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Ken Berger of reports that the Warriors have also been involved in talks with Memphis for the athletic forward. There are endless possibilities along these same lines, which is more than we can say of the more limited pool of potential acquisitions should Memphis only work one-on-one deals.After word surfaced Monday that the Grizzlies are finally actively pursuing a trade of Rudy Gay in order to get under the luxury tax, and after reports came to light indicating talks between Memphis and Phoenix, another team has now entered the discussion. Sacramento's Marcus Thornton strikes me as a piece that the Grizzlies may find intriguing, and perhaps a third team could supply salary filler more interesting than Francisco Garcia. Jared Dudley and draft picks won't get a deal done for Phoenix, but an extra ball-handler from a third team might. Adding more teams to the mix only creates more needs and more variables, but perhaps it could also introduce much-needed flexibility. We could concoct deals that get both the Grizzlies and their trade partner some semblance of what they want, but nothing so compelling as to get all parties to sign on the dotted line. Sacramento, Toronto, Golden State, Phoenix and Minnesota have supposedly expressed interest in acquiring Gay, but none - even the Wolves - are a perfectly clean match.
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The Grizzlies might need to get creative in coordinating a multiteam deal that could appease the interests of several parties with somewhat clashing interests. Memphis is checking the market, but that doesn't mean it's inclined to give away one of its best players. There's already a report floating around (courtesy of ESPN Radio in Minneapolis) that the Timberwolves turned down a trade offer involving Gay almost immediately, and I'd doubt very much if this were the last offer reported as refused by either the Grizzlies or a potential trade partner. The Grizzlies could deal some combination of Marreese Speights, Tony Wroten, Quincy Pondexter or Wayne Ellington to help clear the tax line at minimal cost to their rotation, and no one should be surprised if that winds up being the superior option to trading Gay. That makes many of the most realistic potential deals less than enticing, especially when Memphis could, in theory, clear $4 million in salary through other means. It would be one thing if Memphis were looking to move Gay for better depth or a better fit, but the one-sided financial nature of any swap for Gay basically assures that Memphis will be in some way shortchanged. Making a trade for tax-motivated purposes rarely yields the same payoff as a strict talent-for-talent swap. The trade machine may make managing an NBA team seem easy, but the guidelines in play here vastly limit the realistic trade partners, not to mention pare the return in virtually every potential deal. All of this must be accomplished without acquiring any equivalent salaries or redundant players, and in a way that could be appealing to two (if not more) teams.
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Trade rules also require that another team line up salary to meet a pretty specific range: large enough to qualify as a legal trade, but small enough to absolve the Grizzlies of their $4 million tax burden. Gay is making $16.5 million this season, and he stands to erase the future cap room of any team to which he's dealt. I say "theoretically" because the very reason Gay has become a burden to the Grizzlies is precisely what makes moving him so tricky.