On Wednesday, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports broke the news that the Memphis Grizzlies has acquired Luke Ridnour from the Orlando Magic in exchange for Janis Timma, a second-rounder the Grizzlies picked up in the 2013 NBA Draft.
The Orlando Magic has agreed to trade guard Luke Ridnour to the Memphis Grizzlies, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2015
For Luke Ridnour, the Grizzlies will send Orlando the rights to 2013 second-round pick Janis Timma, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2015
Ridnour is a 12-year veteran of the league, drafted in 2003 by the Seattle Supersonics with the 14th overall pick. The 6-foot-2 point guard is going into the final year of his contract which will pay him $2.75 million next season and had actually been considering retirement. Last season he averaged 4.0 points, 2.0 assists and 1.4 rebounds a game and only averaged 14.5 minutes in the 47 games he played in, a career-low.
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While trades before the draft are nothing new, this one has some people raising their eyebrows and wondering what exactly Memphis has up their sleeve.
If the Grizzlies were looking to increase their depth at the point guard position, they could simply sign restricted free agent Nick Calathes for either the same or even less money. But regardless, there are any number of younger, more versatile guards available that could be a decent backup to Mike Conley and Beno Udrih. What was it about Ridnour that made the Grizzlies do this deal?
Could it be the fact the Ridnour’s contract is not guaranteed if he’s waived before July 10?
It would seem that the Grizzlies might be working on something and want to use Ridnour as part of the deal. Possibly a deal that could happen before or even during the NBA Draft which happens Thursday night.
It would make sense for Memphis to want to make some kind of move on draft night. Given the team’s payroll and cap situation and the fact they are desperate to re-sign Marc Gasol, trading their 25th pick to a team for a couple second-rounders with non-guaranteed contracts and throwing Ridnour in to sweeten the deal seems fairly logical.
Even if a more impactful deal never happens, Ridnour is a perfectly competent point guard and would be good replacement for Calathes, who is almost certainly going to sign elsewhere, and brings some more veteran leadership to the locker room.
Timma, mostly known for being the final pick of the 2013 draft, has been playing in his native Latvia and it has been unclear if the Grizzlies ever intended to bring the 22-year old swingman over. If that situation will change now that Magic own his rights is still unclear, but for the Grizzlies to get a serviceable point guard in exchange for a player they might never have used sounds like a win at the end of the day to me.
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