Does this trade make sense for Memphis Grizzlies?
When you look at the big picture, this trade actually does make sense, even though it seems like the Grizzlies may be getting less value than anticipated for a player like Kyle Anderson.
Right now, Memphis knows they are not a contending team in the Western Conference and their ceiling is limited for the 2021-22 season, which is why they have been flipping around players via trades all offseason long.
Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Dillon Brooks are this team’s three focal points right now with other young assets like Desmond Bane, Ziaire Williams, Santi Aldama, Brandon Clarke and Xavier Tillman. Everyone else is disposable and can be traded, which is why the Grizzlies could very well look to remain “sellers” during the 2021-22 season in anticipation of being big-time “buyers” during next offseason.
With the way the Grizzlies roster is constructed, they are going to have roughly $30M in cap space to play around with next offseason given the players on their roster right now.
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Jaren Jackson Jr. will be a restricted free agent, so a large chunk of this cap space could go towards re-signing him long-term, but Memphis will have more cap space and three first-round picks to potentially add another All-Star caliber player to this roster to pair with Morant.
Moving Kyle Anderson now gives the Grizzlies more assets to be able to do so and quite as mentioned before, they could possibly look to flip Jeremy Lamb again for more future draft assets.
Kyle Anderson was a key player for Memphis last season, but with him being in the final year of his contract and not presenting much of an upside, it is hard to see the Grizzlies keeping him past this year anyways.
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If they really wanted to keep Anderson, they could always re-sign him next offseason since he will be an unrestricted free agent, so not only would the Grizzlies get the same amount of cap space entering next offseason by making this trade, but they would also add a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 first-round pick.
This value is a major win for Memphis if they were to trade Kyle Anderson, which is why this deal with Indiana makes sense for the Grizzlies to make.
