The Grizzlies finally found the “fourth big man” they’ve been looking for since the lockout ended, trading oft-injured swingman Xavier Henry and — in all probability — a second-round pick in next year’s draft in a three-team deal to obtain Sixers’ big Marreese Speights.
Speights joined the team last night — at least according to Tony Allen’s Twitter feed — and should be in uniform soon pending physicals for both players involved in the deal.
Of course, by the now the Grizzlies have lost both Zach Randolph (for 6-8 weeks if all goes well) and Darrell Arthur (for the season), so the need Speights will be asked to fill is even more pronounced.
At 6’10” and — at last count — 255 pounds, Speights has the size to log time at center and the shooting range to play with Marc Gasol at power forward. The book on Speights has been that he’s a decent rebounder (with rates in the normal range for rotation-level big men) and very good mid-range shooter (over 40% on long twos in all three NBA seasons). On the downside, he’s been a disinterested defender, puts up shots even more frequently than his skills suggest is wise, and there have been questions about his conditioning. In Philadelphia, he quickly fell out of favor with new coach Doug Collins, logging only 11.5 minutes a game last season and not getting on the floor at all this season. (Speights played in Rudy Gay’s Memphis charity game during the lockout, and looked fine, but there’s only so much you can tell in that kind of setting.)
