The Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies had agreed to terms on a trade that would have sent guard OJ Mayo to the Pacers for Josh McRoberts and a first-round draft pick.
However the two teams did not consumate the trade before Thursday’s 3pm deadline and the deal fell through.
Minutes before the league’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, multiple sources reported that a deal had been struck. But shortly after the deadline passed, Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley expressed concern that Memphis and Indiana might have missed the deadline to submit the transaction to the league, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
Heisley went so far as to make a statement on the record to the Commercial Appeal about the Mayo trade shortly after the deadline.
“Part of the NBA is trying to manage your personnel and O.J. has always been someone I thought highly of,” Heisley said, according to the newspaper. “It is with deep regret that I think we need to bring another power forward in. We’re overloaded at the two-three position. So I think it’s probably best for the Grizzlies and best for O.J. that he’ll get to play for a team where he can get a lot more minutes.”
After the deal fell through Heisley made another statement:
“Indiana was not able to get it all together,” Heisley said in a telephone interview with NBA.com’s David Aldridge. “People are going to say I have reservations (about the proposed trade). I think from our point of view, we were interested in the trade going forward. It was a very, very difficult conversation for us. It took us a long time to decide. We were getting a lot of players at the two and three position and we were getting a little skinny at the four. We had three candidates we were looking at and when we decided on one, O.J. had to be part of that trade. It wasn’t that we were anxious to get rid of him.”
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