Grizzlies Off-Season Central: Needs In The Draft.

The Memphis Grizzlies own the 25th pick in the first round of the NBA draft. For a team that was a top 4 seed this past season, at this point in time they have a few holes that they may need to plug, depending on what they do with their own free agents.

Obviously, the biggest need for the Grizzlies is a back-up point guard. Despite everything that happened against the Clippers in round 1, Memphis’ inability to score without point guard Mike Conley Jr. on the floor had to have been the most disappointing.

Conley is a great player, but he simply can not play 48 minutes a night. He has to be able to rest at least 10-12 minutes a night, and that isn’t even counting those random nights when he has to sit for extended periods due to foul trouble.

The lack of scoring when Conley was on the floor wasn’t just unique to the playoffs, it was a season-long trend that started with the trade of point guard Greivis Vasquez.

Vasquez was a solid back-up and saved the Grizzlies’ bacon in at least two different playoff games in 2011 when Conley landed in early foul trouble, but he never gained the favor of Coach Lionel Hollins and found himself in the doghouse when he was in Memphis and that was one of the main reasons he was traded.

Vasquez was far from a star, but he was probably the Grizzlies’ best draft pick of the past three seasons, depending on how you feel about Xavier Henry, who also is no longer with the team.

Delving further into the Grizzlies’ depth chart, you’ll notice that back-up point guard Gilbert Arenas will be a free agent when the league year ends after the Finals close, and the team also holds an option on point guard Jeremy Pargo who’s up and down play also landed him in the Vasquez Suite of the Lionel Hollins doghouse.

If the Grizzlies choose to bring one of their own guys back, or sign someone else for that role, the team will likely have a spot open at back-up center.

Hamed Haddadi likely won’t be retained and if he is, I don’t know if the Grizzlies would be interested in paying him in excess of the $1 million that he made last season.

Drafting someone may be more frugal, especially if there’s a more NBA ready big that late in the first round.

If the Grizzlies bring back Haddadi and Pargo/Arenas, then they likely won’t be able to afford to bring back sixth man O.J. Mayo. In that scenario, they likely try to draft the best pure scorer available. Think MarShon Brooks of the Brooklyn Nets who actually went 25th overall in the 2011 draft by some coincidence.

It’s also possible that the Grizzlies trade their pick for a player, but since they’re over the cap, they’ll have to package the pick with a player to match salaries, unless the player would fit into the Grizzlies trade exception that they got in the Sam Young trade with Philadelphia.

The last scenario seems unlikely, but needs to be addressed.

If the Grizzlies are able to keep O.J. Mayo by signing him to an extension, then they may not be able to afford to make their first round pick.

Memphis is right up against the luxury tax threshold right now, and if they have to pick and sign their first rounder, then that could put them over that line.

Further, there may not be enough minutes available to make such a pick worthwhile.

Unless the pick is a back-up point guard or center, the Grizzlies will be two-deep at every position and deeper than that some other spots, so making the pick to keep on the roster would make little sense.

They could flip the pick for a future first-rounder, or sell it altogether, as the Grizzlies did in the 2010 draft when they sold Dominique James to the Dallas Mavericks.

Things will become much more clear after the NBA’s Draft Lottery on Wednesday night, as that is typically the opening bell for the NBA’s trade season.

Coming up here at Beale Street Bears, we will profile potential Memphis targets with their first-round pick, and also touch on free agents that may be a fit as well.