Herrington: What the Grizzlies’ trade offer to Brooklyn says about this season
Despite online rumors, the Memphis Grizzlies did not make a trade on Sunday. Instead, Brooklyn Nets' Dorian Finney-Smith will go to the Lakers. Finney-Smith plays during an Emirates NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo file)
On Sunday afternoon, the Memphis Grizzlies did not make a trade.
Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy. Most days of the year, the Grizzlies do not make a trade.
But this was different: A trade happened — the Brooklyn Nets sending forward Dorian Finney-Smith to the Los Angeles Lakers — and we got an unusual amount of immediate reporting about a competing offer from the Grizzlies.
As apparently first reported by veteran NBA writer Marc Stein on his Substack site and subsequently corroborated by multiple other sources, the Grizzlies offered Luke Kennard, John Konchar and a protected 2025 first-round pick to the Nets for Finney-Smith and their 2025 second-round pick.
If this sounds familiar, you may have seen this scenario presented in my initial Grizzlies trade-market preview column a couple of weeks ago, where Finney-Smith was one of four potential targets featured.
It was perhaps the most obvious potential deal on the board.
The Nets instead chose the Lakers’ offer of guard D’Angelo Russell and three future second-round picks, with an exchange of low-contract guards (Maxwell Lewis for Shake Milton) also part of the deal.
Topics
Grizzles basketball Los Angeles Lakers Dorian Finney-Smith Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
Subscribers to The Daily Memphian help fund our not-for-profit newsroom of nearly 40 local journalists plus more than 20 freelancers, all of whom work around the clock to cover the issues impacting our community. Subscriptions - and donations - also help fund our community access programs which provide free access to K-12 schools, community organizations, and more. Thank you for making our work possible.
Chris Herrington on demand
Never miss an article. Sign up to receive Chris Herrington's stories as they’re published.
Enter your e-mail address
Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington covers the Memphis Grizzlies and writes about Memphis culture, food, and civic life.
Want to comment on our stories or respond to others? Join the conversation by subscribing now. Only paid subscribers can add their thoughts or upvote/downvote comments. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.