--The Grizzlies gave an offer sheet to Atlanta Hawks free agent Josh Smith, but the Hawks quickly matched it and will keep him.
--Maybe the NBA schedule maker is trying to help the Grizzlies get off to a positive start. It was announced on Wednesday that the Grizzlies will open the 2008-09 season on the road at Houston.
Normally, that would be a negative. But in their previous seven seasons in Memphis, the Grizzlies have opened the year at home and are 0-7 in those games.
The Grizzlies open at home on Oct. 31 against Orlando, but six of their first eight games are on the road, including a four-game West Coast trip to Sacramento, Golden State, Denver and Phoenix. Twenty-two of the Grizzlies' 41 home games will be played on the weekend, including 12 on Friday nights.
--Former Grizzlies Pau Gasol (Lakers) and Mike Miller (Timberwolves) make their first appearances in Memphis on Dec. 22 and Jan. 6. Pau will face his brother Marc, who has signed with the Griz.
--The Grizzlies have one national TV date, their usual Martin Luther King Jr. Day game, this one on Jan. 19 against the Pistons.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I was kind of upset for a minute, but my mom told me to keep my head up and that everything would work itself out." -- Grizzlies rookie forward Darrell Arthur, on falling in the first round of the draft, then being traded to the Grizzlies.
