Month: November 2015

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News News Blog

MLGW Chief Grilled on Water Hike

Memphis City Council member grilled Memphis Light Gas & Water (MLGW) president Jerry Collins for nearly an hour Monday in a special meeting called before Tuesday’s vote on a proposed water rate increase.

Collins

MLGW leaders want a water rate hike of 22 percent, which averages to about $3.31 per customer per year. The increase would yield $22 million per year for the utility.

MLGW leaders said they need the money to fill budget gaps in the water department this year. Those gaps come from increasing legal fees, higher operation costs, and $2 million in revenues lost when Cargill shattered its corn milling facility here this year. Also, MLGW leaders want to spend $2.7 million to upgrade two water pumping stations.

Council member Alan Crone asked Collins what he’d done to lower expenses and close the budget gaps. Collins said he’s cut the water budget as much as he could. MLGW has deferred maintenance on plants and equipment across the service area, inducing leaky water meters on customers’ homes.

Collins said he delivered the council “a good budget,” evidenced by the fact that the utility has the second-lowest water rates in the country and the lowest combined rates for water, gas, and electricity.

“Sometimes you have to raise rates and this is one of those times,” Collins said.

MLGW raised water rates 14.9 percent in 2008, 5 percent in 2011, 7.1 percent in 2013, and 2.1 percent in 2014. The utility asked the council for a rate increase last year but council members voted it down.

According to state law, the state will automatically increase water rates if a utility shows two years of budget gaps. When the council vote down the water rate hike last year, “it started the clock” on a two-year window that ends with state control of water prices. Collins said if the council does not approve this rate increase, the state would increase the rates in a year-and-a-half and the hike would be more than 22 percent.

Council member Harold Collins asked how MLGW could square spending $240 million to install smart meters to all of its customers and also ask them to pay more for water. MLGW’s Collins said the money would be spent over five years and the smart meters would, once installed, save the MLGW system $40 million annually, which could delay further rate hikes.

Crone asked MLGW’s Collins if the utility could cut rates on electric and gas without having to raise rates on water. Collins said he’d explore the suggestion and report back to the council tomorrow before they vote on the rate hike during their regular meeting.

Categories
News News Blog

University of Memphis Receives Grant to Improve Teacher Training

The University of Memphis College of Education will be receiving a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve its teacher preparatory program.

The charity organization, which is based in Seattle, will give $34.7 million over three years to five Teacher Preparation Transformation Centers, meant to connect higher education institutions, preparation providers, and K-12 school systems in order to improve the education sector.

The University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation (U.S. PREP) consortium is the official recipient of the grant, in which the University of Memphis is a partner university. The consortium is led by Texas Tech University and includes Southern Methodist University, the University of Houston, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Jackson State University.

“The partnership enables the U of M to collaborate with universities implementing similar changes,” said Dr. Ernest Rakow, interim dean of the College of Education. “The U.S. PREP coalition offers both a system of support and a space to learn from each other as we all strive to enhance our pre-service teacher education programs and prepare teachers who are culturally relevant, classroom-ready, and prepared to work in the communities the University serves and beyond.”

The University of Memphis will receive about $600,000 over three years.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Tuesday: Raise the Roof with Memphis’s Female Food Warriors

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Girls run the world. We know because Beyoncé told us.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 12/1), come celebrate the women who make Memphis a top-shelf food town. At “Female Warriors, Armed and Delicious,” guests can enjoy live music and delicious refreshments from an impressive, all-female cast. Click here for tickets.

Vendors include Square One Organic Vodka, Simi Winery, Felicia Suzanne’s, Central BBQ, Muddy’s Bake Shop, Dinstuhl’s Fine Candy Co., Bedrock Eats & Sweets, The Beauty Shop, and Trolley Stop Market—plus chefs Jerri Myers and Marisa Baggett.

The event runs from 5:30 – 8:30pm at Brinkley Plaza, downtown. Best part? A portion of proceeds will be donated to the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis. Since 1996, they have raised $15.5 million for women and children through programs, advocacy, and research.

Or, as Queen Bey might say: “Boy, don’t even try to touch this.”

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Katherine Dohan and Fantastic Paths

This Music Video Monday is stuffed with stuffing. 

You’ll be surviving the week on leftovers from Thanksgiving. Memphis musician/filmmaker Katherine Dohan understands how you feel. Although she’s currently ensconced in Los Angeles, the co-director of What I Love About Concrete hasn’t forgotten about her hometown. “Time for Thanksgiving” is a funny, proggy meditation on coming home for the holiday. 

Music Video Monday: Katherine Dohan and Fantastic Paths

“Time for Thanksgiving” opens with an ad from Fantastic Paths, everyone’s favorite, vaguely creepy mail order infomercial house turned band. As a bonus, here’s Dohan’s instant classic comedy short that launched Fantastic Paths, “Soda Chair”: 

Music Video Monday: Katherine Dohan and Fantastic Paths (2)

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 85

Mmm … 

The first person to correctly ID the dish and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. 

To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com. 

The answer to GWIE 84 is the Raw Girls food truck, and the winner is … 

Categories
Music Music Features

Kylesa: A New Breed of Southern Rock

Savannah, Georgia’s Kylesa came about from the demise of Damad, an enigmatic female-led band and early pioneer of the immensely heavy form of metallic hardcore distinct to a mostly Southern movement. After all, Memphis’ own His Hero Is Gone is the rightful yardstick by which all of this music is measured. Kylesa’s first lineup was rounded out by Savannah College of Art and Design graduate Laura Pleasants (on guitar, vocal, and songwriting duties), who would become one half of Kylesa’s static core along with co-founder Phillip Cope. Like fellow Savannah exports Baroness, Mastodon and the Floor/Torche axis, Kylesa was more of a logical fit early on in regards to what is now widely known as the “Southern sludge” movement, but soon followed a creatively restless album-by-album progression away from the subgenre.

Though the band has released seven proper full-lengths (and a respectable amount of titles on smaller and compilation format) over the last 15 years, the five that appeared between 2006 and last month frame the development of a signature sound in the truest sense. Meaning, yes, this is a heavy band with a metal backbone throughout its discography, but no other band sounds anything like them. The noticeable leap forward in songwriting, serious uptick in psychedelic elements, plus a much more melodic and melancholic approach (especially Pleasant’s now-clean singing style) occurred with 2010’s Spiral Shadow, making it the band’s artistic, critical, and profile-raising game changer. Follow-up Ultraviolet (2013) has become the band’s sleeper fave amongst fans, and then there’s last month’s Exhausting Fire, an amalgam of everything that makes Kylesa a fascinating, exciting, and important band.

I recently spoke with Cope, who was generous enough to carve out a few minutes of the daily sweet spot between load-in and soundcheck (roughly 5 to 7 p.m.) during Kylesa’s first, of what will no doubt be several, touring jaunts behind the release of Exhausting Fire.

The Memphis Flyer: You played Memphis pretty regularly for six or seven years up through 2011 in support of Spiral Shadow, but was there a reason why you didn’t come through for the Ultraviolet touring a couple of years ago?

Phillip Cope: Yeah, we tried but had some trouble finding somewhere to play for that tour. We always really liked the vibe at the Hi-Tone, but is the stage at the new location any bigger? That would be my only complaint.

Yes, it is. On that note, you’re a band that puts more thought and effort into your live sound than most. Do you prefer one playing environment over another, or was there a learning curve when festival gigs started to happen?

Being able to take advantage of such a huge sound system that does so much with your sound is a totally different experience. Just the other day a friend saw us at a bigger venue and had never heard us through a huge sound system before, and he was pretty blown away because he’d noticed all of these new things he didn’t hear at the smaller shows. It’s trying to suit yourself best to each venue or style of show.

With double drummers, it’s a different ball game.

Oh yeah, we’ve had local sound guys walk out on us once they’ve seen it being set up. They just didn’t want to deal with it.

I guess the conflict between touring band and local sound man is destined to be an eternal one. How did you feel about the critical reception of Spiral Shadow vs. that of Ultraviolet?

It’s weird because when [Ultraviolet] came out it had the reception that it had, but now people are coming up and telling me that it’s their favorite album. So maybe it was a little ahead of its time? I’ve been going at it for over 20 years, and with this band, 15, and eventually you see all kinds of things, you see the bigger picture. At the end of the day, people are going to say what they’re going to say, and this is not me saying that critics aren’t important, because they are. It’s a thankless job, like most jobs in music, and I’m sure it’s hard to do it while you’re a fan of music and to have to keep up with everything that’s coming out all the time. At the end of the day, word of mouth is still the best thing.

The aspect of outside expectation must be a real source of stress when making a new album, but I always find it ridiculous when bands say stuff like, “We’re just doing this for ourselves, and if we’re happy with it, then it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks,” or similar sentiments.

Funny you mention that because I always cringe when bands say stuff like that. If that was the only reason why you’re doing it, why go on tour? Why put out records?

I must agree with a lot of what I’ve read about “Moving Day” on the new album, though I didn’t really hear the “death-rock” or Christian Death/Killing Joke thing professed in the Pitchfork review. Nonetheless, it is a truly gorgeous, sad song and some timeless songwriting, if you will.

Well, thanks, I appreciate that. “Moving Day” came naturally, and when something comes naturally and happens to be different than everything else, we don’t think about it too much and just throw it out there, and what happens, happens. Though it probably seems like a weird thing to be on the album because nothing else sounds like it. So I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised that people have caught on to that song.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Sweet Sorrow: Fuente Says Farewell to Memphis

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

As a two-year stretch of unprecedented success nears completion, the University of Memphis football program will all but certainly lose its two biggest stars. Head coach Justin Fuente is bound for Virginia Tech, the news finally made official Sunday afternoon. And record-smashing quarterback Paxton Lynch — he of the fictional-sounding seven touchdown passes in a single half last Saturday — will likely wear Memphis blue and gray for the last time in whatever bowl game the Tigers play. Lynch is projected as a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft. Each of these stars spent four years on the U of M campus (Lynch was redshirted as a freshman in 2012). Their’s will be the faces most associated with the Tigers winning 19 games (at least) in two seasons, beating Ole Miss, and climbing to 15th in the AP poll. But their departures somehow feel different, largely for the ripple effects to come.
Larry Kuzniewski

Lynch

Like any Memphis college athlete who turns pro, Lynch will be “ours” as long as he wears an NFL helmet. And beyond his playing days if he’s successful. He’ll introduce himself on Sunday Night Football as “Paxton Lynch, Memphis.” Background stories written and told about him will have to include the 2014 Miami Beach Bowl, in which he passed for four touchdowns and ran for three more. And the 2015 season, when he tossed his 400th pass having thrown only three interceptions. The first Memphis quarterback to pass for 3,500 yards in a season, a record 28 (at least) touchdown passes, filling the Liberty Bowl press box with scouts (for bad NFL teams). If he passes on a fourth college season in uniform, Lynch won’t break Danny Wimprine’s career records. But he will dominate any (brief) debate over the greatest signal-caller in Memphis history. Tiger fans will miss him, but they’ll relish the chance to see him take the field on fall Sundays.

But Paxton Lynch would not have been ours had Justin Fuente not ridden into town after the 2011 season with a name no one knew how to pronounce or spell at the time. He brought bona fides as an offensive coordinator at TCU, but as The Man? In charge of a program that had lost 31 of its previous 36 games? Merely four seasons later, Fuente is the first coach to leave Memphis with a winning record in 41 years (look up Fred Pancoast). Each of his last two teams established scoring records, this year’s bunch topping 500 points and 6,000 yards for the first time in school history.

Larry Kuzniewski

Fuente

Fuente’s departure feels more like a sad goodbye. He needed a program to establish credentials as a head coach. The Tiger program needed a leader who didn’t care about yesterday, last year, or the difference between Chuck Stobart and Rip Scherer. A leader who aspired to winning beyond “bowl eligibility.” And that’s the irony of Fuente, a man who made “1 and 0 this week” a mantra worthy of flags and t-shirts. Multiply all the “1 and 0” weeks and you have consecutive nine-win seasons for the first time in 65 years. Fuente, it turns out, saw the big picture better than any of his recent predecessors. He’ll now take that vision to Virginia Tech where, competing in the ACC, he’ll find more realistic odds for winning a national championship.

Will Tiger fans root for the Hokies now, hoping to see “our guy” beat the likes of Alabama or Ohio State in early January? It’s hard to tell. Unlike Lynch’s, Fuente’s college career isn’t restricted to a certain number of eligible years. The Fuente-Memphis marriage, in a fantasy world, could have lasted 20 or 30 years, nine-win seasons becoming as customary as July thunderstorms in these parts. But there’s a prettier dance partner to the east, one with assets the U of M cannot claim, nor likely will until it achieves “Power Five” status somehow, some way. But just like Lynch, Fuente is earning a promotion solely for his achievements as a Memphis Tiger.

Last April, I asked Fuente about his name coming up in speculation for coaching vacancies (long before Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer announced his retirement). He said something very honest, and perceptive for a coach so young: “Anybody who can guarantee you anything in this business, in terms of longevity, is telling a fib.” Fuente was hot then, and only got hotter this season. He’s in a business where selling oneself comes down to two numbers: wins and losses. If Fuente returned for a fifth season in Memphis, maybe he’d go undefeated, Nick Saban would get tired of crimson, and the land’s best job would fall into his lap. But that’s unlikely. A very good job opened, with a higher ceiling for success, and in a place Fuente personally feels his family can be happy. The only loser here, sadly, is Memphis and the (steadily growing) Tiger fan base.

The U of M will have a new coach soon enough. He’ll have a tough act to follow, probably the toughest since Spook Murphy hung up his whistle (and was succeeded by Pancoast) 43 years ago. Can Memphis become a “destination job” as the expression goes? That depends entirely on the man who accepts the call. Can Memphis win a lot of football games and beat the big boys from the SEC now and then? Certainly. Justin Fuente showed us how. We’ll miss you, Coach. And thanks.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 is the latest in a growing series of films whose title contain both a colon and a hyphen, like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 1. The paired punctuation has come to indicate a mangling by studio money-grubbing—one story has been split into two movies, and padding applied, to get you to shell out twice for closure.

Mockingjay completes The Hunger Games‘ unlikely transition from winking high school allegory to grimdark military science fiction. Our beloved heroine, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) begins part two in a familiar setting: a hospital bed, recovering from wounds she received in battle. In this case, she was put in the hospital by her former fiancé and fellow survivor of the arena, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who was brainwashed into hating her by the forces of the Capitol, led by President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Sporting the thousand-yard PTSD stare she adopted in Part 1, Katniss meets with the leader of the rebels, President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), and agrees to drop her former ethical reservations and do whatever it takes to defeat the Capitol. She is immediately thrust into battle in District 2 beside her second love interest, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), in an effort to destroy the last enemy stronghold blocking the way to an advance on the Capitol. When the post-battle evacuation of civilians threatens to turn into a riot, Katniss manages to partially defuse the situation before being shot by a loyalist refugee. After once again waking up in a hospital bed, she vows to personally kill Snow. Katniss defies the authority of Coin and her propaganda minister Plutarch Heavansbee (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose absence the filmmakers work around with fragments of dialogue and CGI) to get into the battle at the Capitol, where the rebels must fight their way through a booby-trapped city to topple Snow’s teetering regime.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2

There’s a core of classic sci-fi running through all of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games novels, which became best sellers in the vacuum left by the completion of the Harry Potter cycle. One of the interesting things about Harry Potter is its author, J.K. Rowling, offered a decidedly female take on the formerly male-dominated realm of epic fantasy, and the same dynamic is at work with Collins in the world of dystopian science fiction. Katniss is an action hero, but she’s also a reality TV star who has her own stylist. The story focuses very tightly on her character, and her two would-be boyfriends get about as much development as your typical Bond girl. The dystopia Collins paints is an artfully rendered funhouse mirror-version of contemporary America—surely, the Capitol is the most garish evil empire in film history.

Unfortunately, the film adaptations have not served Collins’ vision as well as the Harry Potter films did Rowling’s. The first film was barely competent, and the second was only an incremental improvement. The only great thing about the franchise has been Lawrence’s muscular, multifaceted portrayal of Katniss. And if Mockingjay had been just one movie, Lawrence might have finally gotten a film worthy of her talents. Katniss has grown from scared country girl to a hardened warrior who can take a nap as the dropship flies her to the war zone. At least director Francis Lawrence has the good sense to bring the series to a close by hiring a decent editor and giving Lawrence lots of close-ups.

But like The Hobbit films, there’s just no saving the movie from the financial imperative to split the story. There’s a solid two-hour movie buried somewhere in the 260-minute combined running time of the two Mockingjays, but, as it is, the beats just fall in all the wrong places. Part 2 builds some decent tension, particularly in a claustrophobic sequence where our heroes fight mutant attack zombies in the Capitol’s sewers, but the overall structure has been so fatally compromised that Katniss just seems to drift around in a haze of nonsensical plot complications. When our long-suffering hero gets her much-deserved rest, we share her relief that it’s finally over.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 63, SMU 0

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

For a second straight season, the Memphis Tigers are 9-3 and bowl-bound. And, as of this writing at least, Justin Fuente remains the Tiger head coach. Throughout the U of M’s blowout of the Mustangs at a rain-soaked (and near-empty) Liberty Bowl, social media swelled with speculation (and a few unsourced announcements) that Fuente has agreed to take the head job at Virginia Tech. Following the game, Fuente called such discussion “premature” and said “there’s a time to address those things.” 

Larry Kuzniewski

Justin Fuente

“I’m going home to relax,” said Fuente, “put a smile on my face, and watch someone else sweat out third-and-five.”

As for the regular-season finale, records fell like raindrops at the Liberty Bowl. A summary:

• Junior quarterback Paxton Lynch — presumably bound for the NFL next year — completed only nine of 14 passes, but seven of them went for touchdowns, a Memphis single-game record. Lynch completed the scoring tosses to seven different players (deep breath: Phil Mayhue, Doroland Dorceus, Frank Wims, Daniel Montiel, Anthony Miller, Daniel Hurd, and Mose Frazier) and all before halftime. Lynch didn’t take the field in the second half.

• With a bowl game still to play, Lynch has thrown 28 touchdown passes this season, a new Tiger record. He has also become the first Memphis quarterback to throw for more than 3,500 yards (3,670) in a season.

• The Tigers broke the season scoring record (set last year) and are the first Memphis team to top 500 points in a season (512).

• The U of M offense compiled 483 yards against the Mustangs, giving it 6,125 for the season, the first time a Tiger team has topped the 6,000-yard mark.

• The soggy conditions reduced the crowd considerably, but 30,075 tickets were sold for the game, taking the season total to 262,811 a record for a season with six home games. The attendance average of 43,802 broke the previous mark of 41,175, set in 2004.

• The Tigers have won more games over the last two seasons (19) than any other two-year period in Memphis football history. It’s only the second time Tiger teams have won nine games in consecutive seasons (1949-50).

“There were a lot of distractions this week,” acknowledged guard Micah Simmons, one of 14 seniors saluted before kickoff. “This game showed the maturity of our team. All those external distractions, we put them aside.”

“I was concerned about our kids,” admitted Fuente. “They had three tough games. Houston was really hard to handle. I think people see now how really good the league is. [The win] is a big relief; they feel really good, and they should. It was hard, emotionally and physically, to get back on course.”

When asked if the season, as a whole, met his expectations, Fuente had a mixed reaction. “I try not to put a number on it,” he said. “I thought we had a chance to compete for the conference championship, and we didn’t win it. We’re not in the championship game, but we were competitive in the league certainly. Our nonconference schedule . . . we probably over-achieved in that area. We played some really good teams. We accounted for ourselves pretty well. At times, I was more pleased than others, regardless of whether it was a win or a loss. I like the way we continued to battle. Winning nine ball games is pretty good.”

Frazier described his final regular-season game as “bittersweet.” The former walk-on has caught at least one pass in 25 consecutive games. He was effusive in praising Fuente, and said he still considers him the team’s coach. “I appreciate everything he’s done for this program and this city, everything he’s done for me. He gave me the opportunity, a shot to be on the field. You don’t have to be a scholarship player to be big for the team.” Frazier smiled when asked if any of the 19 wins these last two seasons stands out: “Ole Miss.”

Larry Kuzniewski

Paxton Lynch

Lynch declined to comment on his own future, emphasizing he has a bowl game to play, that he’ll consider options after that. He confessed that he had never thrown seven touchdowns in a game, let alone a single half. “My first year, I barely through seven touchdowns,” he said. (Lynch had nine TD passes as a redshirt freshman in 2013.) “Temple kind of stuffed us, so this was a great way to send the seniors out.”

“Coach Fuente did a good job of keeping us focused,” said Lynch when asked about the off-field speculation. “Enjoy it. We haven’t had two seasons like this in a long time. Now we have a bowl game. Other decisions will come after that.”

Like Frazier, Lynch acknowledged his coach’s impact, which may land him in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft. “I owe it all to him,” he said. “When I got here, he was a real tough guy, up in your face. But that’s how my high-school coach was. I enjoy it. I developed a relationship with him. He had my back in rough times; I’d do anything for Coach Fuente.”

An announcement regarding Fuente’s job status could come before the team’s bowl destination is determined. With December a big month for recruiting, it’s unlikely Fuente would coach the Tigers in, say, the Birmingham Bowl on December 30th. 

If this was the end of a coaching era at the University of Memphis, it was emphatic and thorough. Fuente would be a rarity indeed: A coach who leaves Memphis a winner.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Next Day Notes: Hawks 116, Grizzlies 101

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

On a night that started out with an offensive explosion, it was the Grizzlies’ defense that just flat-out never showed up on Friday night against the visiting Atlanta Hawks, and as a result, they lost 116-101.

This recap will be brief, because there isn’t really much to say; despite an unbelievably hot shooting start—the Grizzlies had hit 8 three pointers and were shooting 52% at halftime—the defense was never really there, giving the Hawks a lot of open looks that weren’t converting. The Grizzlies were only up 5 at halftime even with the out of character long range barrage, so when the Hawks started hitting the shots in front of them, they had two straight 30-point quarters, and the Grizzlies couldn’t keep up, putting up a more “Grizzlies” stat line of 4 three pointers and 35% shooting after the break.

It was a disappointing end to a game that started with promise, but behind it was a bigger disappointment: the Griz have now played all four teams from last year’s Conference Finals and only beaten the hapless Rockets, and the other games have all been lopsided. A win over OKC without Kevin Durant stands as the Grizzlies’ “quality” win right now, and that’s not saying very much.

Larry Kuzniewski

In the continued absence of Zach Randolph, Dave Joerger went with the Conley/Allen/Barnes/Jeff Green/Gasol starting lineup again, and I continue to like what Barnes brings to the table there—especially nights like last night where he hits 3’s in the flow of the offense. It’s what we thought Barnes could bring to the table in a best-case scenario. Until Randolph returns, I think starting Barnes at the 3 is the way to go, with the two Greens (Jeff and JaMychal) swapping in interchangeably at the power forward spot.

The Grizzlies’ poor defense last night was a bit alarming. Teams have been able to work the ball side to side for open shots all year long, and Atlanta is a team whose entire system is predicated on such shooting, but even so, the slippage in defense has been a theme this year (the Grizzlies are currently 20th in defensive rating, according to Basketball Reference) and is only improving slowly.

Tony Allen also had a pretty poor defensive outing last night. Allen continues to be a net negative in his minutes this year (he’s got a net rating of -8, again according to Basketball Reference) and it’s hard to tell how much of that is situational—that is, dependent on the lineups he shares the floor with—and how much of that represents an actual slippage in his ability. More than his defense, though, I think the real negative here is his offense. Teams are continuing to scheme Allen the way the Warriors did—that is, pretend he’s not on the floor on offense and defend the other four Grizzlies with all five of their players. With that many people in the lane, it also cuts out Allen’s chief offensive skill: cutting to the basket. He’s great at it, but he can’t run through three guys to do it. It’s a conundrum, one that I don’t see getting better as the season wears on. Worth keeping an eye on.

It was a disappointing night, mostly because the Grizzlies still haven’t beaten a “top tier” team. After the first quarter last night it seemed like they might be ready to make a statement like that, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Tweet of the Night

This one, only because I still can’t believe Joerger said JaMychal Green is a small forward:


Larry Kuzniewski

Up Next

The Philadelphia 76ers come to town on Sunday, and if they lose, it’ll be the worst start to a season in NBA history. Generally, this kind of thing means the Grizzlies are going to lose, but we’ll see. The Sixers are really bad. But they have come pretty close to winning a couple of times recently. What I’m saying is this: the Sixers are going to want to do everything in their power to avoid the worst start in history, and this group of Grizzlies has a long, storied history of playing down to the competition and barely beating terrible teams. It’s a recipe for a disaster with the Grizzlies’ name all over it. “The Team The Sixers Actually Beat” is not a title the Griz want attached to them, not in this season where everyone has already said they’re old and in the way.