Herrington: An updated Grizzlies trade-deadline preview
With the NBA trade deadline looming, what, if any, trades will the Grizzlies make? Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins (middle) during a timeout against the Orlando Magic on Saturday, October 26, 2024. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington covers the Memphis Grizzlies and writes about Memphis culture, food, and civic life.
The NBA trade deadline is a week away, and this feels like a pretty atypical one for the Grizzlies.
In the recent past, the deadline has approached with close to certainty that the franchise would do something but also with close to certainty that the something would not be major.
Those are the kinds of deadlines that yield small, semi-predictable moves: Trading away free-agents-to-be Steven Adams and Xavier Tillman Sr. amid a lost season. Adding role-player shooter Luke Kennard on the way to the playoffs.
This trade deadline feels like an inverse for the Grizzlies: The team’s name has been persistent in the NBA’s highest-profile public trade conversation, around disgruntled Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler. At the same time, it feels like the odds of the Grizzlies doing nothing at all are greater than in recent memory.
You never know when you’ll have your best team. The Grizzlies are good (again) this season. But they also start two rookies in Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells. Next season, stars Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. will still be in their early primes, while Edey and Wells will be rookies no more. But certainty requires a crystal ball to see the future of health and development, and no one has that.
Even less certain is when the best opportunity will come, which doesn’t always match up with your best team. Maybe the best opportunity has already passed. Maybe it’s right now.
The Grizzlies are good, but far from perfect: They could use more size on the perimeter and more experience and physicality anywhere.
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