Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:00 pm  |  12 responses

Report: Memphis Grizzlies Trading for Marreese Speights


Memphis is sending Xavier Henry to New Orleans, along with two second-round picks to Philly, in exchange for big man Marreese Speights. Reports ESPN: “The Grizzlies were in search of added depth in the frontcourt even before star forward Zach Randolph suffered a bruised knee when teammate O.J. Mayo fell onto him in Sunday’s 40-point loss in Chicago. That’s because Memphis lost versatile forward Darrell Arthur, its most valued reserve, to a season-ending Achilles injury last month. Although Randolph’s injury was diagnosed only as a bone bruise, Memphis wants to move quickly in the wake of its 2-3 start. The Grizzlies have never faced higher expectations after upsetting top-seeded San Antonio in the first round of last season’s playoffs before losing to Oklahoma City in the second round in seven games. Randolph averaged 20.1 points and 12.2 rebounds last season and was averaging 19 points and nine rebounds before he was injured. Speights is in his fourth season with the 76ers, who selected him with the 16th overall pick in the 2007 draft but has never averaged more than 16.4 minutes per game in the NBA. Henry played in 38 games as a rookie last season in Memphis and has missed the start of this season with torn ligaments in his right ankle.”

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  • BETCATS Posted: Jan.4 at 12:03 pm
    Memphis keeps giving New Orleans players. lol CONSPIRACY

  • niQ Posted: Jan.4 at 12:11 pm
    I guess Xavier Henry will finally get some playing time since Eric Gordon is injured every other game.

  • nbk Posted: Jan.4 at 12:19 pm
    This doesn’t make sense. What is New Orleans giving up? They can’t just take players in a trade without giving up anything. And Philly is giving up Mareese Speights for just 2nd round draft picks? wtf?

  • niQ Posted: Jan.4 at 12:32 pm
    New Orleans might be giving one of the 2nd round picks, nbk. Not sure though. And it’s not that big of a surprise. Wasn’t Beasley traded for a 2nd round pick too? And I think Denver obtainted Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer from Dallas for ONE 2nd round pick.. LOL NOt 100% sure here but that’s from what I remember. Haha.

  • Fat Lever Posted: Jan.4 at 12:35 pm
    Mo is a one trick pony that doesn’t play D or rebound, which isn’t necessarily good for a dude that’s 6’10″. He wants to stay out on the perimeter and shoot jumpers all game. If he hasn’t figured it out by now, he won’t. Vucavic has already taken his minutes in the Sixer rotation. I always like Henry’s game, after seeing him against my Temple Owls a couple of years ago, but we’ve already got ET, Lou, Jodie. 2nd round picks are meaningless to this Sixer team.

  • nbk Posted: Jan.4 at 12:47 pm
    niQ, Beasley was traded to make room for Role players next to the big 3. Speights was traded for what reason? It’s not like he’s eating a hole in their salary cap. His $2M contract coming off the books moves Philly’s salary number to $67M from the $69,385,667 that it is today. ($70M is luxury tax, so they are already under the threshold.) What is the reasoning behind giving him up? To make room for Nikola Vuvecic?

  • nbk Posted: Jan.4 at 12:51 pm
    And Speights is a double-double player if he plays starters minutes. He also blocks more than a shot every 30 minutes, so it’s not like he’s absent on defense or the boards, he’s definitely productive. I don’t see how Vucevic is that valuable to just give away Speights.

  • CoolWhip Posted: Jan.4 at 2:31 pm
    Has an 8 seed that defeats a 1 seed in the playoffs ever done anything the following year? Off the top of my head are the ’94 (?) Dikembe led Nuggets, and the ’07 Warriors.
    It is unfair with all the injuries the Grizzlies had, but I actually didn’t expect them to take that next step regardless.

  • Jay Posted: Jan.4 at 3:26 pm
    Watched all the Sixers games this year, and I was surprised to see Speights rotting away on the bench. Doug has his way of doing things though, and he’s left decent players out of his rotation before. Still feel like Speights has some potential though. It didn’t seem like a necessary trade for the Sixers. Only good thing is by collecting draft picks they might be able to use them in either another trade or package them to try and trade up to the first round in this deep draft.

  • Allenp Posted: Jan.4 at 6:54 pm
    Speights can play. Don’t sleep. he’s just a little soft in the head, but he has very good skills. It’s crazy how many cats can hoop, but can’t get their minds right.
    And those are the cats who actually make the League.

  • dfrance21 Posted: Jan.4 at 8:32 pm
    Speights showed a lot of promise the year before Collins got there. I just think Collins doesn’t like him for whatever reason. Like NBK said, give him 30 mins a game he’ll get you at least 10 and 10 easy.

  • KJ Posted: Jan.5 at 4:47 am
    The article forgot to mention that Philly also got a trade exception along with the two second rounders.

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