Not all deals done in the NBA are even about players in the league. The Dallas Mavericks have owned the rights to Nick Calathes since 2009, and he hasn’t played for them once. For that reason, and others, they’re trying to move him to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Not all deals are about acquiring a player who can help the team right away or clear some cap space. In the case of the Mavs, it’s about trying to get a draft pick from the Grizzlies, who will probably be sending their 2016 second round draft pick, unconditionally. Currently it goes to Dallas if it lands between 56-60.

Calathes, who enjoyed two successful years in Florida during his college career, has been playing for Panathinaikos, where he spent three seasons, and last season for Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia. He is signed there until the end of the 2014-2015 season, but he does have an NBA-out clause if someone is interested.

Calathes can play both the point guard or shooting guard position, but it seems the Grizzlies are interested in him in order to become the backup to Mike Conley. Both Jerryd Bayless and Tony Wroten are more shooting guards than point guards, and the quality drop in on-floor game management when Conley steps off the floor is too much for a team hoping to win the West eventually can endure.

Calathes averaged 13.9 points per game last season for Lokomotiv, including 4.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game, leading his team to win the Eurocup (the second most important tournament in European basketball), leading the tournament in assists and winning it’s MVP.

Calathes has a brother, Pat, who played college basketball for St. Joseph’s. The Calatheses led their respective college teams in scoring, during the 2007–08 college basketball season. He also had an excellent season last year in Israel with Maccabi Haifa, and has signed with BC Astana from Kazakhstan for next season.

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