The Memphis Grizzlies have one of the league's most horrific roster crunches ahead of them as the NBA Offseason comes to a close. With 19 players currently rostered, NBA insider Jake Fischer offered insight into the names the Grizzlies are to consider waiving as they finalize their roster, and one name should interest the Toronto Raptors.
Fischer listed Walter Clayton Jr., Micah Peavy, D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Hawkins, and Kris Murray. Out of this group, Walter Clayton Jr. is an obvious name the Raptors need to circle if he hits the open market.
Clayton Jr. was an absolute flamethrower in college and led the Florida Gators to a national title in 2025. Although his NBA journey has been bumpy so far, the Raptors saw a lack of guard depth contribute to their early playoff exit last season, and he could help address that. On top of that, he could provide a positive boost to Toronto’s perimeter scoring, a place they struggled last season, finishing with the fifth-fewest threes made.
Clayton Jr. could be a great swing for the Raptors.
While Clayton Jr.’s rookie campaign wasn’t anything special, the context matters. Clayton Jr. struggled to really hit a stride with the Utah Jazz, and just when he started to string together some good games, he was traded. Clayton Jr. was one of the young pieces sent by the Jazz to the Memphis Grizzlies to land Jaren Jackson Jr. at the deadline.
For his rookie season, Clayton Jr. averaged 7.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 38.4 percent from the field and 30.7 percent from three.
Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘Chris, you just called him a flamethrower. How does that fit with a rookie campaign where he shot 30.7 percent from three?’ Yeah, that’s a fair counterpoint, but we often see this happen with great collegiate shooters in their rookie season, as the defensive pressure as a shooter in college compared to the pros can be drastically different. Especially when you enter the league with the shooting pedigree Clayton Jr. did when he was drafted No. 19 by Utah last offseason.
Instead of buying that one NBA season is going to define the perimeter scoring impact Clayton Jr. can have in the pros, if I’m the Raptors, I look at the whole body of his work. In his final two years in college after transferring from Iona to Florida, Clayton Jr. shot 36.5 percent on 7.1 attempts per game as a junior and 38.6 percent on 7.8 attempts per game as a senior. That type of volume and efficiency, especially as the Gators' offensive engine in the toughest college conference, holds way more meaning than anything from his rookie season.
On top of that, he showed a ton of encouraging signs as a playmaker, averaging 4.0 assists per game to just 1.7 turnovers in his rookie season. He was comfortable in the pick-and-roll and as a table setter. Clayton Jr. even had a 14-assist game for Memphis against Indiana in March.
The other concern people had about him as a prospect was his defense and whether he could be a serviceable defender in the pros. There’s room to grow, but the flashes he showed were solid, and he would be more than passable when surrounded by the elite defensive cast Toronto has.
If the Grizzlies roster crunch forces them to part with a talented 23-year-old guard who has won at the highest level prior to the NBA and can shoot the skin off the ball, the Raptors need to be all over him. Toronto has always been a place where castaways can develop into serviceable NBA players, and Clayton Jr. could be the next chapter in that story.
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