Author: Kevin Lipe

Robert Pera

Grizzlies controlling owner Robert Pera has decided to retain his controlling interest in the franchise, according to a statement released Monday evening.

From the press release:

The Memphis Grizzlies today announced that controlling owner Robert Pera has sent formal notice to the NBA that he will retain his controlling interest in the team in connection with the “buy-sell” process. This decision was shared earlier this evening in an open letter from Pera to Grizzlies MVP Season Ticket Members.

Some Twitter users posted that open letter:

Full statement from @RobertPera re: @memgrizz. Again… The Unk unconditionally supports and endorses this decision. pic.twitter.com/FGdmzflJeh

— The People's Unk (@badunclep) April 9, 2018

Robert Pera to retain controlling interest in Grizzlies franchise

This ends several months of speculation about whether Pera would retain his ownership stake in the team or sell it to minority owners Steve Kaplan or Daniel Straus (who each own separate minority stakes in the team). Recently, the word on the street has been that Pera would buy out whichever minority owner triggered the clause (it could have been either or both), and it’s good to see that proven correct.

This opens up questions: What should Pera do next? What changes will he make in the face of the Grizzlies’ mostly-disastrous season? Is this the best outcome for the city of Memphis? (Early take: probably.) More to come on this, but at least tonight, the first big question that’s been hanging over the team since this summer has finally been settled. Presumably, now they can begin to tackle the rest.

Note: The Beyond the Arc podcast is on a bit of an unplanned hiatus due to some personal situations and some equipment failures, so co-host Phil Naessens and I decided to do an email back-and-forth about the topic(s) we would have discussed this week had fate not intervened. Enjoy.

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Phil Naessens: We could begin with these ideas I have:

1). NBA players serve a one-game suspension for racking up 16 technical fouls. With the rash of ejections this season, should the NBA consider suspending players after a certain number of ejections? If so, how many and how many games?

2). Are we disappointed the Grizzlies have been on a “hot” streak (they won two games a week ago) and messed up the tank?

Kevin Lipe: I like the idea of treating ejections like red cards. You’re tossed from the current game, and you can’t play the next one. (I don’t want to make teams play with 4 players after an ejection, though… 4 on 5 is a little different from 10 on 11.) Seems like a way to incentivize… not getting ejected. But that’s also on the refs and the way they’ve called technicals this season, which I think has been a big problem. We talked about this on the show already but I think it’s only going to get worse in the playoffs. Player/ref relations are at a very low ebb this season.

As for winning too much… we’ll see. I know Orlando won last night, and Atlanta almost did… this Kings game on Friday night has become a “must lose” situation. I think they can manage it—after all, they have Ben McLemore available to play 48 minutes.

Larry Kuzniewski

Ben McLemore (23)

PN: I would treat ejections by case; if it is for a Flagrant Two then they are banished for three games. If it is for mouthing off I would give them a pass after the first one; then I would suspend them for three games after the second ejection; five games for the third, ten games for the fourth, and the fifth one they are done for the rest of the season.

Winning too much? In a way it’s a good thing as it still shows the players haven’t quit. To me there isn’t much of a difference between 1-5 anyway. They could all be really good or just average journeymen. Depends on need and opportunity I guess. McLemore needs to show folks he can play but he’s done more than enough to show me he probably isn’t going to help win games unless he is injured!

KL: I think that makes sense, but I also just like having a concrete rule rather than taking things case-by-case. When you do that, you generally end up with a system that suspends regular guys and keeps superstars out of trouble. That seems to be how things go.

Since Doncic is a European guy, I want your take on him, because I know you watch a lot of Euro ball still. What’s the biggest hurdle for Euro guys coming to the NBA? Is it speed, like everybody says? Because that seems like a bit of a cop-out to me. What kinds of things make that transition difficult, and how worried about it should the Grizzlies be if they were going to draft him?

PN: Ok… you win but if you look at the amount of ejections and who’s at the top superstars are the ones getting bounced the most this season.

Doncic is the real deal. The Spanish Pro League is no joke and for him to be doing what he has been doing at his age is truly remarkable. He’s quick not fast. I guess you call it sneaky quick. The boy is a real playmaker and ain’t afraid to mix it up down low and fight for a rebound. His high release reminds me of Klay Thompson and he is going to be a very good defender. Sometimes he tries to get too cute and turns the ball over, but Kevin, this kid is the real deal. Maybe not superstar franchise-changer real, but real in that he starts at the two guard for the Grizzlies on opening night and contributes immediately.

Larry Kuzniewski

Just two random dudes who used to play in the Spanish league

Some European guys have told me the speed was much quicker than what they were used to, but the adjustment period wasn’t that difficult. These are still world-class athletes and as we have witnessed in World Competition: the best hang with the best.

I think the most difficult adjustment is the playing time. These players for the most part are superstars in their leagues and get the full complement of minutes. In the NBA they are rookies and are usually treated as such; a mistake in Europe means the coach might yell at them. In the NBA a mistake, especially one that costs their team a game, might mean extended pine time. That messes with their confidence BIG TIME.

The other thing that I hear is hard to get used to: the travel. In Europe they might have maybe two long flights (four hours or more) and just one road game per week per season whereas in the NBA they could be subject to back-to-back flights of four hours or more, and five to seven game road trips.

They say the road trips are the worst for this; in most cases when player A comes over they bring a girlfriend or family member and lots of times both. These are the folks they can speak freely with, especially when they are struggling. Not having those people around to vent to — it makes things worse and lots of guys say adios to the NBA because of this.

If not Doncic, is there someone else you like?

KL: No, not really. I think he’s perfect for what they need, both now and for the next few years. They’ve been desperate for playmaking and scoring at the perimeter for years, and he gives them that, even if there are some speed bumps along the way. I think even though they have to start preparing for life after Gasol, they probably aren’t ready to move on from him yet (at least, not under the current ownership/management situation) and thus taking Ayton or Bagley complicates matters. My worst fear is that they’ll take Porter because he’s injured and he fits the mold for a player that Chris Wallace takes a chance on. But the first top-5 pick in almost a decade is not the time to take a chance; they basically have to get this one right or else they’re totally screwed for years. The stakes are probably slightly higher than they were with the Thabeet pick, even.

I hope Doncic is who they pick, and I hope they get the #2 pick so the Suns can take Ayton and they can have Doncic all to themselves. But so often, the thing that I hope for with the Grizzlies is not what happens.

PN: So you are saying that it might be Wallace doing the drafting? Man, him being at the wheel is a scary thought. What are the chances this could actually be the case?

If the Grizzlies somehow get the top pick, would Wallace (if he is still driving the bus) pass over the person that fits an immediate need like Doncic does and chase after Ayton?

KL: We don’t know, is the answer. It seems like a bad idea to let a guy who might be on the way out do the picking, but at the same time, if nobody knows who’s going to own the team, they have to act like everything is going to continue the way it is indefinitely. I think it’s possible that they could go for Ayton, but to me, I think it’s so blindingly obvious that Doncic fits better with what they’ve been lacking for years that it’s unlikely they’d pass over him. Plus, I think the Suns want Ayton anyway, and they’ll probably end up with the #1 pick. Maybe not, though. It just seems so straightforward to me that I feel like anything else would be a huge mistake.

PN: Straightforward and the Suns seems like an oxymoron to me lol… that organization would be relegated if they were a soccer club in Europe.

So… MarShon Brooks got himself a contract. What do you think of this?

KL: He’s played well, but I don’t know why they needed to go on and sign him to a guaranteed deal for next year. I don’t understand why this team, the past two years, rolls through the summer with all 15 roster spots already full, knowing guys are going to have to be cut. They know they’ve got a first and second round pick coming in this year, too, so that’s two more roster spots (or at least one; theoretically the second rounder could be a guy they stash in Europe or a guy who doesn’t make the cut). It took until the last day of the preseason for the Griz to cut Wade Baldwin and Rade Zagorac, and they’re just setting themselves up for the same scenario this year.

I think Brooks has been fine. He’s a bench gunner; we all know that. Can he do it on a good team? We’ll have to see, or, at least, we’ll see if the Grizzlies are a good team next year. I’d have been fine with signing him for the rest of the year (all four games left) but… the next-year part just doesn’t make any sense to me. Invite him to camp and see what happens from there.

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace

PN: This is one of the reasons I think Chris Wallace has to go. Very few teams go to camp with all 15 spots on the roster filled. Wallace reminds me more of a Fantasy Basketball General Manager than a real NBA GM. What I mean is he seems to fall in love with players having a hot couple of weeks rather than just developing a crush and moving on after a couple of dates. It’s why Fantasy Owners lose and why the Grizzlies luck has run out.

All that being said I like Brooks. I liked him when he played briefly for the Nets. I really thought good things were ahead for him. Maybe they still are and maybe just maybe he is next season’s Tyreke Evans. So you bring him to camp next season and you wait and see. But signing him to a two-year deal, three games into a ten-day contract, makes ZERO sense.

Zbo is back again……are you excited to see our old friend? Do you think he will play?

KL: Who knows. The Grizzlies aren’t playing anybody, and normally I’d say that means Zach isn’t playing, but in this season… anything is possible. I certainly don’t think the Kings want to win the game, but I don’t know what that means—will they play the vets so they can lose, or play the young guys so they can lose? Which Kings roster grouping is more likely to lose to the back half of the back half of the Grizzlies’ rotation?

I like Zach. I like watching him play. Watching him languish on a terrible team has been a bummer, but the reality is that if he’d been on the Grizzlies this year they wouldn’t have been much better than they were anyway, so it’s not like the situation would have been much different if he were here. Fewer minutes for some of the young bigs, I guess.

There are only four games left. We can do this.

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The Beyond the Arc Podcast will return at some point. In the meantime, stay tuned for another one of these conversations. —KL

Larry Kuzniewski

Last night needed more of this.

The Grizzlies can’t stop beating Western Conference playoff teams who seem to be sleepwalking through the last couple weeks of the regular season. First it was Minnesota on Monday night, their first road win of the calendar year 2018. They continued the trend—creating an honest-to-God winning streak, something they haven’t seen in weeks—on Wednesday at home against a Portland team missing Damian Lillard.

It’s just like the Denver game from earlier in the month: team somewhere in the bottom half of the West playoffs bracket (this is before the Nuggets found themselves in 10th place) comes up against a Grizzlies team that, while bad, plays hard, and manages to play with so little intensity of execution that the Grizzlies, with whichever good player happens to show up on that given night, sneak up on them and steal a win out of the jaws of their sojourn in the wilderness.

Look, last night was a fun, exciting basketball game, but we’re way too late in the season for this to start being fun. Up until Monday, the Griz were neck-and-neck with the Suns for the league’s worst record, but now, two wins later, they’re tied for third-worst with Atlanta, and barely hanging on to an edge over Orlando and Sacramento. The Grizzlies were absolute garbage for so long they were practically guaranteed a top-3 pick, but if they keep on winning, it’s entirely possible that they’ll have spent an entire season in the depths of misery only to fail to reap the (Ayton/Bagley/Doncic-sized) reward.

But, fear not. There’s a solution to this mess, he’s already under contract (no, not MarShon Brooks, who came in on a 10-day straight from China and scored 21 off the bench, including 14 in the 4th quarter alone), and he’s guaranteed to be making $10M of the Grizzlies’ money through the end of next year: play Ben McLemore 40 minutes in every remaining game.

This is not the McLemore the Grizzlies need in order to lose their remaining games. It is, however, a Memphis classic, in the same way a top 3 Grizzlies pick would be.

I can’t believe I’m actually putting forth a solution like this; one doesn’t normally choose to subject oneself to the basketball equivalent of waterboarding (apologies to the 2012 Bobcats, whom I may have also called “basketball waterboarding”), but McLemore has been uniquely well-suited to torpedoing any chance the Grizzlies have at winning this year.

I bring this solution up—really, the solution the Griz have deployed all season long when trying to lose on purpose—because McLemore didn’t play at all against Portland and only played 8 minutes against the Wolves. He’s so bad, so bad, that he’s got to be on the court for the rest of the season.

A top-3 pick, which, let’s be honest, is the only acceptable outcome of a season this craptacular if you’re a Grizzlies fan, is well within the Grizzlies’ reach, even now, after these wins. But they can’t win again. The stakes are too high. To avert their eyes from the utter darkness of the Tank at the last second would be to undo the one thing bringing hope to so many the whole time they’re been going on multiple double-digit losing streaks: the chance that the Grizzlies might actually get the #1 pick in the NBA Draft. The later the pick, the bigger the chance that the Grizzlies will pick badly. This is what they’ve been losing for all season long. The young kids are good, or at least better than they have any right to be—this much we know.

Now keep losing. Time is tight.

Tweet of the Night

Grizzlies are out here erasing fourth-quarter deficits with a Kobi Simmons/MarShon Brooks backcourt. These West playoff teams are not taking the race seriously enough.

— Chris Herrington (@HerringtonNBA) March 29, 2018

Grizzlies 108, Trail Blazers 103: They Won Again

Up Next

Road games in Utah, Portland, and New Orleans, and then the last two home games of the season on Friday and Sunday against Sacramento (a must-lose if I ever saw one) and the Pistons.

They need to lose out. Whether that’s actually what happens, we will see. I’ve got an interesting guest post lined up that will tackle what the Grizzlies should do with whichever pick they actually end up with (feels destined to be, like, fifth, doesn’t it?) so stay tuned.

Larry Kuzniewski

JaMychal Green dunks it on his *own* head for a change.

The Grizzlies’ unrelenting torrent of misery finally, well, relented on Saturday night, as they won (seriously!) (like, I’m not making this up—according to the official National Basketball Association scorer’s report they finished with more points than their opponent) (seriously!) for the first time since January 29th. Denver is a playoff team, or at least they would be if they didn’t keep losing to teams like the Grizzlies, but then that’s why they play the games.

The Grizzlies came out swinging in this one, but one facet of the game stuck out to me above others, and it was something we haven’t seen from this Griz team in quite a while: offensive rebounding. The Griz didn’t even get more ORebs than Denver (they had 14 to the Nuggets’ 17) but when they did, they made them count. These weren’t just tips off something missed under the basket (looking at you, Zach Randolph’s career rebounding numbers); on multiple occasions the Grizzlies used offensive rebounds to bring the ball back out, settle in, set up a new play, and try again. They made the most of the possession, and then when they got an opportunity to set up for another one, they took it.

That’s not something the Grizzlies have been doing, not even back in January when they were still occasionally winning games. It was a new look for them, and one that signals that maybe in all this losing, little things are starting to improve. Things are being learned on some level.The other uncomfortable truth about Saturday night’s win? $30 million worth of salary got a DNP-CD and spent then night watching from the bench. Ben McLemore didn’t play, and neither did Chandler Parsons. McLemore has been playing heavy minutes through this stretch of losses (even though they’re ostensibly trying to win and trying to develop players). Parsons has been trying to shake some rust off while still on a heavy minutes restriction.

Larry Kuzniewski

Wayne Selden soaked up a lot of minutes last night, and shot well.

Neither has been good. In fact, Parsons has been at best neutral, and McLemore has been the worst player on the team by a pretty wide margin. That’s not a great sign, even in a season as bad as this one. McLemore was signed really early in the free agency window for more money than it seemed was necessary to get a player of his caliber, and Parsons, well, let’s not even go there right now. But when these guys sit and Tyreke Evans doesn’t, the Grizzlies can win. When they play, and especially when they play and Evans doesn’t, the Grizzlies are (apparently) the worst team in the league.

Which is fine. The Grizzlies sit at 19 wins now, and I would be shocked if they make it to 22. The season is almost over—13 games left, luckily enough—and there’s absolutely no incentive for them to go on a win streak this late in the game. If they play McLemore enough, apparently it won’t be possible at any rate.

Even if they don’t win another game this season (watch for Parsons to get shut down first, if he’s liable to start drawing DNP’s anyway), this win over the Nuggets, tank or not, was probably a necessary breather for the hapless hometown team. They were clearly distraught after the Chicago game, having come so close to finally breaking the losing streak and yet fallen so short at the end. That stuff matters. There’s bad, and then there’s “bad and cranky,” and they were trending that direction. One can only hope they can now manage to scrape the bottom of the barrel with smiles on their faces.

Larry Kuzniewski

Gasol had his way with whichever Plumlee this is.

Tweet of the Night

Not really related to the win, but maybe not necessarily so unrelated, given how important St. Jude is to both of the Gasol brothers:

Marc Gasol wore special shoes signed by @StJude patients tonight.

He talked about it afterwards.

“If they don’t give up, then how are we gonna give up?” pic.twitter.com/uJgJf7FTf5

— Devin Walker (@Devin_Walker5) March 18, 2018

Grizzlies 101, Nuggets 94: Finally, a Win!

Up Next

Road games against the Nets, 76ers, and Hornets, each of them winnable in their own way. But. The Grizzlies have yet to win a road game in the calendar year 2018, and they’re abysmal against Eastern Conference teams this year, so unless this Denver win sparks a newfound confidence and a shortened rotation from JB Bickerstaff (though, let’s be honest, he knows better than to do that the whole rest of the season, right?), the trip eastward will probably be less than rewarding.

The next home game is in a week, against the Lakers.

Larry Kuzniewski

Ben McLemore actually had a good game against Milwaukee, but it wasn’t enough for a win.

The Memphis Grizzlies fell 121-103 to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night, extending their losing streak to 18 games. The Griz last won a basketball game on January 29 at home against Phoenix, and since that point, everything has come completely unglued for them. Some of this is by design—they’re very nearly bad enough to actually get the #1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft—and some of it is because they’ve suffered a lot of injuries and weren’t that good in the first place. No matter how much of the misery is self-inflicted, it’s still miserable

What, then, can one say about a game like the one last night? The Grizzlies actually had a decent first quarter against the Bucks (currently sitting in the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot) in which they led by as many as eight points, but before the end of the quarter, lineups changed and so did the tenor of the game. This wasn’t a blowout, not for most of its 48 minutes. The Grizzlies made runs, and the Bucks responded, and the Grizzlies never seemed to push over the edge and make it a competitive game. (Which, let’s be honest, is not exactly a surprising development.)

Larry Kuzniewski

‘Coach, clearly the better Fleetwood Mac album is ‘Tusk.’ You’re only saying ‘Mirage’ because you keep playing ‘Gypsy’ in the weight room.’

I’m not really sure what else to say about this game. The upside of tanking is supposed to be player development, but playing these players in these situations with these personnel groupings isn’t helping them develop, not really. As Matt Hrdlicka wrote about recently on his Patreon-backed blog, that’s one way the Grizzlies are tanking that is not actually helping them get better for some hypothetical brighter future (beyond just getting minutes for some of these guys).

This season has been taxing to watch, taxing to talk about, taxing to consider in the larger context and, most certainly, taxing for the players stuck on a team that can’t seem to put together a win to save its life. There’s not much of it left, but what remains promises to be a slog. How do they win a game from here? Where do they find the execution to actually carry some of these runs over into a lead, and then keep it? Can it be done?

We’ll find out. In the meantime, the plummet continues.

Tweet of the Night

Speaking of Hrdlicka, Jarell Martin started at small forward last night, and while it wasn’t a total disaster, he was clearly playing out of position and struggling to keep up. For all of Martin’s nascent skill, recently starting to blossom into “real NBA player” potential, he is still much worse at one end of the floor than he is the other:

I'm not sure what Jarell's defensive awareness 2K rating is, but it's too high.

— Matt Hrdlicka (@theRealHrdlicka) March 13, 2018

Bucks 121, Grizzlies 103: Game Notes

Up Next

Larry Kuzniewski

JaMychal Green is having a great stretch run, one of the Grizzlies’ only bright spots.

Thursday night, the Grizzlies play the Bulls, who were recently scolded by the league powers-that-be for resting too many healthy players. (This is why Tyreke Evans is still “injured” and why Chandler Parsons had such a long, lingering “illness” and if you don’t believe that I have a couple bridges to sell you, one vaguely shaped like an “M”.) It will be vaguely interesting to see which team can try harder to lose, but the novelty has worn off of that like the basketball version of a Radio Shack Super Armatron, and if the weekend’s Mavs game is any indication, the Grizzlies are the best team in the league at trying to lose.

Saturday brings the Nuggets, that almost-suitor for Tyreke Evans (though given what they offered, I’m glad that deal didn’t go down). The most that can be said for the rest of the season is that they will (technically) be basketball contests held between two professional teams. So it goes.

This week on the show, Kevin and Phil talk about:

• The Grizzlies have lost fifteen (15!) games in a row.
• The pro-tanking and anti-tanking factions of Grizzlies fandom keep fighting for no reason
• Three things Kevin and Phil have learned about the Grizzlies this year (yes, it’s still possible).
• Who should coach the Grizzlies next year? Steve Clifford? Becky Hammon? What about JB Bickerstaff?
• Should Chris Wallace go? Should Gasol and Conley?
• Three things Kevin and Phil have learned about the NBA this year (content warning: scorching hot takes)

The Beyond the Arc podcast is available on iTunes, so you can subscribe there! It’d be great if you could rate and review the show while you’re there. You can also find and listen to the show on Stitcher and on PlayerFM.

You can call our Google Voice number and leave us a voicemail, and we might talk about your question on the next show: 234-738-3394

You can download the show here or listen below:

This week on the show, Kevin and Phil talk about:

• Phil wants to trade Marc Gasol, but Kevin has a better idea
• Do the Grizzlies think they’ll make the playoffs next year?
• Kevin’s Memphis Flyer cover story about reasons to keep watching the Grizzlies
• Phil’s work on the DFS portion of the Lenny Melnick fantasy baseball draft guide
• David Fizdale’s ESPN gig—will he ever coach again?
• How should the league handle dirty plays and players like Zaza Pachulia?
• Can the Thunder actually beat the Warriors in a playoff series? (Spoiler: probably not)
• The Grizzlies and Suns’ Wednesday night game with both teams coming off double-digit losing streaks

The Beyond the Arc podcast is available on iTunes, so you can subscribe there! It’d be great if you could rate and review the show while you’re there. You can also find and listen to the show on Stitcher and on PlayerFM.

You can call our Google Voice number and leave us a voicemail, and we might talk about your question on the next show: 234-738-3394

You can download the show here or listen below:

This week on the show, Kevin and Phil talk about:

• Dillon Brooks on Team World in the Rising Stars Challenge
• Was the Grizzlies’ decision to keep Tyreke Evans the right one?
• How bad will the Grizzlies be for the rest of the year?
• Andrew Harrison’s big night and big dumb ejection
• The problems with the refs this season
• Should the Griz bring back TA and Z-Bo since the Heat brought back Wade?

The Beyond the Arc podcast is available on iTunes, so you can subscribe there! It’d be great if you could rate and review the show while you’re there. You can also find and listen to the show on Stitcher and on PlayerFM.

You can call our Google Voice number and leave us a voicemail, and we might talk about your question on the next show: 234-738-3394

You can download the show here or listen below:

Larry Kuzniewski

Tyreke back!

Despite sitting him out since before last week’s game at Indiana while they pursued deals, the NBA’s trade deadline came and went with Evans still on the Memphis roster. The Grizzlies apparently remained engaged with several Eastern Conference teams throughout the day, but they decided that trying to re-sign Evans this summer since they’d have his early Bird rights after one more year was worth more than whatever was being offered by these teams, none of whom seemed to be willing to part with a first round pick.

I don’t think it was that they wanted to get a deal done and couldn’t; I think it was a calculated gamble that the Grizzlies felt was worth taking. I disagree.

[content-1]

If the Grizzlies win more games as a result of having Evans on the team between now and the end of the season, and move from the 5th pick to the 9th pick, and then lose Evans this summer anyway, the failure to trade him for a pick and/or young player is bad. If the Grizzlies pick 9th instead of 5th but keep Evans this summer—and I’m sure they wouldn’t have rolled with the idea of keeping him at the deadline unless they thought he might want to return—and then he returns to being injured and plays 25 games, that’s still the same level of failure.

It comes down to this: do I legitimately think the Grizzlies will be good enough next year to need Evans as a key piece of scoring on a good/playoff team? I think it’s possible, but I also think given their injury history over the last 3 years it’s unlikely. In that situation, I’d rather have young talent to evaluate the rest of this year, and still have the full mid-level exception to throw at Evans or whoever else this summer. If keeping him at the deadline was the only way to guarantee keeping him in free agency, I still would have traded him, probably. Let him find the money if it’s there, or return for the MLE if it’s not.

As it stands—optics aside, and the optics are extremely bad, just like they were extremely bad when the Grizzlies fired David Fizdale hours after he had a public spat with Marc Gasol—I’m just not sure hanging on to Evans is a gamble that was worth taking. It looks like a failure to capitalize on a good decision and turn it into future potential. The second another team (and the Kings proved today there are still teams making bad decisions) overpays Evans this summer, and he takes the money, the Grizzlies have gotten nothing at all for a 20-point-a-game scorer on an expiring deal, and that’s extreme malfeasance (almost like trying to trade OJ Mayo but turning it in too late). Even if that doesn’t happen, I’m just not sold that it was the right call.

[content-3]

There’s another side of this, too. Is the 27th pick in the draft worth not winning a playoff series? For a team like Boston or Philadelphia, where Evans’ scoring could be the difference between missing the playoffs and a 6 seed, why the reluctance to give up more? Money is tight for free agency, so picks and young players on rookie deals are worth even more, but it’s frustrating to see the Grizzlies, who can’t win this year, worry more about winning than about assets, while playoff teams who need a player like Evans are more worried about assets than about winning. This was a strange trade deadline—and the Clippers’ extension of Lou Williams may have been a signal that this summer is going to be just as jammed up.

If Evans is back on the Grizzlies, wins 6th Man of the Year, and they’re good, I will come back to this reaction and admit I was wrong. But this is not the path I would have chosen, were I the one making the decisions.