The Memphis Grizzlies are in a strange spot right now. While the team’s draft and trade history would imply that they’re right in the middle of a rebuild, the team’s most recent season results would say otherwise.
In the last three years, Memphis has drafted two players in the top four picks of the NBA Draft in Ja Morant (No. 2 overall) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (No. 4 overall).
These two players are still developing but have managed to guide their team to a playoff season already. There’s no way to twist this into a negative, but there are certain questions that arise in a situation like this.
Should the Memphis Grizzlies begin to trade away their first-round picks?
At some point, a team’s first-round picks start to lose value. When a team is a perennial playoff contender, their late first-round pick won’t do as much as it did at the beginning of their rebuild when they were in the lottery.
This year, the Grizzlies are officially out of the lottery again after coming to a 38-34 finish and the 8th seed in the Western Conference standings.
The Grizzlies have already shown that they’re not afraid to move around in the draft, ending up with the 30 and 34th overall picks in last year’s draft, where they picked up Desmond Bane and Xavier Tillman. These picks both panned out extremely well, most notably resulting in an All-Rookie selection for the shooting guard.
This, if anything, should prove that Memphis is not married to their first-round pick in the upcoming draft. Right now, they’re set to pick 17th overall, an in-betweener pick that may not be of much value anymore.
Right now, Memphis has a long line of strong role players who are fighting for playing time. While their depth paid off in 2020-21, it may be starting to work against them.
Take Brandon Clarke as an example. Clarke was an extremely impressive rookie out of the 2019 NBA Draft who regressed in his second season with a few players overlapping in his position. At this point in time, there aren’t any clear holes on this roster that can be filled by role players.
This once again begs the question — should the Memphis Grizzlies begin to consider trading away their future first-round picks?
Depending on the deal, this could help the Grizzlies bring in a third piece to help Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. down the road. Either way, they have time to make a decision, as we’re still in the early stages of the offseason.