Roster breakdown sheds light on shaky future for Grizzlies big

One of the biggest moves made by the Memphis Grizzlies this summer came in mid July when they opted to part ways with former lottery-selected wing, Ziaire Williams.

Following three straight underwhelming seasons with the franchise, Zach Kleiman and company cut ties with the talented, albeit highly inconsistent forward and traded him to the Brooklyn Nets.

In return for his services, the Grizzlies received the draft rights to 2014 second-round pick, Nemanja Dangubić and fourth-year big, Mamadi Diakite.

Considering Williams was a top-10 pick in his respective draft, this return value of one player who has yet to even make his way to the NBA since being selected and another who has revolved in and out of the G League throughout his career is certainly a tad underwhelming to see.

To many, the main benefit of the exchange seemed to be Memphis ridding themselves of the $6.1 million that would have been owed to Williams in 2024-25 and, in turn, cutting their overall team payroll farther away from the dreaded luxury tax level, while the idea of then parting ways with Diakite's deal would only add to the salary crunch.

However, this latter agenda may be harder to accomplish than some may have initially believed.

Mamadi Diakite might not be easily expendable for Memphis Grizzlies

While Diakite's $2.27 million salary for 2024-25 is far from a bank breaker, it holds a partially guaranteed aspect to it with a worth of approximately $1.39 million.

What this means is that even if the Grizzlies' original intentions actually were to shed salaries heading into this coming campaign, doing so with the 27-year-old may be a bit more complex than expected.

Sure, they could theoretically waive Diakie and remove him from the roster, but they'd still be left with that $1.39 million financial commitment and two vacated spots within the rotation that would need to be filled.

In simplified terms, they'd all but guarantee surpassing the luxury tax should they go about things in this manner, as they're already dangerously close to going over it as is (currently carry roughly $170 million in salary while the luxury tax threshold for this season is $170.8 million).

With how things currently stand, unless the Grizzlies cut Diakie within the next week and stretch out his guaranteed payments across the next several seasons, it seems that they'd be better off holding onto him at least heading into the upcoming campaign. According to Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors, he hasn't "gotten the sense" that the team is all that motivated to bring in a new player to flesh out the rest of the rotation anyway, which has him believing Memphis will stick with Diakite... for now, anyway.

The tweener big boasts career averages of 3.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, and half a block on 48.3 percent shooting from the floor through 55 games played in the association