While everyone has been waiting for a big move from the Grizzlies, involving Rudy Gay or, less likely, Zach Randolph (who was the subject of a specious trade rumor over the past weekend), the Grizzlies surprised the hoops world with a smaller deal on Tuesday morning. With the smoke still clearing, let’s look at what happened and what it might mean:
- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Wayne Ellington has been erratic, but the Griz may miss what shooting he’s provided.
The Particulars: The Grizzlies traded three reserve players — Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, and Josh Selby — along with a protected future first-round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for reserve forward Jon Leuer. The pick can’t be exchanged until at least 2015. The complicated protections on the pick are such that it will go to Cleveland in 2015 or 2016 only if it falls between picks 6 and 14. It will be protected through picks 1-5 in 2017 and 2018, and unprotected in 2019 in the unlikely event it still hasn’t been exchanged. The deal also generates a $6.4 million trade exception the Grizzlies will have access to for the next year.
The Ostensible Rationale: This was, first and foremost, a financial move. It brings the Grizzlies safely under the league’s luxury tax threshold — a team source suggests the Grizzlies may have been closer to $6 million over the tax line rather than the widely reported $4 million due to potential contract incentives, if you’re wondering about the inclusion of Ellington — without having to move any of the team’s top seven players (assuming Darrell Arthur and Quincy Pondexter as the most valued reserves).
What’s Going Out and What’s Coming Back: I’m somewhat sanguine about the short-term roster changes this deal will entail. Marreese Speights is a useful player whose real value is somewhat less than his surface stats. A lot of people who follow the Grizzlies seem to be under the impression that Speights bloomed into something dramatically different than he had previously been after donning Beale Street Blue. But, really, Speights just got more playing time.
He’s remained much the same player: A good-not-great scorer and rebounder who’s dependent on an excellent mid-range jumper but who is also mistake-prone, a poor defender, and someone who’s overall impact grades out fairly poorly based on on-court/off-court breakdowns. Speights’ poor-man’s-Z-Bo production was a big help for a desperate Grizzlies team last season, but as first Randolph and then Darrell Arthur got healthy and back into the rotation, Speights was starting to settle, naturally, into the fourth slot in the team’s frontcourt rotation. This month, in games where Randolph, Gasol, and Arthur have all been active, Speights has been playing about 12 minutes a game. $4.2 million was a lot to pay a player in that role, especially for a team over the tax.