Beale Street Bears staff reacts to the Memphis Grizzlies waiving Tony Wroten
By Ian Pierno
Did you know it’s possible to be waived by the same team twice in less than 100 days without playing a single game? Tony Wroten just did it.
The Memphis Grizzlies announced that they waived 23-year-old guard Tony Wroten Friday evening. It was the second time Wroten has been waived by the Memphis Grizzlies in the past 87 days and the third time overall in the past 89 days.
Wroten spent last year with the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks, but only appeared in eight games, all of which were with Philadelphia.
The Seattle-native and University of Washington product was selected 25th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies, but struggled to string together consistent minutes. After appearing in 35 games for the Grizzlies in 2012, he was traded to Philadelphia for the most protected pick of all-time.
"August 22, 2013: Traded by the Memphis Grizzlies to the Philadelphia 76ers for a 2014 2nd round draft pick. (Pick is top-50 and 56-60 protected and was not conveyed) via Basketball-Reference.com"
The waiving of Wroten means that rookies Wade Baldwin IV and Andrew Harrison are the only players competing to be the Memphis Grizzlies’ backup point guard behind Mike Conley.
We over at BealeStreetBears.com weren’t surprised to hear of the Wroten release. Jacob Collins sent a message in our Slack saying, “Tony Wroten is awful. He was the worst player at the (blue and white) scrimmage by leaps and bounds.”
Mohamed Bah said, “If nobody is writing the Tony Wroten sucks piece, I call dibs. Guy is trash.”
Sorry Mohamed, but you should’ve finished your other article on time.
Ryan Snellings, who is always the life of our digital party, pulled out a (terrible) pun: “Tony Wroten? More like ‘Tony Rotten,’ am I right?”
I wonder what Snellings’ Tinder pun pickup lines look like, but they’re probably pretty “Tony Rotten.”
There was some support for Wroten, as Ryan Schmitz noted that “He averaged 17 and 5 one year. He is good!”
Over the course of his career, Wroten has averaged 11.1 points, 3.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game on 41.3 percent shooting from the field. He played six minutes in the Grizzlies’ preseason loss to the Atlanta Hawks, scoring two points.
Also, never forget this gem:
“Wroten may not be the best point guard out there,” Parker Fleming said, “but his Phineas and Ferb tattoo goes down in the G.O.A.T. conversation. #GangGang”
In all seriousness, though, Wroten is a player that can score in bunches, averaging a solid 18.8 points per 36 minutes over the course of his career. We wish Wroten and his tatted friends the best moving forward.