The Grizzlies made only one trade yesterday, but it was a doozy. And even the deal they did make was obscured by the one they tried and failed to make.
There’s way too much to sort through for one post, so I’m breaking up trade-deadline-related material into probably four posts. This one will look exclusively at the reasons for and ramifications of the Shane Battier/Hasheem Thabeet trade. Over the next few days I hope to come back with stuff on: 1. The magnitude of the Thabeet mistake, what was or wasn’t learned from it, and the chances of him coming back to haunt the team. 2. The failed Mayo-to-Indiana deal, what happened and what it means now. 3. How the Western Conference playoff race looks in the wake of a massive day of NBA dealing.
None of those posts — I hope — will be nearly as long as this one.
But I will offer a quick take on the Mayo non-deal first: Don’t believe stuff suggesting that the Grizzlies decided to back out of that trade. Michael Heisley himself has made clear that the team tried to make the deal but that it just didn’t come together in time for the deadline.
In addition to a desire by some in the organization to trade Mayo for immediate on-court purposes, I think much of the deal was also financially motivated. In the short term, it would have mitigated the extra money the team took on in the Battier deal. And heading into the summer, the team hopes to resign Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and Battier and has decent cheap players (Tony Allen, Sam Young, and Xavier Henry) in place at the two guard. I think they wanted to move off Mayo’s money in order to free up more room for Randolph/Gasol/Battier.
The Pacers deal, while nowhere close to good value for Mayo, would have done three things: Freed up cash now and this summer, given them a better back-up center (Josh McRoberts) to replace Thabeet the rest of this season, and given them a first-round pick as the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. I wouldn’t have liked the deal at all, but I understand it.
And, with that, on to the main event:
The Deal: The Grizzlies trade Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll, and a lottery-protected future first-round pick to the Houston Rockets for Shane Battier and Ish Smith.
