The Memphis Grizzlies are one of the hotter topics in sports after their blockbuster trade earlier in the week. If you don’t know about the trade, you can catch up on it with this article. If you are caught up, let’s get into it.
The topic of the Grizzlies’ future came up on the Zach Lowe Podcast this week, with Zach Lowe, Jonathan Givony, and Mike Schmitz.
It started with a conversation about who would be the best trade partner if Memphis plans to trade up even further. Unsurprisingly, the three analysts landed on the same team as this very site — the Golden State Warriors.
Zach Lowe’s trade between the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors involves Brandon Clarke and De’Anthony Melton
Zach Lowe came up with a trade hypothetical that, in his defense, was seemingly drafted on the fly. The trade itself may be a good starting point for both sides, but it’s hard to see the Grizzlies or Warriors agreeing to this one. Here’s what the trade looks like.
Again, this trade looks like more of a starting point for both teams as opposed to the final thing, so the specifics shouldn’t be taken very seriously. Here’s what Zach Lowe said about the trade on the podcast.
"“So here’s a trade that works — Melton, Clarke and No. 10 for [Jordan] Poole, [Kevon] Looney, [Mychal] Mulder and [Damion] Lee — because that’s how many guys you have to get to cobble up the salary to make it work — and No. 7. I could see Golden State saying, ‘That’s still not enough for us to go from seven to 10.’ I could see Memphis saying, ‘That’s too much for us.’ I could see the number of players involved being complicated — it gets a little bit messy.”"
Even so, the Warriors don’t have much talent currently surrounding Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, so Golden State’s front office may be interested in bringing in De’Anthony Melton or Brandon Clarke, both of whom are extremely solid energy guys off of the bench.
Mike Schmitz weighed in on the subject with why he believes De’Anthony Melton could be a great fit with the Warriors. Here’s what he said.
"“It’s a little complicated — [De’Anthony] Melton would be awesome with Steph and Klay. Ball-mover, has improved as a shooter, defender, smart — he fits that style of play.”"
The fact that he’s absolutely correct about De’Anthony Melton is what makes this trade so unrealistic at this point in time. There’s too much value attached to De’Anthony Melton, who averaged 9.1 points and 1.2 steals in 20 minutes per game last season, for the Grizzlies to give him up for a handful of bench players.
Right now, this trade is a mess, but at least it’s a repairable mess.
Both sides can do better and everybody knows it. In all likelihood, these two teams will be in talks from now until the draft, so don’t be surprised if we see a draft-day trade between these squads.