Trade Grades: Who won the Jeff Green-Lance Stephenson swap?

The Deal

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Grizzlies get: Guard Lance Stephenson, L.A. Clippers first-round pick two years after Clippers send first-round pick to Toronto via Milwaukee

Los Angeles Clippers: D

Jeff Green is the siren of the NBA, the call of his 6-foot-9 frame, athleticism and shooting ability nearly impossible for GMs to resist.

Green will be 30 in August, but teams are still talking themselves into Green putting together his skills and performing on a consistent basis like he can for short stints. Perhaps it was one of those stretches, Green averaging 19.9 points on 52.2 percent shooting over his last eight games in Memphis, that sold Doc Rivers on making this deal. Alas, we've seen this movie before and we know how it ends -- nobody better than Rivers, who coached Green for a season-plus with the Boston Celtics.

Unlike in Boston, there won't be pressure for Green to produce every night, not with all the Clippers' offensive weapons. The problem with that logic is that Green's skill set doesn't lend itself well to a smaller role. He's an average spot-up shooter at best (30.9 percent from 3-point range this season, 34.0 percent last year) and has never converted his athletic gifts into being anything better than average defensively.

Looking at the 3-and-D role Green is likely to play with the Clippers, he scores below average on both metrics in Ian Levy's nifty charting of 3-point percentage and defensive box plus-minus ratings recently on Nylon Calculus. He's a downgrade in both regards from Wesley Johnson, about even with the aging Paul Pierce and only realistically an upgrade on poor-shooting Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

Of course, if Green were effective on that 3-and-D role, he wouldn't be on the trade block since that's precisely what the Grizzlies acquired him to do a little bit more than a year ago. Now Green is on the verge of unrestricted free agency, and given their cap situation the Clippers will have little alternative but to re-sign him no matter the cost.

None of this is to say that Green is going to hurt the Clippers the rest of the season. It's just that he won't help enough given that they cashed in basically everything tradeable they have. Stephenson's expiring contract provided the opportunity to add a rotation piece -- ultimately the real value of acquiring him for Matt Barnes last June -- and the Clippers now can't trade a first-round pick until 2021 at the very earliest.

Given all that, the Clippers had to do better than a modest upgrade at best on their existing talent.

Memphis Grizzlies: B+

If the Grizzlies had perfect hindsight, they'd probably go back and unwind last year's trade to acquire Green from the Celtics. While they were able to get a first-round pick in return, it's unlikely to be as good as the pick Memphis might give up for Green while in the middle of a post-Grit and Grind rebuild.

That's in the past, however, and this deal is a nice save of Green's value that adds no additional salary to their books because Stephenson has a team option for 2016-17.

There are a couple of quibbles. On the court, the Grizzlies have now gutted their wing rotation after trading impending free agents Green and Courtney Lee. Beyond Barnes and Tony Allen, it's unclear who else will get those minutes for a team still battling for a playoff spot. Stephenson may get a chance, as might newly added P.J. Hairston, with Jordan Adams potentially in the mix when he returns from knee surgery and Vince Carter also hanging around the fringes of the rotation. That's a lot for Dave Joerger to sort through during the middle of the stretch run.

Perhaps the more serious concern is what the Memphis locker room might look like the next two months. Over the past three days, the Grizzlies have added Hairston, Stephenson and Chris Andersen while sending out steadier veterans. Perhaps all will go well but it looks like a bit of a powder keg for the rest of 2015-16.

Looking beyond this season, however, there's little downside for Memphis. All the new players are on expiring contracts and the Grizzlies could open up a bit of cap space to rebuild their wing rotation if they let free agents Barnes and Mario Chalmers go. Well down the line, an additional first-round pick should help replenish after the one traded for Green as well as another dealt previously. That's why this trade was easily worth making for Memphis.