SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 09: Jae Crowder #99 of the Memphis Grizzlies is defended by ... [+]
With the NBA trade deadline looming, the Memphis Grizzlies are a team to watch. The team has five expiring contracts on its roster and that numbers jumps to seven if you include to-be restricted free agents De’Anthony Melton and Dillon Brooks. It also has cap space next summer to eat bad money teams may want to get off of. As of now, only the Hawks are projected to have more cap space in 2020.
Melton and Brooks are different than the rest of the expiring deals, though, because they could be part of Memphis’ Ja Morant-Jaren Jackson Jr. centric future. The other five players on expiring deals — Andre Iguodala, Solomon Hill, Jae Crowder, Josh Jackson and Bruno Caboclo — probably aren’t. The Grizzlies are also is in the thick of the playoff race, currently ahead of the Spurs and Trail Blazers for the No. 8 seed. The Pelicans are still lurking too with Zion Williamson back. Trading rotation pieces like Crowder and Hill could stop a playoff appearance from happening.
A weak 2020 free agent class could lessen the value of expiring contract on the trade market too. That said, here are the Grizzlies’ expiring contracts ranked from most valuable to least valuable. Since they won’t be traded, Melton and Brooks are not included in this ranking.
Andre Iguodala
It feels like a matter of when, not if, Iguodala will end up on the Lakers or Clippers or some other contender. The question, though, is how he ends up somewhere else.
At $17.1 million, Iguodala is tricky to match salary with. But even if he’s not the best version of himself, or even the version of himself that won a Finals MVP, he can help teams in 15-20 minute a game spurts. A whole season on the sideline doing whatever he’s been doing can’t hurt either. If the last few seasons are any indicator, Iguodala will greatly benefit from pre-playoff rest. The question is whether or not it matters that instead of coming via days off with the Warriors, it came away from a normal team structure and environment.
If it comes down to it, it’ll be interesting to see if a team is willing to give up something of value (a first-round pick? Two seconds?) for Iguodala or if they’ll just wait for him to get bought out.
One trade that makes sense: Iguodala for Mason Plumlee’s expiring. The Nuggets get someone who can help them this year, Memphis gets some kind of pick compensation. That’s a win-win.
Jae Crowder
Crowder is a more affordable version of Iguodala — he’s only making $7.8 million this year. He also doesn’t have the track record that Iguodala does in big moments, but certainly would provide a good team with needed wing and small-ball four depth. Logical landing spots would be the Rockets, the Nuggets, the Lakers and the Clippers.
The question, though, is how willing the Grizzlies are to deal Crowder. He’s been a starter all year and trading him would throw a well-functioning group off. But if the Memphis does get enough value back, thinking about the roster for this year only is not a good enough reason to do a deal.
Solomon Hill
At a higher salary, Hill is a lesser version of Crowder. There’s no reason a team would trade for him unless they could get Crowder instead or if the market runs dry quicker than expected. Hill does offer wing and small ball four depth, so teams could certainly do worse.
Bruno Caboclo
Caboclo has been a non-factor this year and isn’t someone worth giving up assets for. Unless he’s used to match salary, he’s likely to finish out his contract and head elsewhere next summer.
Josh Jackson
Jackson is putting up good numbers in the G League. But the former top-five pick isn’t going to play in the NBA for the Grizzlies and he’s likely not going to be someone a team trades for. If the 2020 free agent class was strong and teams were looking to get off money to spend on other players, he could be moved. But that’s not the case.
