Larry Kuzniewski
Troy Daniels
According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the Grizzlies have traded Troy Daniels to the Phoenix Suns for a future second-round pick. Included in the package headed to Phoenix was the middle of the 2018 second round picks of the Grizzlies, Hornets, and Heat, which means the Grizzlies essentially paid the Suns a second-rounder to get off of Daniels’ salary for this season rather than cutting him outright.
Daniels signed with the Grizzlies last summer for three years. His shooting won games, there’s no question about that, but his defense never really improved, and in the playoffs that rendered him mostly unusable. Brought in to be a shooting threat, he was streaky, but when he was on, it was electric to watch him.
At any rate, this move brings the Grizzlies closer to what the final roster will probably look like, even with JaMychal Green still unsigned. The willingness to let Daniels go also seems to signal some measure of confidence that Mario Chalmers will return to the court as a real, functioning NBA player. (Though I have had similar expectations of players who then went on to play 34 games.) It also cleans up the wing rotation a bit, since Daniels would likely have struggled to find minutes anyway given his defensive limitations.
With Green still outstanding, there are more moves yet to be made. One wonders who will be the sacrificial lamb when he actually signs, assuming that happens at all. Maybe he’s been abducted by aliens and his agent just isn’t sure how to break the news.
It is worth noting that Daniels is now on the Suns with Devin Booker, because this happened last season:
Maybe they’ll play nice once they’re wearing the same color shirts.
