The Grizzlies roster is officially trimmed down to 15 players with this cut

The Memphis Grizzlies accomplished a lot throughout the past few months. Notably, the Grizzlies traded away Jonas Valanciunas and indirectly brought in a handful of new players. That list of players included rookie Ziaire Williams and experienced players like Jarrett Culver, Sam Merrill, and Kris Dunn.

Still, by the end of their preseason slate, Memphis had 16 rostered players — one over the league’s maximum. A trade or cut seemed imminent, and as more time passed, it looked like Memphis would opt to waive a player to trim their roster to the proper size.

And that’s exactly what they did.

On Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies waived Kris Dunn, making their opening night roster official

The timing shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, though the Memphis Grizzlies’ decision to cut Kris Dunn may surprise some. Dunn, who is still a serviceable NBA player, seemed like a strong candidate to replace Tyus Jones as Ja Morant’s backup.

Heck, I hypothesized that the timing of Dunn’s dental procedure, which kept him out of five preseason games, was a sign that he had some level of security with the team. I was wrong on that front, as the former fifth overall pick was waived from the Grizzlies roster on Saturday afternoon.

Dunn originally came to Memphis via trade from the Boston Celtics in a deal that involved residual pieces of the original Valanciunas deal. The Grizz shipped off Juancho Hernangomez, receiving a two-man package in return, along with a future second-round pick swap. Both Carsen Edwards and Dunn have been waived since.

The Grizzlies took a chance on an experimental player in Dunn, and in this case, it didn’t pay off.

Memphis also waived Matthew Hurt and David Stockton, though these moves will be less of a surprise to Grizz fans. On the same day, the Grizzlies also exercised Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Brandon Clarke’s rookie scale options.