The latest edition of the Sports Betting Tips podcast with Chris Sheridan is live as the veteran journalist is joined by Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies. Of course, the Grizzlies are a hot topic of conversation these days as the NBA trade deadline approaches. It looks like they’ve gone just about as far as they can go with Marc Gasol and Mike Conley Jr., so they might be looking to move both players and try to head in a new direction.
“The Grizzlies are increasingly anxious to get on with it in terms of Gasol and Conley,” says Herrington. “They were hoping to be a playoff team, but things have gotten so bad, so quickly that they’ve made an internal decision that it’s time to move on”.
Memphis has been in decline since the 2015 season, when they topped out with 55 wins. They finished with 42 wins in 2016, 43 in 2017 and then tumbled all the way down to just 22 last season when injuries ravaged the team. The hope was that with the healthy bodies, along with some high draft picks, Memphis could again contend for 50 wins and a playoff spot. Things started well as they won 15 of their first 24 games but they have been a disaster since. They have won just five times in their last 29 games and entered the weekend having dropped 17 of 19.
While that’s created an urgency to make some moves, the Grizzlies aren’t compelled to do anything right now.
“I do think the Grizzlies are motivated to make deals with Gasol and Conley before the deadline, but they don’t have to do it before the deadline,” says Herrington. “They could wait until the summer as Conley still has two more years left on his contract and there could be potential suitors that aren’t there now.”
The question becomes who are the main suitors for Conley or Gasol. The Indiana Pacers have been closely tied to Conley, but they might not be as motivated now that All-Star Victor Oladipo is out for the season. The Detroit Pistons are another team that could be a fit. Conley and Blake Griffin would form a nice core as things simply haven’t worked out with Reggie Jackson. However, those trade talks are not far along.
If the Grizzlies do move Conley and Gasol, Jaren Jackson will become the face of the franchise.
“Jaren Jackson is the lone untouchable on the roster right now,” says Herrington. “That is their one building block”.
Unfortunately for Memphis, they don’t have many others. Chandler Parsons has been a disaster and the team would love to shed his contract. They also have a number of veterans on expiring contracts like Shelvin Mack, JaMychal Green, Justin Holiday and Omri Casspi that they’d like to move, which really doesn’t leave them with much.
However, if they can move Conley and Gasol, they’ll only have about $50 million on the books for next season, which means they’ll be in great shape to start adding some pieces.
To hear the full episode of Sports Betting Tips with Chris Sheridan, tune in at GetMoreSports.com.
