Honestly, I appreciate that criticism and I think for every one guy that said that, there were probably six or seven commentators who analyze the league who were very positive on the deal. We think we are setting ourselves up to do that in a very good way. It’s a marathon and not a sprint for us, and we want to look at the next five-year window and be as competitive as we can be currently and through those five years. If we were dumping salaries then why would we take on Tayshaun Prince for multi years? We’re trying to get quality players and obviously we’re trying to do it in a way that makes sense with the salary cap and gives us that flexibility going forward in acquiring more talent. I don’t see where that (criticism) comes from. “We took on players that we thought could play. In an interview with Chris Vernon of 92.9 FM in Memphis (via Sports Radio Interviews), Levien specifically responded to the criticism that the Grizzlies were playing to the financial bottom line as opposed to a motivation to compete and win: The latter interest is represented by new team CEO Jason Levien, who unsurprisingly is in favor of this deal as executed.
