Zach Randolph can, and likely will, become a free agent next summer. He is owed $16.9 million but at age 32 he may want the security of a longer deal even if he takes a little less per year to get it.
Which means if you’re Memphis you may not be able to keep the big man that has been one of the anchors of your two-bigs approach, the one that has taken you to the conference finals twice.
So the Grizzlies are shopping him around reports Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report — but what they are asking seems far too high a price.Several sources said the Grizzlies are currently shopping power forward Zach Randolph, and two of them are hearing there’s a destination and main trade piece involved: New Orleans and stretch-4 Ryan Anderson, who’s averaging a team-high 21.7 points per game on 47.7 percent shooting from three-point range.
“A trade centered around Randolph and Anderson should happen down the line this season,” one source said.
That sounds like a very Grizzlies-focused source (and Zwerling updated his story to suggest New Orleans isn’t into this).
Everybody thinks the Pelicans are eager to give up Anderson — they are not. He’s arguably the best stretch four in the game and they have him locked up for two seasons after this at a very reasonable $17 million total.
Plus Anderson and Anthony Davis pair very well — the Pelicans are +12.2 points per 48 minutes when those two played together this season. The team had an offensive rating of 118 (points per 100 possessions) when they were paired and were +10.3 per 100 possessions. When Anderson and Davis were both healthy is when New Orleans looked good and went on a little run. New Orleans wants to see what happens when they get all five of their best players healthy and going together for a while.
All of which is to say don’t bet on Anderson getting moved (and if he does a team is going to have to blow the Pelicans’ doors off to do it).
But expect to hear a lot of Randolph rumors.
Memphis is not going to pay the luxury tax and they may not be able to lock up Randolph long term (and Marc Gasol, who becomes a free agent in the summer of 2015). The Lakers Pau Gasol said he would be open to coming back to Memphis to play with his brother, which is to say Grizzlies will have options.
Just something to watch.
