion points 1-7.
Losses for Orlando: They now have nothing to show for their trade with the Pistons 2 years ago besides an 8 seed. Instead they now have one of the worst contracts in basketball history which they wanted to badly they completely gave up on Darko. They really better hope Dwight Howard starts posting 27+ PER's or they have a 0% of even coming close to winning any titles in the next 5 years.
Now, b/c I still have many things to get done before the sun goes down, as Tony Kornheiser would say, Good Night Canada.
