The league announced that Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol is the winner of the Defensive Player of the Year Award.

Apr 22, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (33) guards Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul (3) in the second half of game one in the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs at the Staples Center. Clippers won 93-91. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Gasol deserves the award after anchoring perhaps the NBA’s best defensive unit.

According to an official release from NBA.com, Gasol tallied 212 total points, receiving 30 of 121 possible first-place votes. LeBron James came in second with 149 points (18 first-place votes) while Serge Ibaka (14 first-place votes) finished third with 122 points. Joakim Noah (107 points, 13 first-place votes) and Grizzlies teammate Tony Allen (102 points, nine first-place votes) rounded out the top five.

The Grizzlies led the NBA in scoring defense, allowing only 89.3 points per game, and it all started with Gasol.

His numbers aren’t eye popping; averaging 7.8 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.0 steal per game. But he ranked fifth on the NBA’s defensive rating list for the 2012-13 season (via Basketball-Reference) and second on the NBA’s defensive win shares list (via Basketball-Reference).

For anchoring the league’s best defensive, it’s a well-deserved honor and potentially one of many possible Defensive Player of the Year awards, as Gasol is a difference maker in the paint.

He replaces the Knicks’ Tyson Chandler, who won the award last season.

Chandler finished 13th in the voting this season with 11 total points.

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For Knicks fans, the London Olympics will mark the return for two of their biggest stars to competitive basketball, and both will serve big roles on Team USA. However, the player serving the more important role on the team will be Tyson Chandler.

With Dwight Howard missing the Games due to back surgery, Chandler gets the promotion from back-up center to a starting role, likely alongside the likes of Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

We’ve talked before here at Buckets how Chandler fits perfectly into that starting five because he won’t command a high volume of touches offensively, all while effectively protecting the rim, grabbing offensive rebounds and shutting down the lane on the defensive end.

Barring a major rash of injuries striking Team USA, they will walk into the Opening Ceremonies in August as the heavy favorites to take home another gold medal. But, the road isn’t going to be as easy as casual basketball fans may think. No team should scare the United States more than Spain.

Look, as basketball fans, we’re missing out by not having a healthy Ricky Rubio available in these Olympics. As an 18-year old, he guided a strong Spain squad through the games on the way to a medal, and proved to be the hardest test the Redeem Team had to face on their way to gold.

This time around, it won’t be the back court play of Spain that should have USA fans worried. Its the dynamic inside options the team is going to run out. A lot of people are familiar with the Gasol brothers, Pau and Marc, who can provide scoring inside along with strong defense. In 2012, Team USA will have to account for the newest addition to Spain’s roster, Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka. Throw in Ibaka with the inside-outside offensive game of Pau and the gritty rebounding and low-block scoring of Marc, there is significant reason to be concerned.

The pressure is going to be on Chandler to provide enough presence inside on the defensive end to not only neutralize the threats on the block from Spain, but keep them off the glass as well. Of course, he won’t be doing it alone, but without a healthy Dwight Howard on the roster, the pressure squarely falls on his shoulders.

Another key to how successful this Team USA squad can be doesn’t fall on a Knicks relation, but on the health of Kevin Love and who Coach K chooses to pick as a back-up center, with options like Roy Hibbert and Anthony Davis.

Right now, the first line of defense for Team USA sits with Tyson Chandler. If you want to pull out any story lines from the Olympics heading into next season, they should start with how well can Chandler hold on the international stage. His success there could dictate just how well the Knicks can play next season.

To be more exact, the history of the No.48.

Fot Knicks fans hoping that general manager Glen Grunwald gets a key contributor to the 2013 team then luck necessarily won’t be on the Knicks side as the No. 48 pick has produced a who’s who list of draft busts throughout the past 20 years.

Let’s go back in time and look at who has been selected with the N0. 48 pick.

As you will see, the only guy to really make an NBA career for himself has been Marc Gasol who has become a very nice player for the Memphis Grizzlies. In addition, the only other player to have a successful NBA career that came from the No. 48 spot was Cedric Ceballos, who was drafted in 1990.

May 11, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (33) questions a call in the first half of game 6 of the Western Conference quarterfinals of the 2012 NBA Playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

2011- Atlanta Hawks, Keith Benson

2010: Miami Heat, Latavious Williams

2009: Phoenix Suns, Taylor Griffin

2008: Phoenix Suns, Malik Hairston

2007: Los Angeles Lakers, Marc Gasol

2006: Washington Wizards, Valdimir Veremeenko

2005: Seattle SuperSonics, Mickael Gelabale

2004: Sacramento Kings, Ricky Minard

2003: New Orleans Hornets, James Lang

2002: Memphis Grizzlies, Chris Owens

2001: Vancouver Grizzlies, Antonis Fotsis

2000: Philadelphia 76ers, Mark Karcher

1999: Milwaukee Bucks, Galen Young

1998: Cleveland Cavaliers, Ryan Stack

1997: Portland Trail Blazers, Alvin Williams

1996: Philadelphia 76ers, Jaime Feick

1995: Minnesota Timberwolves, Mark Davis

1994: Detroit Pistons, Jevon Crudup

1993: Portland Trail Blazers, Kevin Thompson

1992: Phoenix Suns, Brian Davis

1991: Utah Jazz, Isaac Austin

Two days ago, in the first Game 7 of the 2011 playoffs, Memphis was eliminated by Oklahoma City. The series was hard fought and surprisingly equal, but had the Thunder not made their much publicized deadline deal for Kendrick Perkins, it may not have been. A The primary reason for the Grizzlies success was their double trouble inside presence of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. Heading into this season, few big men stood out on the free agent list like the younger Gasol, and over the past couple of weeks he showed why. Despite his team being eliminated, nobody’s played more minutes or grabbed more rebounds in these playoffs than Marc. He obliterated Tim Duncan, made Tony Parker want to quit, and scared the bejesus out of all Thunder fans who felt this was their time in the sun. The soft touch on Gasol’s jumper allows him to step out for pick and pops, setting defenses off balance; a perfect compliment to any offense in the modern game. And at 26-years-old, his next contract will cover his prime years as one of the few true two way big men in this league.

After saying all of this, one might think the Grizzlies would look foolish to let him go in free agency. One would be correct. After raising his stock in a contract year to a height most thought impossible, the restricted agent can hit the open market, but Memphis is allowed to match any team’s offer placed on the table. Even with heavy investments into the likes of Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, Randolph, they’d be stupid not to.

Out of every team trying to contend right now, the Knicks are in the sorest need of a body like Gasol to clog up the middle and slow down the offense every once in a while. But with $59.6 million on the books for next year it appears the Knicks chances of grabbing him are shriveled up like a raisin.

From ESPN’s Marc Stein:

He won’t outright promise that Gasol will be back, but [Grizzlies' Owner] Heisley does echo Gay’s confidence about keeping these laughingstocks-no-more in the West elite.

On young Gasol, Heisley said: “Marc will decide whether he wants to be here. We will aggressively go after him. He’s a restricted free agent, so we can match whatever’s out there. But obviously if Marc wants to leave, I’m going to have a different attitude than if he wants to stay. I hope he wants to stay. And after what we’ve done in the playoffs, I think he will.”

Joe Johnson – Atlanta Hawks

As we discussed after the recent Knicks/Hawks game, JJ has a nice relationship with Coach Mike D’Antoni from their time together in Phoenix, plus the Knicks have somehow managed to look competitive this year in the three games he played against us.  When JJ was on those D’Antoni Suns teams, although he was huge for them, at the time he was considered to be at best their fourth most important player (after Steve Nash, Amar’e Stoudamire & Shawn Marion).  Joe rightly felt he could be more, a centerpiece, and he wanted to be paid accordingly.  Having achieved all that with the Hawks, he now has reached the point most vets get to: the main thing he wants now is the chance to play for a championship.  He is even one of the few stars who has literally put his money where his mouth is and has stated he’d be willing to take a bunch less money to be on such a team.

Now don’t misunderstand: he knows he has a very good thing going with the Hawks and that they are a really, really good team.  He’s not gonna just leave them to play on a mid-level Knick team.  So ignore this quote in the NY Daily News:

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New Yorkers, rightfully, are worried that this is an all-or-nothing proposition.  Basically, unless we get LeBron James or Dwayne Wade, we’ll just be a slightly above average team.  Kinda like how we looked with Crawford & Randolph.  While there are other studs available this summer like A’mare Stoudamire, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, none of ‘em are mega-stars who ensure you’ll have a legit shot at winning a championship.  Those second-tier guys just assure that you’ll make the playoffs.  Even if you do get two of ‘em.

So if we don’t get Plan A, does that mean Plan B is doomed to fail?  Not necessarily.  Most Knicks fans are worried about Plan B, but that’s ‘cuz they assume it means not just that we sign two lesser talents, but that we sign them to more than they’re worth.  The fear is that we do something like the Pistons did this summer, when they had a bunch of cash and felt compelled to spend it, thus overpaying for Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, both of whom are currently coming off the bench for Detroit.  Likewise, several years ago a few teams cleared cap space to sign Tim Duncan and Grant Hill.  After Duncan stayed with the Spurs and Hill went with Tracy McGrady to Orlando, Chicago paid a bunch of money to some scrubs just to say they got someone.

Now if Isiah was still in charge, sure, we all know he would definitely follow that path, but doesn’t Donnie Walsh deserve the benefit of the doubt?  Besides the remarkable salary dumping job he did for us, he had quite a run with the Indiana Pacers.  Not only did he assemble enough talent for them to constantly be in the top of the east during the late 1990s, but he even got that team to Finals against the Lakers in… what was it, 2000?  And after that within a year or two he had completely rejuvenated that team, getting rid of Rick Smits, Mark Jackson, Dale Davis, Antonio Davis, Jalen Rose, and turning them into a young Eastern Conference contender around Jermaine O’Neal, Brad Miller, Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Jamaal Tinsley, and the still effective Grandpa Reggie Miller.  This was a team that seemed poised to make it to the finals for the next few years until the unfortunate Malice At The Palace, players-and-fans-scuffle.  Has a team ever been turned around that quickly with a completely new cast?  The Lakers new team is still built around Kobe, one of their two supernova stars from their earlier three-peat.  The old-time Celtics won like 11 championships with various supporting stars, but they all centered around Bill Russell.

Fine, you say, we’ll give Walsh a chance.  But if he doesn’t get LeBron or Wade, what can he reasonably do to get the rest of the cream of the crop?  The key is getting some supporting parts at reasonable prices.  Houston has been excellent at that, getting solid unflashy guys like Shane Battier, Trevor Ariza, Luis Scola, and Carl Landry on the (relative) cheap.  Get Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson to agree to slightly less than the max, and then try to snag Ray Felton, Brendan Haywood, Josh Childress, Shannon Brown, Rudy Gay, Manu Ginobili, Kyle Korver, or Mike Miller on the cheap.  Maybe David Lee or TMac will agree to a lesser deal.  It would be pretty solid to have a line-up of Bosh, Lee, Gallo, Chandler, and Felton with Childress, Brown, Miller & TMac coming off the bench.

Yes, that’d still probably only get us to 4th or 5th in the East, but here’s the thing: it also would keep us out of the tax.  Since you personally don’t have to pay the tax as a fan, you probably don’t care, but it matters a bunch.  Why?  It means that the following summer, 2011, when Eddy Curry’s $11.3 million salary comes off the books, we can use that full amount to sign someone else.  If we give out excessive contracts this summer, we’ll go over the cap and won’t be able to add anyone new after we get rid of Curry.

With that $11+ mill, we could have a real shot at such 2011 free agents as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Greg Oden, Jason Richardson, Samuel Dalembert, Jeff Green, David West, Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Shane Battier, Aaron Brooks, Tayshaun Prince, Rodney Stuckey, J.R.Smith, Nene, Caron Butler, Joakim Noah, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Jamal Crawford, Al Horford, and some guy named Carmelo Anthony.  Adding just one of those guys to the above roster would probably elevate the team to one of the East’s elite.  Adding Melo would bring a very real possibility of winning multiple championships.

By having a few reasonable, desirable smaller contracts, we could also trade Curry’s expiring contract in the middle of next season, so we wouldn’t even have to wait for 2011.  Like by next year the Celtics will finally have to accept that Kevin Garnett is so half-dead he’s practically a zombie.  They realize they need to blow up the team, so they decide to get rid of Paul Pierce for an expiring contract.  He makes more than Curry, but we throw in Mike Miller to make things work.  Using those contracts would also help if say someone like Melo wants more than that $11 mill.  We basically give a Mike Miller to a team for free (like only getting a second round pick in return), and then we have like another $3 mill available to pay Anthony.

The point is that it’s not LeBron/Wade or mediocrity.  It’s about not returning to the ways of Scott Layden & Isiah Thomas (& honestly lots of other GMs), and overpaying mid-level players.