AROUND the NBA:

[DanSchwartzgan]

Random thoughts after pouring through a range of NBA stats (mostly “advanced”):

 
6.  GPII is the best remaining “value” free agent, though Grimes is the best actual free agent. The Grimes
    trade was epically horrible.
7.  Signing Klay to that contract was idiotic. I didn’t mind it so much at the time, but it is what it is. He’s old. He sucked
last year. His contract probably cost us Grimes, an actual two way player, and we’re still stuck with it. The best thing the Mavs could do would be to find a way out of the Klay contract.
 

There has to be something not quite right about Grimes.  Besides the fact that he gets traded a lot, the teams that move on from him don't get much for him.  

He was highly touted in NY once upon a time.  Then they paid two seconds to send expirings Flynn, Fournier and Arcidiacono to Detroit for expiring Alec Burks and expiring old man Bogdanovic.  No one played for the team they were traded to the next season.  If you take out the supposed benefit of the short term rentals, NY basically paid Detroit 2 seconds to take Grimes.

A few months later Detroit traded him for THJ and two seconds.  Note that THJ didn't stick with Detroit once his contract was up.  Again, a rental, but Detroit got paid the seconds...mainly because of the difference in salary the trade created.

A few months later Dallas was willing to pay a second to swap expiring Grimes for 3 years of Caleb Martin.  

Despite fairly good numbers at times, no one seems to want to pay Grimes and the assets it takes to get him when he's traded are less than impressive.  At the time it all happened, it made sense to move from Green to Grimes and from THJ to Klay.  Green finally got to start and saw his usage actually go down on a bad team.  And, as mentioned, THJ was a rental and is now a Vet Min.  But, Klay and Martin don't seem to be the answer either...especially at guard.  Because of his status around the league, you can't just ship Thompson off to some cellar dweller.   Meanwhile, Martin looks like someone who is going to really be costly from a tax standpoint if he's indeed the 12th man or so on the depth chart.