NBA Draft: 5 predictions for a potentially crazy night
By Ben Beecken
The Grizzlies will trade Chandler Parsons and No. 4 draft pick
There have been plenty of rumors swirling regarding the Memphis Grizzlies and their desire to shed the two years and $29 million left on Chandler Parson’s contract.
In order to convince another team to take on the albatross of a deal, the No. 4 pick in the draft would surely need to be involved. The Dallas Mavericks are one of the teams thought to be in the lead for completing this deal; it would of course be a homecoming for Parsons, who played in Dallas prior to signing his massive deal in Memphis.
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, the Grizzlies have been reluctant to complete a trade thus far.
Will be interesting to see whether the prospects of selecting Jaren Jackson instead of Luka Doncic changes Memphis' thinking about how they value the #4 pick. The word is that up until today they've shown little interest in the trade proposals they've received to this point.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 20, 2018
The guess here is that there are plenty of teams prepared with their best offer that they’ll throw Memphis’ way depending on how the first three picks of the draft shake out. If a coveted player drops, whether it’s Luka Doncic, Marvin Bagley III, or Jaren Jackson Jr., there will no doubt be a team lined up as a suitor that is saving its best offer for the last moment.
Late on Wednesday, less than 24 hours prior to the draft, Givony named a list of suitors for the No. 4 pick, all of whom are surely expecting to take Parsons and his contract back.
And while it is a lot of money for a team to willingly take on, Parsons is still a useful role player when healthy — which, of course, isn’t often. He’s a 37.7 percent 3-point shooter but has played just 70 games total over the past two years.
No matter which way you slice it, Parsons still carries a massive weight in the form of his contract, but I’m betting that the Grizzlies are confident enough in their ability to rebuild on the fly that they’d rather have the cap relief than make a pick at No. 4.