The 2016 NBA trade deadline passed on Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. central time with 11 trades being completed in what was a relatively uneventful deadline.
However, the Memphis Grizzlies were involved in two separate deadline deals that saw a total of six players and five draft picks change hands.
The first trade was completed Wednesday, the day before the deadline, and it involved the Grizzlies sending Courtney Lee to the Charlotte Hornets, the Hornets sending Brian Roberts to the Miami Heat and P.J. Hairston and two second round picks to the Grizzlies, and the Heat sending Chris “Birdman” Andersen and two second round picks to the Grizzlies.
Essentially, the Grizzlies got four second round picks, Hairston and Anderson for Lee.
Hairston, a 2014 first round pick, was pegged as a shooter coming out of college with a decent amount of defensive upside. The former North Carolina Tar Heel has struggled in his time with the Hornets, making just 30.4 percent of his three-pointers in a season-and-a-half in Charlotte.
The Hornets elected not to pick up Hairston’s third-year rookie option, meaning he can leave this off-season, and the Grizzlies will have no rights to match or go over the salary cap to resign him.
Andersen will likely come in and provide bench minutes for the Grizzlies, who were in need of another big man after Marc Gasol’s injury and Ryan Hollins’ contract running up. Andersen has logged 20 minutes in the first two games since the trade, with JaMychal Green starting alongside Zach Randolph in the frontcourt.
The second deadline deal the Grizzlies were involved in was completed just minutes before the deadline expired. Jeff Green was sent to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Lance Stephenson and a protected future first round pick.
Stephenson, a 25-year-old swingman who played his college ball at Cincinnati, is in his sixth NBA season, spending his first four with the Pacers, one with the Hornets and appearing in 43 games for the Clippers this season.
Coming out of high school, Stephenson was widely regarded as one of the top-10 players in his class, and after spending just his freshman season at Cincinnati, Stephenson was selected at pick number 40 in the 2010 NBA Draft.
Stephenson played sparingly during his first couple of seasons in Indiana, but by his fourth season, Stephenson, who averaged 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists while posting a league-high five triple-doubles, had established himself as an NBA starter.
Stephenson signed a lucrative free agent contract with the Hornets, but he was dealt to the Clippers after one disappointing season.
This season, Stephenson has posted a career high in field goal percentage, 50 percent, and three-point percentage, 40.4 percent.
With both Lee and Green gone and the Grizzlies 2014 first round pick Jordan Adams sidelined with an injury, there is plenty of opportunity for both Stephenson and Hairston to earn rotation minutes for the remainder of the season.
Hairston started Sunday’s game against the Toronto Raptors with Tony Allen missing the game due to injury, but it was Stephenson, who finished with 16 points, three rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes, that caught everyone’s attention.
But even beyond the on-court impact that the Grizzlies will get from these trades, it’s the future trade assets that are the real value.
The Grizzlies acquired five draft picks, one first and four seconds, for two players in Lee and Green that were almost certainly going to leave in the off-season.
Memphis owes two futures firsts, one to Denver by way of Cleveland and one to Boston, so getting these future picks replenishes the Grizzlies stockpile of future assets.
Additionally, the Grizzlies project to have over $20 million in cap space this off-season, and none of the Anderson (unrestricted free agent), Hairston (unrestricted free agent) or Stephenson (team-option for $9.4 million next season) group have any guaranteed salary beyond this season, meaning the Grizzlies will still have exactly the same amount of money to spend this summer as they did before the deals.
In essence, the Grizzlies were able to flip two expiring players for flyers on young talented guys (Hairston and Stephenson), a veteran who can help solve their shortage of post players (Anderson) and five future draft picks – all without jeopardizing this off-season’s cap space.
