The Memphis Grizzlies owe a first round pick to the Boston Celtics at some point in the next three years. The team would prefer for that to convey this summer in the 2019 NBA Draft.
The way the Memphis Grizzlies have been playing they don’t have much of a choice in this regard. With how many games they’ve been losing recently they will very likely be in the bottom eight of the NBA standings.
They already made a move to acquire Justin Holiday to try and right the ship but that hasn’t helped at all. They dealt Wayne Selden and MarShon Brooks to get him but they also traded away two second-round picks.
If they really want this pick to convey this year then they should consider another move but it may be time to just admit they messed up and embrace the tank.
They don’t necessarily need to tank at the moment but if they’re going to be in the top eight of the 2019 NBA Draft then they might as well try and get the best pick possible.
One reason they want the pick to convey this year is that the consensus about the 2019 draft class is that it is relatively weak compared to other classes.
There are still a handful of prospects that they could select if they were to keep their pick so if that were to be what ends up happening then they should feel confident in selecting a good player.
The way this franchise has drafted recently it doesn’t matter how good the draft class is until they can show that they are capable of drafting successfully.
While they seemed to have been drafting better recently they still have a lot of bad picks they need to make up for if they want to turn this franchise around.
Jaren Jackson Jr. at 4th overall was a great pick and he looks like he can be a building block for the next chapter of this franchise’s history.
They have also done some good things in the 2nd round of the draft. Dillon Brooks and Jevon Carter have both shown that they can do a lot of good things while they’ve both also become fan favorites.
While many fans may want the first round pick in this year’s draft it may be in the best interest of the team to have the pick convey to Boston instead.
If that’s how the team feels then that’s what they should do. It’s not an extremely deep class so they definitely have a right to feel that way.
Keeping the pick wouldn’t be a terrible thing either though. There are plenty of targets who would fit in nicely with this young core going forward.
We shouldn’t act like the Grizzlies have a choice in this matter though. The way that they’ve been playing they won’t have a chance for the pick to convey because they will be locked into a top-eight pick if they continue their losing ways.