JULY 10: The Grizzlies have officially signed Evans, per the NBA’s transactions log. As confirmed by Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal (Twitter link), Memphis is using its bi-annual exception to complete the signing. That means the Grizzlies have a hard cap this year and won’t be able to use the BAE next year.
JULY 7: The Grizzlies have agreed to a one-year, $3.3MM deal with Tyreke Evans, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
The move represents a homecoming of sorts for Evans, who played his college ball at the University of Memphis before being selected fourth overall in the 2009 draft. After spending several years with the Kings, Evans joined the Pelicans in 2013 and eventually returned to Sacramento earlier this year as part of February’s DeMarcus Cousins trade.
Evans, 27, is coming off the least productive season of his NBA career. In addition to being limited to 40 games due to health problems, the veteran guard averaged career lows across the board, including in PPG (10.3), APG (3.1), and FG% (.405). One silver lining for Evans? He has made 36.9% of his three-point attempts over the last two seasons after making just 27.8% in his first six seasons.
Based on the reported terms of Evans’ deal, it sounds like the Grizzlies will complete the signing using the bi-annual exception, which is worth $3.29MM. The team also has more than $3MM of its mid-level exception left over after committing a chunk of it to Ben McLemore, so it’s possible that Evans’ contract will be worth the remainder of the MLE. Either way, Memphis would be hard-capped at $125.66MM for the 2017/18 league year. Unless JaMychal Green receives a mammoth offer sheet, that hard cap shouldn’t have an impact on the Grizzlies’ ability to retain the RFA power forward.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I assume it’s for the biannual exception? If someone in the comment section yells at me in 20 minutes because it says that in the article, it’s not there now. So don’t tell me to learn how to read or whatever…
Evans will be good off the bench for Memphis.
Yeah
With all the money these players getting would’ve assumed he could’ve got 10-13 mil
It’s like they traded Carter and Randolph for Evans and McLemore
Not a bad trade, they get younger and more athletic. McLemore under Fizdale will improve as both a defender and competitor, the environment in Sacramento never really helped him.
Tyreke Evans could have a really good year with Fizdale. I thought he could have been interesting for a few teams, including the knicks, especially if that was the money. I guess injury history hurt him.