Finally, real live basketball is back. The Grizzlies begin their eight-game preseason schedule tonight at 7 p.m., hosting the Indiana Pacers at FedExForum. Here are the five players I’m most interested in watching tonight:
- We’ve seen him in the cap, but Xavier Henry makes his game debut in Beale Street Blue tonight.
1. Xavier Henry: Because he missed summer league due to his contract dispute with the team, I haven’t seen Henry in a game since he was at Kansas. And my only up-close exposure has been at Henry’s pre-draft workout and in a few minutes of scrimmaging at the two practices I’ve been able to make it to in the past week. So tonight will be a chance to get a better initial read on Henry.
The Grizzlies really need someone on the bench they can rely on to put up double-digit points when given the opportunity and, sadly, Henry, a 19-year-old rookie, is probably the bench player best equipped to do that.
The Pacers match-up also provides a lot of interesting contrasts to Henry among wing players: There’s Paul George, who seemed to be the other player the Grizzlies were most interested in at Henry’s pick, but went to the Pacers two picks earlier at #10. There’s fellow rookie Lance Stephenson, who I thought outperformed both at his Grizzlies workout. There’s Dahntay Jones, a former Griz player who has carved a niche as a solid rotation/spot minutes guy. There’s Brandon Rush, who profiles similar to Henry in many ways — swingman with good size, good shot, and seemingly average athleticism who was an elite high school prospect and very good college player at Kansas before becoming a mid-first-round pick. Rush has been a middling pro so far; the Griz need Henry to be better than that. And, finally, there’s Danny Granger, a true all-star-level player.
