New NBA Draft Rumors Reveal Grizzlies' Top Targets, Possibility of Trade After 2026 Lottery Results

Sunday was a good day for the Memphis Grizzlies as they landed the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA draft lottery.

That virtually ensures the team will end up with one of AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cam Boozer if they so desire (with Caleb Wilson another possibility). But not long after the lottery, there were already rumblings about Memphis potentially moving back in the draft.

NBA reporter Jake Fischer wrote, "It didn't take long for an agent on the ground in Chicago to suggest to me that Memphis could potentially look to trade down from No. 3 as part of deal that ships out Ja Morant, but I find such a scenario almost certainly too drastic. If anything Grizzlies president Zach Kleiman has a history of trading up and/or into the draft. Don't forget that he just did so last June, swapping picks with Portland to be able to select Cedric Coward at No. 11 overall. Being able to make a pick at No. 3 overall is just too tantalizing of an opportunity for the Grizzlies to start over with a bonafide franchise-level prospect. The early word around the league is that Memphis is likely to still see two of the following three names on the board when its turn arrives: Kansas' Peterson, Duke's Boozer and North Carolina's Wilson."

Still, trade-down talk was persistent following the lottery, and it wasn't limited to Memphis.

As SI.com's Chris Mannix reported about the Washington Wizards, who won the No. 1 overall pick, "Privately, Wizards officials aren't ruling out a deal. This is widely regarded as a top-heavy draft, with no consensus No. 1. Over the next six weeks, Will Dawkins, Washington's general manager, will dive into the scouting. If Dawkins zeroes in on one player, Washington will draft him. If there's a player they like who could slip, sources say, there is the potential to move it."

Teams will float a lot of possibilities in the weeks to come, gauging just how much they could land for their draft slot—or how much they might have to give up to target a player higher on their board. The Grizzlies will be particularly intriguing to watch, given the need to start preparing for the post-Morant era.

But it's a very good year to have a top-three pick, and it's hard to imagine the Grizzlies moving down far, if they move at all.