Choose Your Own Adventure: Jettisoning The Trade Fillers

As of this writing, we’re sitting mere two weeks and some change away from the NBA trade deadline. It’s one of the most exciting moments of the NBA season when thinks finish shaking out. We’d all be in the same page there I’m pretty sure.

Rumors—which have been flying for weeks—reach their peak… The various trade machines start to overload… Players have to wonder on the uncertainty of their futures…

And every fan and their mother believe they have “the trade to save the year” for their respective team.

I’ve got news for you… Said trade isn’t going to help Memphis. At least most likely this year. But it’s not about this year. Any trade made must occur with next year in mind. It’s not possible for this team to tank… But you can bet there’s going to be some not so fun losses in the Grizzlies future.

That doesn’t mean the front office doesn’t need to be trying to better this roster in any way they can. Long have fans clamored for some sort of consolidation trade to take place on Beale St… And thus far those please seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Is this the year that changes though? The NBA—out West in particular—seems amidst an ever changing hierarchy… If Memphis is able to make a move to better this roster they should make said move in a heartbeat.

The adventure you are set to embark means to help assist you in filling out possible trade packages. These are the players that would be the “and also” tagged on to a bigger contract. Or the players who when swapped it would be for a draft pick.

You know. Those kinds of guys.

Will each of the following players you encounter on your trek still be on this team? Come season’s end? I cannot say… But that doesn’t mean the time—and adventure—remaining won’t be enjoyable.

!BEWARE and WARNING!

‘This piece is different from other pieces. You and YOU ALONE are in charge of what happens the remainder of Memphis season. There are dangers, choices, adventures, and consequences. YOU must use all of your numerous talents and much of your enormous intelligence. The wrong decision could end in disaster—even death…

But don’t despair. At any time, YOU can go back and make another choice, alter the path of your story, and change its result… As the trade deadline draws near, the time for filling out package possibilities does as well…’

If you’re cutting ties with a former lottery pick, turn to #8…

Let’s have a quick exercise sound good? I’m going to give you three players’ production from a three-game span. Alright?

I want you to look at these player’s stats and tell me who you’d let go. If you had to pick one of the three to tag onto a trade… Or one of the three to trade for a draft pick… Who of the three is out?

Player A

Player B

Player C

If you said Player B, then you’re on the right adventure. If you said anything else… Well go pick one of the other options I guess… Sorry… Didn’t plan for that. Those guys are Santi Aldama (Player A) and David Roddy (Player C). Both of which have earned their minutes, even if it’s looking ugly.

Ziaire Williams—Player B above—has been playing abhorrent hoops. I mean it. I’m talking an absolute dreadful level of bad. Game in. And game out.

At least as of late. I’m not here to condemn his season as a whole. But the holes in his game have became a glaring problem as the season from Hell has progressed in Memphis.

For one he appears only capable of not being a net negative when sharing the floor with Ja Morant. That’s fine… If he were a rookie. As someone—a top 10 lottery pick mind you—about to finish his third season?

I find that to be unacceptable. It may be that other teams are also as out on Z, fellow adventurers… But let’s hope that’s not the case. It would make this option much easier.

If setting money on fire is more your speed, turn to #5…

‘A door to your right flies open, throwing a brilliant shaft of light into the corridor. Suddenly you are surrounded by a circle of snarling chimpanzees… They begin to close in…’

That’s a bit sudden and violent. Classic author of these books amiright?

Look, it’s not that the above is the fate I’d wish on anyone considering trading Vince Williams Jr… But it’s one-hundred percent that… One hundred percent that.

Vince is a part of the core and the future of the Grizzlies. If you’re packaging him out as nothing more than an addition to a trade? See the sudden and violent end above.

Who are you trading away at this year’s deadline?

With each day and with each game we draw ever closer to the impending trade deadline. It’s without doubt one of the most exciting times of the NBA season. In what is all but a lost season do the Grizzlies make a move?

After years of being on the receiving end of waves of “will they, won’t they” rumors… Will this be the season they make a trade to better the roster?

If so the possibility of one of the above options happening becomes larger. We’ll see in a couple weeks how the adventure’s gone for Memphis.

Photo Credit: (Stu Boyd II/The Commercial Appeal)