Memphis Grizzlies make a salary-cut trade, but it's not Rudy Gay
The Memphis Grizzlies made a trade, but it isn't with Rudy Gay.
The Grizzlies traded forward Marreese Speights, guards Wayne Ellington and Josh Selby and a future first-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for power forward Jon Leuer on Tuesday morning, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
The luxury-tax-worried Grizzlies have been rumored to be shopping their star players, most notably Gay, in hopes of saving salary. By making this move, the Grizzlies are now under the luxury tax by saving about $6 million this season and suddenly aren't in desperate need to trade one of their marquee players.
Speights makes $4.2 million this season and $4.5 million next season; Ellington is making $2.08 million in the final year of his deal; and Selby makes $762,195 this season and $884,293 next season. Leuer makes only $762,195, but Cleveland was able to absorb the additional salary because they were under the salary cap. Cleveland also waived guard Jeremy Pargo to create roster space.
The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Speights averaged 6.6 points and 4.7 rebounds primarily as a reserve for Memphis. His addition will aid Cleveland after it lost forward-center Anderson Varejao for the season on Monday due to a blood clot in his lower lung.
Ellington was averaging 5.5 points and 1.1 assists primarily as a reserve, while Selby played sparingly and spent time in the NBA Development League. The 6-foot-10, 228-pound Leuer played sparingly for Cleveland averaging 2.4 points and 1.4 rebounds.
ESPN.com first reported the story.
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