One of the biggest movements made by the Memphis Grizzlies This summer came in mid-July when they chose to separate with former lottery-selected winger Ziaire Williams.
After three consecutive disappointing seasons with the franchise, Zach Kleiman and his staff cut ties with the talented, if highly inconsistent, forward and traded him to the Brooklyn Nets.
In exchange for his services, the Grizzlies received the draft rights to 2014 second-round pick Nemanja Dangubić and fourth-year big man Mamadi Diakite.
Considering Williams was a top-10 pick in his respective drafts, this return value from a player who hasn’t even made it to the NBA since being drafted and one who has bounced in and out of the G League throughout his career is certainly a bit disappointing to see.
For many, the main benefit of the trade seemed to be that Memphis would be getting rid of the $6.1 million Williams would have been owed in 2024-25 and, as a result, reducing the team’s overall payroll even further from the dreaded luxury tax level, while the idea of then parting ways with Diakite’s deal would only deepen the salary cap crisis.
However, this latter goal may be more difficult to achieve than some had initially believed.
While Diakite’s $2.27 million salary for 2024-25 is far from a deal-breaker, it does come with a partially guaranteed aspect with a value of around $1.39 million.
That means that while the Grizzlies’ initial intentions were to cut salaries ahead of next season, doing so with the 27-year-old might be a bit more complicated than expected.
Sure, they could theoretically waive Diakie and remove him from the roster, but they’d still be left with that $1.39 million financial commitment and two vacant rotation spots that would need to be filled.
In simplified terms, they would be almost guaranteed to exceed the luxury tax if they did this, as they are already dangerously close to exceeding it (they currently have around $170 million in salary while the luxury tax threshold for this season is $170.8 million).
As things stand, unless the Grizzlies cut Diakie in the coming week and spread his guaranteed payments over the next few seasons, it seems like they’d be better off keeping him for at least next campaign. Luke Adams of Hoops rumourshe didn’t “get the sense” that the team was really motivated to bring in a new player to flesh out the rest of the rotation anyway, which leads him to believe Memphis will stick with Diakite… for now, anyway.
The big tweener is averaging career highs of 3.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and half a block on 48.3 percent shooting from the floor in 55 conference games.
