Grizzlies Acquire Zach Randolph

By Jackson Kwong

Does anybody else remember the trade that was initialed by Dunleavy in a desperate move to cover up Elton Brand? Well, general manager and head coach Mike Dunleavy decides to trade Zach Randolph over to Memphis for ex Clipper Quentin Richardson. An interesting deal; nevertheless, a questionable one.

Well to begin, Zach Randolph was brought over to replace Elton Brand because Brand bolted in fear of playing in the West( who really knows Brands motives.) Regardless, it was a definite questionable deal. In return for Randolph, the Clippers sent two expiring contract deals in 2010, Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. Afterwards, a physical showed that Mobley had a condition and should not be playing or else it could be life threatening.

Back to the point, clearly Dunleavy made a move on desperation. With the incoming trade for Zach Randolph, the Clippers were in no position to compete in the 2010 free agency (Lebron, Wade, Bosh.) Zach Randolphs contract was to expire in two years, 2011, with an overwhelming 17 million each yeah. Granted Zach Randolphs 20-10 production seems appealing, he also hides a strong defect in return.

One downside to Zach Randolph’s production is his locker room presence. His attitude was well known during the “Jail Blazer” era. Zach Randolphs behavior was probably at its best with the Clippers. During the 39 games that he played with LA, he gave a sucker punch to Louis Amundson and was caught on drunk driving (although his DUI was later rejected in court.) With the recent trade for Q, the Clippers seem to have decided to clean up some potential locker issues.

But one thing I couldn’t overlook on Zach Randolph was his defense. The guy just can’t play defense. Throughout his career, the guy only averaged 0.3 blocks. Arguably the embarassing point for me was when Zach Randolph was benched in Michigan State because of his lack of defense. You can argue that he scores 20-10 all you like, but easily that was a big flaw in Zach Randolph. Although offense is definitely important, defense can’t be taken too lightly either. If you count back to any championship teams, they have won with their solid defense. San Antonio had Bruce Bowen, Manu Ginobli, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker (etc etc), Detroit had Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Billups, TayShaun Prince, and even the current championship team, Lakers, were able to contain Dwight Howard. Truth is, defense is more important than offense.

But this is where it gets a bit tricky. Clippers fans have openly praised a “glue guy” targeting players such as Shane Battier and TayShaun Prince. With the addition of Q, that would be a third SF playing the 3 for the Clippers (Thornton, Mardy Collins, Q). Clippers fan thought that overloading the center and power forward position as being bad, imagine overloading your team with small forwards?

Even though the Clippers needed to trade away one of their big man, I don’t think Zach Randolph was the right recipe. That’s right, I have just said that the Clippers might need Zach. Why? Well, for one, Clippers lacked offense last season. There was no lie to it. Zach’s offense might have been the one of the few gleaming light on those dark Clipper games. Now, I did say that defense won championship, but there is nothing wrong with having Randolph in the second unit. The media seems to have focused its attention more on the 6th man position anyways( Jason Terry, Manu Ginobli, Lamar Odom), so if the Clippers are winning, Zach can’t complain. As of now, the Clippers are going to rely on Chris Kaman, Deandre Jordan, Blake Griffin, and Marcus Camby to do the dirty work down low. Problem with that is Blake Griffin is just a rookie, Deandre Jordan’s game is defintiley not anywhere near Zach’s, Chris Kaman has the slipperiest hands I’ve ever seen, and Marcus Camby is definitely not a post up man. This deal possibly means the Clippers might not compete for the playoffs this year.

But this trade seems to benefit the Clippers in a few ways. One, the Clippers can now compete in the 2010 free agency, the team won’t be bothered by the extra baggage that Zach Randolph carries, and Blake Griffin will have more playing time to himself at power forward. All together, if the Clippers weren’t looking to compete this season, might as well rebuild, and the Clippers did just that.