Heat trade Livingston to Grizzlies

MIAMI (AP) -- The Miami Heat traded guard Shaun Livingston and cash to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday for a conditional 2012 second-round pick.

"It gives us some flexibility," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Livingston, a once-dynamic point guard who signed with the Heat in October with hopes of resurrecting his career after a knee injury, was waived by the Grizzlies later Wednesday. He averaged 2.3 points and 10.3 minutes in four games this season for Miami and didn't appear in any of the Heat's last 13 games.

If he remained on Miami's roster after 7 p.m. Wednesday, his contract with the Heat would have been guaranteed for the remainder of the season -- and because the Heat are flirting with the luxury-tax plateau, the team was seeking to make a move.

Livingston, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2004 draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, sustained a serious injury Feb. 26, 2007, tearing three knee ligaments and dislocating his kneecap in a gruesome scene. He sat out the entire 2007-08 season.