The big news this morning is that the Grizzlies have made an unexpected trade. Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington and Josh Selby will be shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers along with a draft pick, and in return we will get power forward Jon Leuer. The Flyer’s Chris Herrington has the story. I will definitely miss Speights, but the deal allows us to keep the Gay-Randolph-Gasol core together for the rest of the season. It also gives us more leverage to trade Rudy in the summer, because we won’t be desperate to get under the luxury tax. We’ll also have a $6.4 million trade exception to use sometime in the next year.
The trade creates a problem, though. We only have 11 players for the game tomorrow night, two short of the league-minimum 13. We must sign someone at the NBA minimum salary by tomorrow night to get to 12, and then we’ll have two weeks to sign another to get to 13. Radio host Chris Vernon reports that (Edit: Never mind, those names are no longer possibilities.)
In other Grizzlies news, the Memphis Grizzlies organization schedules watch parties around town so fans can meet up and cheer their team as they watch away games. The next watch party will be at a venue familiar to Downtowners: The Blind Bear. It will be next Thursday, January 30, at 7 PM. You’ll be able to enjoy food and beverage specials, prizes, games, and more as you watch the Grizzlies take on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Speaking of food at the Bear, two more people have tried my Blind Bear Chili Mac recipe (order a cup of Hibernation Chili and mix it with Pepper Jack Mac & Cheese in a bowl) and have given it their stamp of approval.
That’ll do it for now. Time for a quick lunch, a few more hours at work, and then it will be time for the National Tailgating Championship AKA the drive home on I-240 northbound.