Grizzlies, Hornets Swap Ridnour For Barnes

12:00pm: The Grizzlies confirmed the completion of the deal via press release.

8:57am: The Grizzlies have agreed to flip Luke Ridnour to the Hornets for Matt Barnes, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). The Hornets may waive Ridnour as his pact is non-guaranteed for 2015/16, but the Grizzlies plan to keep Barnes in the final year of his pact (link).

Ridnour didn’t get a chance to even take off his coat as the Grizzlies acquired him less than 24 hours ago.  The 34-year-old was reportedly considering retirement as of March, and he hasn’t publicly said whether or not he intends to play next season. His $2.75MM salary is non-guaranteed, but if Charlotte intends on waiving him, they must do so before July 10th when it becomes fully guaranteed.  Ridnour is a backup point guard who’s also seen time at the two, so the Hornets could theoretically hang on to him to bolster their backcourt depth.

Barnes, who came to Charlotte in the Lance Stephenson deal earlier this month, was a candidate to be waived if he remained in Charlotte.  His salary is partially guaranteed for $1MM through July 1st, but is fully guaranteed for almost $3.543MM after. The veteran appeared in 76 games for the Clippers last season, notching 10.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 1.5 APG in 29.9 minutes per night.

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