MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen and Mike Conley are playing for their third different head coach since starting the best run in Memphis Grizzlies history.Conley said theres one simple reason the aging core is eager to follow first-year coach David Fizdale.Youre going to listen because you know that he has a vision for this team to win a championship, and well do whatever it takes, Conley said.Injuries ravaged Memphis last season with neither Gasol nor Conley able to finish. The Grizzlies used an NBA-record 28 players last season, slumping to a 42-40 finish and the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies fired coach Dave Joerger on May 7 and replaced him with Fizdale.He walks in with a championship resume from working with the Miami Heat. He also has a proven track record of working with stars like Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to rookies like Josh Richardson. Fizdale inherits a roster that also includes Vince Carter, who turns 40 in January, and a handful of young players Memphis needs developed to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since this teams lone trip in 2013.Fizdale spent the preseason trying to space out the Grizzlies on offense and speed them up, a style they will have to prove they can stick with once the regular season starts.So far, the Grizzlies leaders have seen enough to believe and keep following to extend a playoff streak of six straight seasons that ranks third in the NBA for the longest active streaks behind only San Antonio (19) and Atlanta (9).This is the year that we have to be more hungry and have more grit and grind to get to where we want to go, guard Tony Allen said.---Some other things to know about the Grizzlies who open the season Wednesday night hosting Minnesota:WATCHING MINUTES: Gasol started training camp with a surgically repaired right foot, an injury that ended his season in February. He dealt with a bone bruise in the same foot during preseason, but Fizdale already planned to limit the 7-foot-1 centers minutes to keep Gasol fresher for the postseason. That also goes for Conley, who had his season ended in early March by left Achilles tendinitis. Conley played an average of 31.4 minutes in his 56 games last season before signing the NBAs richest deal to that point at five-year, $153 million deal in July to stay in Memphis. But Fizdale also is pushing Gasol to shoot more 3s and is giving Conley more opportunities and freedom on the court.Z BO COMING OFF BENCH: Fizdales biggest move has been replacing Randolph in the starting lineup with JaMychal Green. The 26-year-old Green led the Grizzlies in games played last season (78), and he averaged 10.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in the 29 games after the All-Star break when the injuries stacked up. Randolph is going into the final season of his contract at the age of 35, and Fizdale has sold him on the concept of being the leagues best sixth man to help his future marketability while giving Memphis more scoring off the bench.BACKUP POINT GUARD: The biggest need is figuring out who backs up Conley. The Grizzlies drafted Wade Baldwin IV out of Vanderbilt with the 17th pick and hes competing with Andrew Harrison, who spent his first year out of Kentucky in the D-League last season.CHANDLER PARSONS: The Grizzlies brought their biggest free agent ever to Memphis in July signing Parsons to a four-year, $94 million contract . The forward has been recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee in March and very limited this preseason. Memphis needs him healthy to provide the 3-point threat the Grizzlies have never had. Parsons shot 41.4 percent outside the arc and averaged 13.7 points per game last season.HEALTHY BRANDAN WRIGHT: The big free agent signee a year ago was forward/center Brandan Wright who was limited to 12 games by injuries to his right knee. He had surgery Dec. 17th and sprained his right MCL on Feb. 27. But he is healthy finally for Memphis.---Follow Teresa M. Walker at www.twitter.com/teresamwalker Clearance Football Jerseys Throwback . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. Cheap Football Jerseys Throwback China .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. http://www.cheapfootballthrowback.com/ . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Wholesale Football Jerseys Throwback . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. Football Jerseys Throwback Outlet . According to a report from the Winnipeg Free Press, the Bombers will name Acting GM Kyle Walters to the post full time. The family Sunday lunch began in traditional fashion. Black Sheep bitter was back on tap at the Swan, and before too long the conversation, lightly oiled, veered towards cricket.Ill give you a column, our lad, came the promise halfway down the second pint.Several hours later, by the time the plates were cleared at home, there were half a dozen columns to choose from. The only issue was that I didnt necessarily agree with some of them. But when ideas are found wanting, why not let someone else have their say?One opinion did attract universal approval across three generations. There should be a bust of Tim Bresnan at Headingley. A very large bust. In fact, why not something akin to the Colossus of Rhodes, where the Greek sun god Helios once bestrode the harbour?Well, maybe not quite the sun god. After all, sun is not the most reliable component of the Yorkshire landscape, as stunning as it is, so it would be a little out of keeping. And Yorkshire supporters might cavil about walking underneath a giant statue of Brezzie Lad clad only in a loin cloth as they entered the ground. Dont look up now, Mavis, whatever you do. And, not to put too fine a point on it, polished bronze might not be easily affordable for a county mired in debt.So a bust it should be. Nothing too fancy. There is apparently a Yorkshire sculptor, Shaun Gagg, who forges them from 2p pieces at his workshop in Filey, an unassuming resort on the east coast. He is currently working on a life-size sculpture of Jesus crucifixion, made entirely out of nails, but once that is completed he can turn his attention to Bresnan and have it all done for the start of the 2017 season. The great thing about a sculpture made from 2p pieces is, you should be able to work out the cost of his materials relatively easily and thereby keep an eye on his mark-up.The reason for such adulation as the beer slipped down arises from the final Championship match of the season - and Bresnans heroic, and ultimately unrewarded, 142 not out against Middlesex in the Championship decider at Lords. Almost a month has passed but here was something to sustain a Yorkshire cricket fan through the winter.This was more than just a very fine innings. It was an innings that might have been hewn from the Yorkshire landscape itself, all the ingredients that make up regional pride stirred together and turned into a seven-hour show of immense defiance. Here was a reward for a bowler who responded to the loss of his England place by turning himself into a redoubtable county allrounder. For those who sometimes question why they care so much about this game - and I do - by the time Bresnan walked, sweat-stained, from the field, there was a renewed faith in its significance.Whereas Bresnan is hereby to be preserved for posterity, Adil Rashid - often praised at the very same table - is now persona non grata as far as the most critical voice was concerned. Whereas Bresnan played against Middlesex, Rashid pulled out, initially because he felt he needed the sort of rest given to Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow ahead of Englands winter tours, and subsequently because a relative had fallen ill. It had not gone unnoticed that Bairstow and Root were seen on TV in the dressing room on the final day but that Rashid was not.By the end of the Bangladesh one-day series, which has since been concluded, Rashid was an early leader in Englands Most Valuable Player ranking system, as adopted by the Professional Cricketers Association. He took four wickets in Chittagong as England settled the series, and even though three of them came from bad ballls, an ample number of excellent balls ramped up the pressure.dddddddddddd Rashid has started his international winter well and will feel his decision to sit out was justified.That did not wash with some. Truculent opinions came with every mouthful of Yorkshire pudding. Rashid should never play for Yorkshire again. His success in Bangladesh had been unwatchable. A Championship had been at stake last month - a historic third Championship - and not to want to play in that fixture was a betrayal both of his team-mates and every Yorkshire cricket follower in the county. The ethos of Yorkshire cricket had been insulted. A player in whom so much hope and affection had been invested had failed to value that emotional support when it mattered most.Ethos, incidentally, is a Greek word, and when the Greeks erected the Colossus at Rhodes, the communal ideals that characterised them will have been known only too well. Several hours later, the view was amplified by text message. Millions of people must have received text messages along the lines of Thanks for a lovely Sunday lunch but few of those will have been followed by implacable views about Adil Rashid. Sorry for the Rashid rant, but I stand by all I said! it read.What is evident is this: if you tell people throughout their lives that something matters, it is important that you repeatedly reward their love by matching those standards. Englands professional circuit has long been subservient to international needs, and those who love the game have come to accept it, but occasionally there are tipping points when anger surfaces. People dont like being had.Many more potential columns exploded across the table. Eoin Morgan has been a catalyst as an England one-day captain, and his team-mates value him highly because of his determination that they should play with a free spirit, but directly across this table as younger brother held court there was little fondness for a player who was perceived - even before his withdrawal from the tour of Bangladesh because of safety reasons - as being overly driven by self-interest.The conclusion on the Australian inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes also brought some vehement comments, this time resounding from all parts of the table. Why was there such a sad sense that the New South Wales players had felt threatened by cross examination into closing ranks? Why had they not openly stated what everybody involved in cricket knows: that the game, especially at the highest level, carries an element of risk, courage and machismo: that occasionally, even though cricket must be pressed to reduce that risk where it can, tragedies happen.Some potential columns went begging. If only it had been known at the time that Englands new T20 competition provisionally goes by the name of the Supercharge. That would have been another columns worth of invective. It is to be hoped the ECB has not paid a marketing company for a name like that. It sounds like a washing powder.When it was all over, and the two visiting terriers were showing in now time-honoured manner that they wished to leave - by passing wind to such an extent that their further presence could no longer be tolerated - another Sunday lunch was concluded.At the door, the eldest among us offered the wisdom of his 88 years. Hes been a belligerent bugger today, your brother, he said.It takes a lot to be recommended for a bust at our Sunday lunches. Tim Bresnan should be pleased as punch. ' ' '