Teams near the top of the draft continue to explore trade options as Thursday approaches. The Grizzlies are one of those teams, as they continue to receive significant interest in scenarios that would see them send out Chandler Parsons along with the No. 4 pick, per Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). According to Stein, it seems clear that remaining in the lottery is crucial to the Grizzlies, who are believed to be taking more calls than they’re making.
Meanwhile, a couple spots down the draft order, the Magic are also having “exploratory” trade talks, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said on Monday.
“We’re having discussions above us and below us, but I wouldn’t comment more specifically than that,” Weltman said, according to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. “It’s our job to explore every possible option, get to know the draft as well as we possibly can. And, obviously, the draft isn’t just about the draft. It’s about other roster moves that you could potentially look at as well. So there’s not a team we don’t talk to. There’s not a stone we don’t turn over.”
As Robbins notes, Weltman made similar comments leading up to last year’s draft. In that case, the Magic kept their lottery pick, but traded a couple of their other selections later in the draft.
Here’s more on the 2018 NBA draft:
- The Nuggets‘ Monday workout with potential first-round pick Mitchell Robinson was canceled, according to an announcement from the team. No reason for the cancellation was provided.
- Kentucky’s Wenyen Gabriel is working out for the Cavaliers today, then the Hornets on Tuesday, tweets Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com. Gabriel is a candidate to be drafted in the second round.
- The Warriors continued to take a closer look at prospects on Monday, bringing in Jeffrey Carroll (Oklahoma State), Xavier Cooks (Winthrop), Ben Emelogu (SMU), Melvin Frazier (Tulane), Terry Larrier (UConn), and William Lee (UAB) for workouts (Twitter link via Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News).
- Kerem Kanter, the younger brother of NBA veteran Enes Kanter, was in Oklahoma City on Monday to work out for the Thunder, writes Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. The younger Kanter brother isn’t considered likely to be drafted.
- Loyola-Chicago guard Donte Ingram is scheduled to work out for the Knicks on Tuesday, sources tell Ian Begley of ESPN.com.
Throw up the poll.. Which contract would you want the least, like you wouldn’t take it even if it was attached to the #1 overall pick:
3-Year Deals:
Adams 3/77.51M
Batum 3/76.66M
Dieng 3/48.67M
2-Year Deals:
Whiteside 2/52.49M
Parsons 2/49.2M
Anderson 2/41.78M
Noah 2/37.75M
Deng 2/36.8M
T.T. 2/35.99M
Biyombo 2/34M
Mozgov 2/32.72M
1-Year Deals:
Melo 1/27.9M
Not sure why Adams is on there, he’s providing return value on that contract and is a rock inside.
Is he? B/c there are guys getting paid less that produce more, even if he’s gifting rebounds to Westbrook to pad stats. Vucevic puts up a better stat line and shoots 30% better FT and is paid 1/2 as much in 29 Minutes. 10M more than Valanciunas who puts up the same stat line in 22 Minutes vs Adams 32 minutes.
Nice list. Anderson’s & Deng’s contracts have been successfully worked around. (Anderson will be a good guy for James to thow the ball out to if they get on the same team.) Dieng’s will be the worst if it makes KAT move on. Dang! Whiteside wins the what-just-happened award.
TT and Melo’s are the most tolerable.
Like I said before, a trade between the Clippers and Grizzlies is beneficial for both teams. Tobias Harris, Sam Dekker, and Sindarius Thornwell along with the 12th and 13th pick in exchange for Parsons and the 4th pick would work
That’s a very bad trade for the Clippers. Harris is good.
He’s good but the Clippers aren’t competitive with the current roster, especially since DeAndre is gone either this summer or next summer. Trading away Harris for Doncic or Bamba is a nessecary move is the Clips want to be contenders in a few years
I would rather trade DeAndre, draft Robert Williams and Collin Sexton/SGA and re-up Harris than end up with Bamba/Doncic and Parsons.
I wouldn’t hang up the phone on that possibility
Parsons, I’d want the least. But I’d take him for the 1st or 4th overall pick. I’m guessing almost all the 2 years were signed in 2016.
2016 was the Oprah year of contracts. Everyone got a big contract.
I would never waste a #4 just to get rid of a bad contract, that would end the little respect that I have for Memphis, in 20+ years in the NBA they only managed a handful of good players, embarrassing when you count the number of times they been in the lottery… Just Bibby & Abdur-Rahim both in the Vancouver years, then the Gasol Bros. though they didn’t select them neither, Pau via Atlanta, Marc via Lakers, so their record is really bad, if now they trade a potential franchise player to get rid of Parsons, they should fire all of them & not let them get a job in the league again man.