You definitely recognize the point guard and the small forward. You have heard a lot about the new forward and would be wise to get to know the shooting guard and can't seem to forget about the center, even though he doesn't have that strange nickname anymore. Big Foreign Country.

	You've heard of Jason Williams, but will he help your team win?

It's just the Memphis Grizzlies as a whole no one knows. New town. New look of core players, like Jason Williams, Shane Battier and Pau Gasol. New landscape, Tennessee and not B.C. Quite a change, eh?

Still to be determined is whether it will be for the better. Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for the Grizzlies -- 23-59 last season, 22-60 the year before -- along comes 2001-02 and the very real possibility that making it to 20 wins will be considered a successful season.

That it comes with a new address, in a state that hasn't had professional basketball players since the ABA days (although the stories we could tell about some of those supposed amateurs...), means the fans will be forgiving for a time, excited just to have the NBA there. Except that spending money on tickets entitles them to expect something more than another five years of lottery appearances and poor connections with the community. Just like the people in Vancouver.

No one will be clocking their moves forward with a stopwatch, but people will be watching. Sure they get a honeymoon in Memphis, but also additional focus. No one has switched cities since the Kings went from Kansas City to Sacramento in 1985. That in itself, the uniqueness of the moment, demands attention, no matter how much the Grizzlies have heretofore proven unworthy of any. Their failure in Canada wasn't just centered on the He Said-She Said debate about support from the business community, you know.

So why will this time be any different?

Because it will be worse.

So much for wanting a change a direction. The team won't be as good as last season's that won 23 games and averaged 91.7 points a game, making them clear favorites to be the worst team in the Western Conference since Golden State only had a worse record in 2000-01 because of a hellacious series of injuries. The connection with the community is likewise off to a bad start -- the phone number for the team offices wasn't even listed with information as of this week. A caller to the Pyramid, the temporary home, was quickly told that people at the arena are frustrated in their dealings with the team and that they are not sure where to direct fans on the phone. That giant breeze you feel right now coming from the north is everyone in British Columbia knowingly nodding in unison.

There have been moves to win over fans. How else to explain trading Mike Bibby, productive but unspectacular, for Williams? Bibby clashed with coach Sidney Lowe and J-Thrill has definite potential (for a lot of things), but you'd have to scour a lot of front offices around the league to find an executive who thought it was a good trade for the Grizzlies, or that they couldn't have gotten a lot more in return than a point guard who routinely sat in fourth quarters.

	Wright

	Abdur-Rahim

Memphis got selling power. Lorenzen Wright came as part of the Shareef Abdur-Rahim trade, although, the team said, not because he is a hometown product. Battier will be even more a positive light for the organization than he will be a good player, which is saying something since he will be a success. And the only surprising thing about those rumors about Penny Hardaway returning to his roots via a Grizz-Suns trade, denied by all parties involved, is that they took so long to fly.

There is even a plan to open up the offense. It remains to be seen how the Grizzlies expect to make that a reality, but Bibby couldn't help but wonder where this has been all along, noting, "I don't know if they're going to switch styles or what." Meaning he wanted to do it all along, and the Kings certainly didn't feel he was incapable of pushing the ball as much as being held back by an offense in Vancouver that called too many plays.

The bigger issue is that the Grizzlies were a terrible rebounding team even with Abdur-Rahim's 9.1 boards a game, were terrible defensively (Battier will help), and were below average in shooting and now go from Bibby's 45.4 percent to Williams' 40.7. So talking about executing is one thing and actually being able to do it quite something else. But enough about the Lowe-Dick Versace relationship.

	Reeves

It's not a terrible team for a first-year club. Bryant Reeves is an easy, and often, deserving target for being ripped, but having Reeves, Isaac Austin and Wright at center means having security there and options to trade. Stromile Swift, the lottery pick from last June, will be at power forward along with Gasol, the No. 3 choice this time, and veterans Tony Massenburg and Grant Long. Battier will be at small forward as the most polished product to come from the draft, with maturity, shooting range, defense and leadership skills that have already emerged. Michael Dickerson, the name that gets forgotten but shouldn't considering he just averaged 16.3 points a game, is the shooting guard. Williams is at the point..

Problem is, it is a terrible team for a seventh-year club. The Grizzlies can't sell the rebuilding mode because they never have built in the first place. Reeves is just as easy a target for opposing centers. That forward combination of Swift, Gasol and Battier? Six career starts. Dickerson shot 41.7 percent last season. Williams frustrated the same teammates who liked him personally because of a lack of work ethic and focus.

If they averaged about 92 points a game with Abdur-Rahim and Bibby, where does that put them after trading the two best players without getting anyone back who has made an impact in the NBA? The returns (discounting Nick Anderson who came from the Kings while Brent Price went to Sacramento for salary-cap needs) were Wright, reserve point guard Brevin Knight, Williams and Battier and Gasol. The last two might be promising, but unproven nonetheless, and Gasol might not even make it over from Europe in time to play summer league. That's another setback.

They're probably real sorry they can't go through this again in Vancouver. They recognize all this too well.

Scott Howard-Cooper covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.