NBA Trade Deadline 2020: One trade every team should make
Memphis Grizzlies: Andre Iguodala for the Denver Nuggets’ Mason Plumlee and Torrey Craig
Reason for Memphis: The Grizzlies have seen the future, and his name is Ja Morant (and Jaren Jackson Jr.). That duo could be one of the best in the NBA within a few years. There are good complementary pieces already there in Brandon Clarke and De’Anthony Melton. The Grizzlies aren’t a great team yet, but they have a great outlook. What do you add to a team like that? More young talent, of course. Take some swings on young pieces who could grow into more. Torrey Craig fits the bill as a moldable wing who can play defense and maybe, eventually, shoot from deep. He could end up being a good rotation player, but he can’t buy consistent and productive minutes on a team focused on the present like Denver. The Grizzlies aren’t getting a first-round pick for Iguodala, not without taking on bad money as well. Craig is probably the best they can do, and he’s likely better than whomever the Grizz would take with whatever low-value pick they’d receive otherwise. They’d do all that without sacrificing any cap flexibility. It sure beats buying out Iguodala’s contract.
Reason for Denver: There are plenty of ways Denver can upgrade around the edges, and adding a player like Iguodala would be a home run. The Nuggets would need to add a center to replace Plumlee, but the odds are that they could simulate his production with one of the many bigs available from the buyout market or G League. They wouldn’t want to include Plumlee, but they need his salary to match. Andre Iguodala, meanwhile, remains an elite wing defender with a history of bothering players like LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard. He has great, huge hands and forces plenty of turnovers. He can dribble and pass, which are insanely important to the Nuggets’ offense. He wouldn’t start or anything crazy like that, but they could slot him into Craig’s 12-15 minutes a game and expect far more production. He would play a bigger role in some playoff series. This would be an upgrade for Denver in the short-term without costing much in the long-term.