Memphis Grizzlies: 4 takeaways from the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline

1. They shouldn’t be done making moves

This point is a bit contradictory compared to No. 2, but it still touches on the Grizzlies’ uncertainty.

Holding on to Mike Conley is a positive for both on-court performance and team moral. Without Conley, the team would have no real leader or valuable player, and would certainly get closer and closer to the bottom of the lottery.

Memphis should look to deal Conley again in the summer, maybe snagging a first round pick in the process. He will have two years left on his deal and is coming off his best year of basketball. He’s stayed injury free and is putting up fantastic shooting numbers.

But keeping Conley does run its own risks. What if he gets hurt between now and April? What if his play, much like Gasol’s, heavily declines throughout the year? His value is certainly not going up; it will either go down or simply stay the same.

Memphis already waited loo long in dealing Gasol or Conley for a better package and running down the same path again could be risky. Who knows what Conley may fetch in the summer? Will it be another post-free agency period move after all the teams have made their free agency decisions, or will we see something during the draft?

Earlier, Avery Bradley’s contract situation was mentioned as someone who is “kind of” on the books for next season. Bradley has a team option on his contract and just $2 million of that is guaranteed. The Grizzlies could package that semi-expiring deal to take on some bad money and an asset. But then again, this was a team that just traded four players and received two realistic future assets going forward.

The Grizzlies had a busy deadline day and made a lot of deals, but it’s unclear if they really accomplished anything. The team is slightly worse than before, but not terribly worse where they’ll be tanking. Memphis is caught in no-man’s land and will have to make a few more moves to either commit to rebuilding or play in the middle of the pack.