Grizzlies Exploring Trades as Roster Crunch Forces Two More Moves

The Memphis Grizzlies are exploring trades as they work to cut two players from their roster by Monday, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report and The Stein Line reported Wednesday.

Memphis has 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Jaylen Wells makes 17, and he is on track to open the season with the team. Every club has until Monday, Oct. 19, to get down to 15 players on standard deals. The regular season opens the next night.

The Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers are the only other teams over 15 guaranteed deals, and Fischer reported that both are also looking at trades. Milwaukee is carrying 17 players on standard contracts, including Pete Nance on a non-guaranteed minimum deal.

Fischer had five Memphis names on his list Sept. 8, when he went through the Grizzlies' bubble on a Bleacher Report stream: Kris Murray, Micah Peavy, Jordan Hawkins, D'Angelo Russell, and Walter Clayton Jr.

By Sept. 10, Fischer reported in The Stein Line that Clayton was expected to survive the cuts.

Russell never played a game for Memphis before his Sept. 25 release. Hawkins, who came over from the New Orleans Pelicans with Peavy on Sept. 8, was waived Oct. 3.

Wells is set to make $2,296,271 this season, and only $300,000 of it is guaranteed until Oct. 20.

"Scotty and Jaylen, they had their things at the end of the season, full go, they're totally fine," Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said at media day Sept. 28.

A year after making the All-Rookie First Team as the 39th pick in 2024, Wells started all 69 of his games. He averaged 12.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while making 35.3% of his 3-pointers.

Ja Morant went to the Portland Trail Blazers in the June 29 trade that brought Murray and Jerami Grant to Memphis.

This is the last year of Murray's rookie deal, at $5.3 million. Monday doubles as the deadline for a rookie-scale extension with him, and if nothing gets done, Murray can become a restricted free agent next summer.

Portland played him a career-high 23.4 minutes a game last season. Murray started 15 of his 57 appearances and averaged 5.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists for the Trail Blazers, who drafted him 23rd overall out of Iowa in 2023.

Through the first three preseason games, he has 11 points in about 38 total minutes.

Murray's plan for the roster fight is to stay open to everything.

"Just be that person who can make a difference to this roster," Murray said. "In college, I was a big-time scorer, and I kind of flipped that switch to being kind of a defensive pest and just doing the dirty work."

Peavy's ankle has kept him out of all three preseason games.

"The only notable update, Micah Peavy turned his ankle, unfortunately, where it's still going to be a little time until we can get a look at Micah," Kleiman explained. "But other than that, expecting a very full level of participation for this camp."

Memphis sent AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson to New Orleans for Peavy and Hawkins. The Toronto Raptors' 2031 second-round pick came back in the deal too, along with the right to swap 2032 second-rounders.

This season, Peavy is owed $2,150,917, all of it guaranteed. His $2.5 million salary for 2027-28 becomes guaranteed if he is not waived before the first regular-season game, and Memphis holds a team option for 2028-29. He cannot be aggregated with other salaries in a trade until Nov. 8.

Washington used the 40th pick in 2025 on Peavy, then sent his rights to New Orleans in the three-team CJ McCollum and Jordan Poole trade. The Pelicans signed him to a four-year, $8.7 million deal that July.

Four of his 61 rookie appearances were starts. One came April 7 against Utah, with Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, and Saddiq Bey held out, and Peavy scored 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting in a 156-137 win.

Three nights later in Boston, he went 1-of-7 in 37 minutes. He scored 21 in the April 12 finale at Minnesota, a career high, and fouled out of a 132-126 loss.

For the season, that came to 4.3 points in 15.0 minutes a game. Peavy made 28 of his 108 3-point attempts.

Memphis is 2-1 in the preseason. Across those three games, GG Jackson II has scored 43 points in 46 minutes.

The Charlotte Hornets come to FedExForum on Friday for the preseason finale, and Peavy is not expected to play.

Five days later, the Utah Jazz open the regular season in Memphis, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.