We’ve heard all season that the Memphis Grizzlies are confident about their chances of trading veteran swingman Andre Iguodala before the deadline rather than having to buy him out.
According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com , executives around the NBA suspect Memphis’ confidence stems from having an offer from the Dallas Mavericks as a fallback option. Such an offer would likely consist of Courtney Lee‘s expiring contract and the Warriors’ second-round pick.
Mavericks sources have “done their best to refute” that idea, per MacMahon. A pair of Dallas-based reporters suggested last month that the Mavs don’t plan on pursuing Iguodala. With the 2020 trade deadline right around the corner, it’s a matter of days before we find out whether or not that’s a smoke screen.
We suspect the Mavs would be willing to trade Golden State’s second-rounder, but perhaps there are targets they like more than Iguodala.
Here’s more on the Grizzlies:
- Despite being drafted in 2017, swingman Dillon Brooks is the longest-tenured Grizzlies player, having endured a roster overhaul and a pair of coaching staff shakeups during his three years in Memphis, writes Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com. In Wallace’s view, Brooks — who has averaged a career-best 16.0 points to go along with a .400 three-point percentage in 47 games this season — has made himself a Most Improved Player candidate as he nears restricted free agency.
- According to Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, the team would like to get newly recalled forward Josh Jackson into its rotation, tweets Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian. That didn’t happen on Tuesday since Jackson — who has been in the G League all season — had only one shootaround with the Grizzlies.
- If the Grizzlies (23-24) can keep building on the success they’ve enjoyed so far this season, they’ll end up skipping a long, painful rebuilding process, says Mark Giannotto of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. As Giannotto observes, every time it seems as if the overachieving Grizzlies might come back to earth, they’ve been doing something else to prove that success is sustainable.
