Shane Battier says he can feel the electricity in the city.  Final approval for the Grizzlies to move to Memphis comes on Tuesday.  GoMemphis has a feature section on the franchise, the team and its owners.

The Grizzlies may not win many games the coming season, but they expect to be more exciting.  GM Billy Knight says, "Coming into this market, we wanted a young, exciting team," The main problem the team will face with its new, younger line-up is figuring out where the points will come from.

Gary Kingston has been the Grizz beat reporter for the Vancouver Sun the past few years.  He says, "And the whole time the draft-day roster remake was going on, the primary thought running through my Grizzlie-addled brain was this: 'Thank heavens they're gone and aren't foisting this rebuilding mess on us here in Vancouver.' "  While he acknowedges major changes were needed, he says there's no way this team will reach 23 wins the coming season.

With his flashy passing and dribbling and on-court flair, Jason Williams became an instant sensation as a rookie during the NBA's lockout-shortened 1999 season. Behind Williams and forward Chris Webber, who became his close friend, the Kings made a surprising run to the playoffs. But last season, Williams' play suffered. He shot inconsistently and played poor defense, and he complained about reduced playing time. THe Sacramento Bee reported that he and coach Rick Adelman also never were able to find a level of communication that both were comfortable with, said a source close to Williams.
"Jason and Adelman had hardly spoken at all," the source said. "Neither of them were going to change. It was like the immovable object and the brick wall hitting each other, and something was going to have to move. As it was, Jason was the piece that was moved."

The Associated Press reports that Sacramento and the Grizzlies have completed a trade of Jason Williams for Mike Bibby.  Brent Price moves from the Grizz IR to Sacramento along with Bibby, while Nick Anderson and his retirement thoughts come along with Williams.

According to NBA rules, the deal which would see the rights to the third overall pick head to Vancouver and Shareef Abdur-Rahim head home to Atlanta cannot be completed until the trade moratorium ends July 18 because Abdur-Rahim is a base-year compensation player. As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta apparently would deal forward-center Lorenzen Wright and point guard Brevin Knight along with the No. 3 pick for Rahim and the rights to the 27th pick of the draft.  "None of these players are going to help us for the next three or four years," team president Stan Kasten said, "so we are working on trades that will add veterans to this young team."