FEBRUARY 21: The moves are official, the Grizzlies announced (via Twitter).
FEBRUARY 20: The Grizzlies are planning to sign forward Lamar Stevens to a 10-day contract, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. With a full roster and needing to make room, the Grizzlies are waiving Johnny Davis to complete the transaction (Twitter links).
Stevens is a four-year NBA veteran who last suited up for Memphis in 2023/24. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Celtics in September 2023 before ultimately earning a spot on the roster. At the 2024 trade deadline, Boston sent him to Memphis in exchange for Xavier Tillman.
The 27-year-old forward played in 19 games with the Grizzlies last year, making two starts. During that time, he averaged 11.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks per contest. However, the Grizzlies didn’t re-sign Stevens last summer and he hasn’t been on an NBA roster during the ’24/25 regular season until now.
Stevens did spend training camp with the Pistons in the fall, but was waived at the end of the preseason. He has played 29 games this season with the Motor City Cruise, Detroit’s G League affiliate. In the G League, Stevens has averaged 17.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.
The Penn State product went undrafted in 2020, signing on with the Cavaliers on a two-way contract. He impressed in Cleveland, earning a promotion to a standard deal by the end of his rookie season, then went on to spend three years with the Cavs before being traded to San Antonio in the transaction that brought Max Strus to Cleveland.
As for Davis, the Grizzlies acquired the Wisconsin alum alongside Marvin Bagley III at this month’s deadline in the trade that sent Marcus Smart to Washington. The No. 10 overall pick in 2022, Davis played 112 games with Washington, averaging 3.5 points per game, but didn’t play at all for the Grizzlies before being waived.
According to Charania, Davis is expected to receive some attention as a free agent. The 22-year-old was a high-profile draft prospect in the 2022 class but never broke through in Washington.
Once the pair of moves are completed, the Grizzlies will be back up to a full roster, with 15 players on standard contracts (including Stevens’ 10-day deal) and three players on two-way pacts.
If Stevens’ deal is completed by Friday, he would be eligible for five games with Memphis before his 10-day contract would expire. At that point, he would need to be re-signed to another 10-day deal or the Grizzlies could move on. If he impresses enough to stick around through his maximum of two 10-day deals, the Grizzlies would need to sign him for the rest of the season.
Welcome back, Lamar!
Johnny Davis had all the promise of a lottery pick but never stopped playing at a college level when entering the league.
Good move
People said a lot of things to me when I said I didn’t think Johnny Davis was a lottery pick, and possibly a backend of first rounder at best, if even that
Dude is a legit competitor, so I personally always root for those types, but he really can only guard PGs, and would need to be on a team around a bunch of floor spacers, and he needs the ball in his hands; doesn’t make the best decisions either, and not a great finisher, and obviously the shooting was always in question…could find a end of roster spot on the right team, but probably not until there’s a few more teams in the nba, like many guards and bigs nowadays, and even starting to happen to the 4s