Memphis' No. 4 in the vaunted 2007 draft, point guard Mike Conley, has been a bust by all measures. It's early of course, and point guards take a minute to mature. But Conley has lost his job to Kyle Lowry twice, and Lowry's headed toward a career as an Earl Watsonesque role player. Conley's been rumored as trade bait since he entered the NBA, but things have heated up now.Ron Tillery of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal reports Memphis and Milwaukee have discussed a deal to send Conley to the Bucks in exchange for second-year point guard Ramon Sessions and rookie Joe Alexander. The idea is that Milwaukee can't really afford to offer Sessions (who will be a restricted free agent this summer) a hefty extension to stay, so as long as the Conley-Sessions talent swap is lateral, it's a win for the Bucks. (Alexander hasn't exactly impressed as a top-10 pick.) The Grizz just want to move on from Conley, possibly embracing the idea O.J. Mayo can be a full-time starting point guard. (Jury's out.)
I'm obviously not privy to interior thinking on these things, but I wonder why Memphis wouldn't wait to see whether Monta Ellis is serious about forcing a trade, for two reasons. Memphis is the only team under the salary cap for this year; Ellis is a base-year compensation player, which means he's hard (almost impossible) to trade to a team over the cap without a third (hopefully under-the-cap) team. Further, Memphis seems like the best possible landing spot for Ellis -- if Golden State were interested in Conley, the Grizz could pair him with one or three of those forwards in a swap in which Memphis wouldn't have to offer matching contracts (which also helps cut Golden State's payroll).
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