The Portland Trail Blazers have traded away Mario Hezonja to the Memphis Grizzlies and brought back Enes Kanter from the Boston Celtics.
The Portland Trail Blazers have used their trade exception to bring in Enes Kanter from the Boston Celtics while sending out Mario Hezonja to the Memphis Grizzlies.
NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski announced the deal in a tweet.
Portland is acquiring Boston's Enes Kanter in a three-way deal with Memphis, sources tell ESPN. Memphis gets Mario Hezonjia and 30th pick (Desmond Bane) from draft night deal as part of trade too. Celtics get a future Memphis draft consideration.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 20, 2020
The Blazers had a $7 million exception from a trade earlier in the year where they sent out Kent Bazemore and brought back Trevor Ariza, the discrepancy in salary created this exception.
By using this exception though, they fit Kanter’s approx $5 million salary straight into it. And then they don’t need to use any of their precious mid-level.
Hezonja goes to the Grizzlies in what is basically a salary dump. The Grizzlies may use him though, which is good for Hezonja as he really struggled in his first year with the Blazers. He was likely not to play at all.
The Blazers get back Kanter, who played big minutes for them in the famous Western Conference Finals run in 2019. They needed a backup center, and the Celtics needed to get off salary, so it worked well for both parties.
Further breakdown on this trade to come later – but this is a great move for the Blazers, which didn’t cost them any assets.