Grizzlies Season Opening Press Conference

http://jtcdn.theuprisingcreative.com...es-759x410.jpg

**GM LoCo & Coach Lionel Hollins take a seat**

LoCo: First we'd like to say we feel that last season, while ending in a disappointing Game 7 loss to the eventual Champions, was a great season for our organization. It invigorated us to want to come out in the off season and build another contender. While some teams have drastically changed, we were glad to bring back our core of Zo, Joe Johnson and Elton Brand and adding pieces around them. We were sad to see some players such as Peja go and while it may have hurt us, we still feel confident that we have a team that can once again win the Southwest Division. Now Coach Hollins will say a few words before we open the conference up to questions

http://media.commercialappeal.com/me...lins2_t607.JPG

Coach Hollins: First I'd like to say I'm really proud of the guys and how they showed up to camp this season. Nearly everyone has improved and like LoCo said, we are very confident with this team. I'm excited to try to mesh the many different pieces we have this season and even after such a great training camp, we are still not sure who are two other starters will be. Guys that were brought in to be backups have greatly improved and some of our free agent pickups came in ready to prove something. I'm very excited about this season.

LoCo: Thank you Coach. Any questions?

Joe Detroit from IShouldHaveBoughtForeign.com here. I think that Teddy Roosevelt was talking about Memphis ownership when he said "walk softly and carry a big stick." What can you say to the overall noise that has come from the Western Conference and more specifically your Southwest rivals in Houston, TX?

GM LoCo: Last season we said that Houston would be a team to look out for and sure enough they were. They had a great season and are understandably enthusiastic about this season. Do we feel that they should be making declarations about winning they Southwest? Certainly not, but again, we understand where its coming from. We are glad that they have finally decided to step up but like the saying goes, to be the man, you have to beat the man, and we aren't quite ready to give them the division just yet and we feel confident that our team will take care of business once again this season. As for the rest of the West, as we've seen it can definitely be a close division and that won't change this season. It'll certainly be interesting to see what surprises are in store this season