Memphis More Than BBQ with Mayo

Youth can be a beautiful thing. Youth reminds of people of things that they could before, times when they felt invincible and could do anything. For the Memphis Grizzlies, youth may very well be a gift and a curse to a team looking to win sooner and sooner.

The Memphis youth movement is spearheaded largely by new draft pick Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo (O.J. Mayo to the masses), a silky smooth combo guard from the woods of West Virginia and Cincinnati, as well as the campus of Southern California. A top amateur prospect throughout high school and his lone year in college, Mayo has shown the poise of a professional all the way through his younger years, even when he was 14 years old as a eighth-grader. Mayo's stealth, intelligence and expanding guard skills lend him the ability to be a star and a contributor right away. Expect him to be the starting two guard.

Rudy Gay sets himself apart from pretty much everyone on the team, including the aforementioned Mayo. An emerging star swingman, Gay went from being labeled as "lazy" in college to really showing his perimeter skills as a 20-point scorer in the 2007-08 season. Able to play shooting guard and occasionally power forward, Gay will be the premier small forward for the Grizzlies.

Point guard is a point of contention and some frustration for the players that play that position. Memphis has three top-flight point guards in Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry and Javaris Crittenton, who are all waiting and playing to become the starting point guard, but each brings different skill sets. Conley is cat quick and shows himself to be a real leader, as a Final Four star for Ohio State in 2007; Lowry is somewhat similar but maybe quicker and is a better shooter; Crittenton is bigger, taller and a better shooter than all of them. Veteran Marko Jaric will be an instant candidate for the inactive list.

There is an even bigger glut at the power forward and center positions, where three international players look to make a splash on the team. The three are comprised of Marc Gasol (former Memphis star Pau's younger brother), Hamed Haddadi (the first Iranian to play in the league) and Darko Milicic (the infamous No. 2 selection in the 2003 Draft, over Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade). The only sure thing to play significant minutes and start will be Gasol, who has blossomed into a grizzled (no pun intended) low-post threat in his native Espana (Spain). Haddadi made major noise playing for the Iranian national team in the Olympics and has the height at 7'2" to be a big difference in post play. Milicic, only 23 years old as a soon-to-be 6-year veteran, is still looking to make a major mark in the NBA, but he has continued to show flashes of competency as a power player and does possess long range on his jump shot. Hakim Warrick, the Grizzlies' 2005 first-round pick, has the making to be the starting power forward, but more of a combination forward than anything, which creates some hesitancy as to whether he's better off of the bench, and Kansas rookie Darrell Arthur is a similar player.

Memphis is going to have to find eight or nine guys in their prime rotation, go with those guys and play ball. They won't be contending for the Western Conference crown, but some solidarity and thinning out the position gluts could help these young players become Blazers East and upset the balance of powers in the league.