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The Memphis Grizzlies are obviously playing the long game.
Ja Morant is gone. The team will be building around Cameron Boozer moving forward. Now, it's a question of how quickly the Grizzlies will pivot back to competitive basketball.
If their Santi Aldama trade is any indication, it might be a while.
Memphis sent Aldama, along with the draft rights to Tarik Biberović, to the Dallas Mavericks. In exchange, they received AJ Johnson, two second-round picks, and a Top-20 protected 2030 first-round pick by way of the Golden State Warriors.
In essence, this was a salary dump.
Nobody can know whether that 2030 first-rounder will convey. In some ways, it's hard to love the odds from the Grizzlies' perspective. Steph Curry will likely be retired, as will most of the blockbuster trade targets the Warriors have been linked to this summer. By 2030, they may be among the worst teams in the NBA.
Otherwise, the Grizzlies didn't get much in this exchange. This will be Johnson's fourth NBA team in three seasons. He still holds potential, but it wouldn't be wise to gamble on him reaching it.
One can only assume that this deal was about moving Aldama's contract. That's a sensible decision, but it would tell us about the Grizzlies' direction moving forward.
Aldama was set to make $17 million next year. In a vacuum, he's worth that kind of money. Aldama is a 7-foot combo big who can shoot and survive in space defensively.
In theory, that's a player you'd want in your rotation with Cameron Boozer.
In practice, any NBA team needs to understand the timeline it's operating on. If you don't think you'll be ready to compete for a few years, you might not want even market-value contracts on your books.
Aldama is 25. That's young enough if the Grizzlies have meaningful short-term aspirations. By contrast, if they don't think they'll be playoff-bound for a few years, it would make more sense to move him for even the modest assets they received as soon as possible.
So, we can deduce the Grizzlies' intentions. This team is thinking long-term. That's fine, but with the lottery adjustments coming soon, outright tanking won't be a desirable strategy anymore. It could have made more sense for Memphis to hang onto a winning player like Aldama if they intend to even attempt to win games over the next couple of years.
In case it wasn't already clear, I would have kept Aldama. That said, the Grizzlies surely have a bigger plan that this deal is part of. Getting off his money could prove valuable once they use that space, and picking up even a protected future first doesn't hurt.
Grade: B
Continue reading...
Ja Morant is gone. The team will be building around Cameron Boozer moving forward. Now, it's a question of how quickly the Grizzlies will pivot back to competitive basketball.
If their Santi Aldama trade is any indication, it might be a while.
Memphis sent Aldama, along with the draft rights to Tarik Biberović, to the Dallas Mavericks. In exchange, they received AJ Johnson, two second-round picks, and a Top-20 protected 2030 first-round pick by way of the Golden State Warriors.
In essence, this was a salary dump.
Nobody can know whether that 2030 first-rounder will convey. In some ways, it's hard to love the odds from the Grizzlies' perspective. Steph Curry will likely be retired, as will most of the blockbuster trade targets the Warriors have been linked to this summer. By 2030, they may be among the worst teams in the NBA.
Otherwise, the Grizzlies didn't get much in this exchange. This will be Johnson's fourth NBA team in three seasons. He still holds potential, but it wouldn't be wise to gamble on him reaching it.
One can only assume that this deal was about moving Aldama's contract. That's a sensible decision, but it would tell us about the Grizzlies' direction moving forward.
Grizzlies May Miss Aldama Next Season
Aldama was set to make $17 million next year. In a vacuum, he's worth that kind of money. Aldama is a 7-foot combo big who can shoot and survive in space defensively.
In theory, that's a player you'd want in your rotation with Cameron Boozer.
In practice, any NBA team needs to understand the timeline it's operating on. If you don't think you'll be ready to compete for a few years, you might not want even market-value contracts on your books.
Aldama is 25. That's young enough if the Grizzlies have meaningful short-term aspirations. By contrast, if they don't think they'll be playoff-bound for a few years, it would make more sense to move him for even the modest assets they received as soon as possible.
So, we can deduce the Grizzlies' intentions. This team is thinking long-term. That's fine, but with the lottery adjustments coming soon, outright tanking won't be a desirable strategy anymore. It could have made more sense for Memphis to hang onto a winning player like Aldama if they intend to even attempt to win games over the next couple of years.
In case it wasn't already clear, I would have kept Aldama. That said, the Grizzlies surely have a bigger plan that this deal is part of. Getting off his money could prove valuable once they use that space, and picking up even a protected future first doesn't hurt.
Grade: B
Continue reading...
