Bill Simmons of pop culture and sports website Grantland.com -- also known as "The Sports Guy" -- wonders how the Memphis Grizzlies should react to their early exit from the playoffs. One idea: trade forward Rudy Gay to the Portland Trail Blazers. ------------------------------------ Rudy Gay... spent Round 1 being defended by Caron Butler (playing with a broken hand), Randy Foye (six inches shorter than Gay) and Nick Young (who spent the last 25 years carefully constructing his life so the word "defense" was never involved) and submitted these numbers: 19.0 PPG, 42.1% FG, 21.1% 3FG, 5.7 FTA, 15.2 PER … and in the fourth quarter of Game 7, had more turnovers (one) than made field goals (zero) as the Clippers pulled away in Memphis. So what happens now? The Grizzlies are sitting at $62 million in 2013, and that's not counting O.J. Mayo (a restricted free agent). Should they dump Gay's contract to a young team with cap space (Toronto, Cleveland, Portland, New Orleans, etc.) for a 2012 lottery pick? Could they flip him to Minnesota for Derrick Williams? What if they flipped him for Tyreke Evans (who makes one-third as much money)? Am I overrating his value? Should they keep him and let Mayo leave? And how much easier would this decision be had the Grizzlies picked James Harden instead of Hasheem Thabeet? ------------------------------------ -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter