NBA Brown influences Grizzlies

Memphis is headed in the right direction under its new coach.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Memphis Grizzlies are feeling good about themselves: They've gone from bad to mediocre.
The Grizzlies, in their second year in Memphis, opened the season with 13 straight losses. Now, under coach Hubie Brown, they're 8-21. What's more, they actually look impressive from time to time.
"Sometimes you can't put it into words," said Wesley Person, who in his ninth NBA season is the team's most experienced player. "But, as a team, we're organized now and we have a game plan."
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That's where Brown comes in. The 69-year-old coach returned to the NBA after a 16-year break. He was hired by team president Jerry West after Sidney Lowe resigned with the team at 0-8.
Brown's goal was to teach a young team how to be competitive.
"The guys are going out and playing a lot harder, with a lot more passion, and that's because of him," Person said Monday at practice, with the team's next game Friday at home against Orlando.
"He's honest and he's fair," Person added. "He gives everyone an opportunity to play."
Jason Williams, the sometimes unpredictable point guard, is coming alive on defense under Brown and taking better shots.
"It's all good," Williams said. "In every way."
Improvement
Under Brown, the Grizzlies are 8-13 -- not headline material but movement in the right direction. The team even had a five-game winning streak at home, though it ended Sunday with a 103-74 loss to Utah.
That loss sidelined Person -- the NBA's top 3-point shooter at 52.3 percent -- for up to three weeks with a broken right index finger.
"We're nowhere near our potential," Brown said. "We are trying to create a playoff atmosphere, but it's difficult. ... We play three rookies and we play three guys with one-year experience who are in the 10-man rotation, so the chemistry is not there every night.
"The defense, the way we want it to be, is not there every night," he added. "That will only come with games and experience."
The coaching staff is still working on player combinations, looking for two five-man squads that can be counted on each game.
Brown, a former coach of the year who spent 15 years in broadcasting, won for the first time with Memphis on Nov. 23. The Grizzlies beat Washington 85-74 before a sellout crowd at the Memphis Pyramid.
Sure, many fans came to see Michael Jordan in probably his last appearance in Memphis, but the victory was right on Brown's time schedule.
Brown said from his arrival that his first six games would serve as a training camp and time for player evaluation.
Challenge
West, the NBA great who became one of the game's most respected executives, joined the Grizzlies last year, intrigued by the possibility of turning a struggling franchise into a playoff contender. He presented Brown with a team filled with potential but short on experience.
West brought in first-round draft pick Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek of the Russian league. They join last year's top rookies Pau Gasol and Shane Battier. West also added Person through a trade with Cleveland and picked up Earl Watson, a free agent from Seattle.
Such Grizzlies old-timers as Tony Massenburg, Grant Long and Nick Anderson are no longer with the team.