Heat trading Mario Chalmers to Grizzlies in multi-player deal

After some rumors of a potential move, it’s confirmed that the Miami Heat are trading Mario Chalmers to the Memphis Grizzlies in a multi-player deal.

Mario Chalmers’ performance has been declining for a while now, and this season he’s looked even worse coming off the bench. Thankfully for the Miami Heat, they’re moving on as they’re now sending him and James Ennis to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for two new guards.

As Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has reported, the deal is now finalized:

After shooting 31.3 percent from the floor making a measly 9.1 percent of his three point attempts this season, the departure of Chalmers is probably a welcome change for Heat fans. His best attribute has always been perimeter shooting, but now that’s supposedly disappeared, the addition of two new guards could mix things up nicely in the rotation behind Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade. Also, parting with small forward James Ennis makes minimal difference, as he barely made it onto the floor with a total of just seven minutes this season.

What can the Grizzlies do with Chalmers and Ennis then? Quite frankly, very little. Chalmers is an experienced NBA player, although he’s hardly the best two-time champion they could have added to help them improve on their shaky 3-5 start to the 2015-16 season.

Beno Udrih, on the other hand, has looked like a far more reliable backup point guard at times (despite being less helpful on defense). Over the last eight games he’s got off to a solid start, shooting 43.5 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from three point range, and only paying within his role. Rather than shooting too much like Chalmers often does. Plus, Udrih earned a player efficiency rating of 15.4 last season, which easily topped Chalmers’ mark of 11.7.

Jarnell Stokes, similarly to Ennis, plays a non important role in this deal, as he’s played a total of just 130 minutes in his two-year NBA career and he’ll hardly see much increase in playing time with the Heat.

This deal is hardly a game-changer, but it at least gives both teams a chance to try something new in their respective second units. No, it won’t make much of a difference, but there isn’t much chance to pull off any high profile trades for now.

Good luck to Memphis with Chalmers, though. He’s not exactly the player to take them over the hump as a team whose window to contend is almost closing.