Report: Dakari Johnson Traded to Grizzlies; Magic Receive Jarell Martin, Cash
July 23, 2018
While much of the significant player movement for the 2018 NBA offseason is already over, the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies are reportedly not done dealing just yet.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Grizzlies sent forward Jarell Martin and cash considerations to the Magic in exchange for big man Dakari Johnson on Monday.
This isn’t the first time Johnson has been traded this offseason, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday the Kentucky product was part of another deal. The Oklahoma City Thunder traded him and cash considerations to the Magic in exchange for Rodney Purvis.
The Thunder selected Johnson in the second round of the 2015 draft, and he split time between the NBA and G-League last season. He appeared in 31 games with six starts for Oklahoma City, averaging a mere 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds a night as frontcourt depth.
Johnson is just 22 years old and will attempt to establish himself in a new environment as depth behind Marc Gasol on the Grizzlies.
As for Martin, he was a first-round pick in the same draft as Johnson and played collegiately at LSU. He appeared in a career-high 73 games with 36 starts for the Grizzlies in 2017-18 and posted 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds a night.
He also shot a passable 34.7 percent from three-point range and can theoretically stretch the floor and take advantage of openings created by Orlando’s frontcourt of Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Mohamed Bamba.
