Wednesday afternoon, the Memphis Grizzlies made the surprise decision to offload Xavier Tillman and his expiring contract as they shipped him out to the Boston Celtics in exchange for two future second-round picks.
The Memphis Grizzlies are trading F/C Xavier Tillman to the Boston Celtics for two second-round picks, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 7, 2024
With this move, it now marks the second time in the span of a week that GM Zach Kleiman has moved on from a core rotation piece, with the franchise opting to send beloved veteran Steven Adams to the Houston Rockets last Thursday.
Of course, with the February 8 trade deadline within literal hours of passing, there's still plenty of time for the franchise to make a few more alterations to their arsenal if they so chose and, in a recently surfaced clip from Joe Mullinax, host of the Locked on Grizzlies podcast, the analyst shared his belief that, be it by way of another trade or a player signing, "there's another shoe to drop."
Grizzlies analyst expects "more to come" following Xavier Tillman trade
"It was unlikely that Tillman was going to be part of the long-term plans so Memphis [was] wise to send out to Boston Xavier Tillman in exchange for a couple of second round picks far down the road. That's not as important in the short-term as the roster spot that is now available to the Grizzlies. They are not taking a player back in this trade with Boston. X is out, the Grizzlies have an open roster spot to fill. How do they do it? GG Jackson? Somebody else? There's another shoe to drop and there's more to come in Memphis [at] this trade deadline."Joe Mullinax
As Mullinax highlighted, the Grizzlies now find themselves with a vacated roster spot that, in theory, could be used to add on another player for the remainder of the season.
The analyst, along with former team Vice President of Basketball Operations and current Senior Staff Writer for The Athletic, John Hollinger, both seem to suspect that standout rookie GG Jackson could be the most likely candidate to fill this opening, though recent rumblings suggest that Memphis may be interested in bringing an outsourced talent onto their roster this trade season as well.
With time running low between now and Thursday's cutoff, fans should continue monitoring the Grizzlies closely.