What happens to Justise Winslow after Grizzlies’ trade with Pelicans?
For Memphis Grizzlies fans, the last few hours may seem like a dream. Who saw this trade coming?
The Grizzlies dealt out Jonas Valanciunas for a lot in return. An upgrade in both of their draft picks, moving them to the 10th-overall pick and the 40th-overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. They also brought in Steven Adams, who will fill in as a more defensive-minded option at the center position. The Grizzlies will maintain a physical presence down low.
Generally speaking, this trade doesn’t impact the Grizzlies roster very much, at least until the 2021 NBA Draft rolls around. Adams should fit in relatively seamlessly while Bledsoe will likely be gone before the start of the season.
The Memphis Grizzlies are now almost guaranteed to decline Justise Winslow’s team option
One player isn’t having such a great day.
Justise Winslow came to the Memphis Grizzlies with an injury that sat him out for around half of the 2020-21 season. When he returned, he was… well, terrible. Defensively, he was decent but didn’t drop anybody’s jaw. Offensively, there was a lid on the bucket from deep and close-range.
That said, nobody was overly upset about this. Outside of the fact that he was eating up some of Tyus Jones’ point guard minutes, fans were relatively patient with Justise Winslow. The former Duke point forward had a rough year but that didn’t mean his time in Memphis was over.
There was still plenty of upside in keeping Winslow around — he’s not going to finish with a bottom-10 Player Efficiency Rating for two years in a row, so if the cap space is there, why not keep him around? That was the general mood around Memphis for the past few weeks.
Now, a slight issue has risen. You know that cap space that I was talking about in the last paragraph? With the addition of Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams, who has a larger contract than Jonas Valanciunas, there won’t be any room left for Winslow’s slow-moving experiment.
Even if Memphis cut Bledsoe, he would cost $3.9 million against their budget. Adams doesn’t have the worst contract in the world, but he’ll be getting paid about $17 million in the upcoming season. After that, he’ll be getting $18 million.
Valanciunas would have only cost Memphis $14 million, which would have allowed for the Grizzlies to potentially accept Winslow’s option.
At this point in time, you can consider both Winslow and Bledsoe gone. Both were in unfortunate situations and will hopefully find their footing in this league elsewhere.