Guard Delon Wright said the Grizzlies played hardball with him this summer during his restricted free agency, which led him to sign an offer sheet with the Mavericks, according to David Cobb of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Memphis agreed to a sign-and-trade, receiving a pair of second-round picks, after Wright signed the three-year, $27MM contract. “They were playing hardball,” Wright said. “So I had to go find another deal. They were more than willing to accommodate me with a trade. So that was cool.” Wright is averaging 8.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG and 3.9 APG while playing in all nine games with Dallas this season.
- Tyus Jones was grateful he had the chance to play for his hometown team, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune relays. Jones grew up in Minnesota and played four seasons for the Timberwolves. He signed a three-year offer sheet with the Grizzlies this offseason and Minnesota declined to match it. “Last year it was like, ‘Man, I might not get this chance again to play for my hometown team.’ … It was just a cool experience, something I’m grateful for because not everyone gets to do something like that. It’s pretty unique and pretty cool,” the point guard said.
- Mike Conley is going through a bigger adjustment than anticipated, as the Jazz guard told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “It’s kind of a little bit out of my routine because I’ve had to watch more film on us than I can on the other teams because I’m still learning. … I’ve got a big guy now (in Rudy Gobert) who can go get it. I can throw pocket passes, but it’s a little different. We’ve got lob threats and shooters around. You’re just trying to figure out where guys like to come off screens, and which hand, and then just remembering the terminology,” he said. Conley, who was traded by the Grizzlies over the summer, is making a combined $67MM this season and next season.
Andre Iguodala technically remains under contract with the Grizzlies, but the expectation is that he’ll be traded or bought out at some point this season, allowing him to join a contender. While it remains to be seen which club Iguodala will end up playing for, David Aldridge of The Athletic asked several NBA executives to hazard a guess and virtually all of them predicted the Lakers would be the landing spot for the former Finals MVP.
For Iguodala to get to the Lakers, the Grizzlies would almost certainly have to go the buyout route, since L.A. probably doesn’t have the necessary salary-matching pieces to take on Iguodala’s $17MM+ salary in a trade. The only non-stars on the Lakers’ roster earning more than $4.77MM this season are Danny Green ($14.64MM), who is a key rotation player, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($8.09MM), who holds a de facto no-trade clause.
The Grizzlies are playing Ja Morant limited minutes and they plan to keep it that way for the foreseeable future, David Cobb of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. Morant played fewer than 30 minutes in four of his first five games, with the exception coming during an overtime game. Coach Taylor Jenkins hopes the approach will keep the second overall pick and anointed floor leader fresh during the 82-game schedule. “I’ve always been a big believer, you start playing in the mid-30s (minutes per game) you kind of wear down,” Jenkins said. “Our rookies, including him, have never played 82 games in a season.”
We have more from around the Western Conference:
- Forward Montrezl Harrell continues to prove his worth to the Clippers, Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times writes. Harrell, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, is averaging 19.3 PPG and 5.9 RPG to help the team weather the injury absence of Paul George. After acquiring him in the Chris Paul deal with Houston, the Clippers were so unsure about Harrell that they considered waiving him during the summer of 2017, according to Elliott.
- Trail Blazers guard Rodney Hood suffered a knee injury on Saturday but he didn’t sustain any structural damage, Jason Quick of The Athletic reports. The team’s medical staff determined that Hood has a bone bruise. Hood re-signed with Portland this offseason on a two-year, $11.7MM contract. Veteran center Pau Gasol, who joined Portland on a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract, has ramped up his workouts as he continues rehab from offseason foot surgery. Gasol did a series of shooting drills after a shootaround last week.
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray has become a more vocal leader this season and his teammates appreciate the change, Nick Kosmider of The Athletic relays. “I think it’s big-time,” fellow guard Monte Morris said. “If he’s going to be our starting point guard, everybody’s going to look for him to lead us.”
- Nikola Jokic‘s numbers are down and Nuggets coach Michael Malone says his center must get more aggressive, according to Mike Singer of the Denver Post. He’s averaging 15.8 PPG, 4.3 PPG down from his average last season, while taking 2.6 fewer shots per game. “I don’t think he is, in terms of people thinking he’s checked out or not playing hard,” Malone said. “I don’t see that as the case at all. … I just have to make sure I keep on reminding him of how important he is to us, being aggressive and setting the tone.” Jokic is in the second year of a five-year, $147.7MM contract.
Avery Bradley only played 14 games with the Grizzlies, but he tells David Cobb of The Commercial Appeal that short stretch in Memphis helped him revitalize his career. Bradley re-emerged as a scorer after the Clippers shipped him to the Grizzlies at February’s trade deadline. He increased his average from 8.2 PPG in L.A. to 16.1 in Memphis and credits the freedom offered by then-coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
“J.B. gave me an opportunity to go out there and play my game,” Bradley said. “I’m thankful for that, I’m thankful for the city of Memphis. It’s home for me. My family is from Memphis and Mississippi. I’m going to miss it. It’s going to be nice when I come back and we play them there.”
The Grizzlies parted with Bradley in a cost-cutting move, waiving him in July and paying a $2MM guarantee instead of his $12.96MM salary. He signed with the Lakers a few days later for $4.8MM.
“Things were just unfortunate,” Bradley said of the end of his stay in Memphis. “There were a lot of changes. My time there was special.”
There’s more from Memphis:
- Confusion shut down the Grizzlies’ attempts to trade for Kelly Oubre last season, and the roster would look much different now if that deal had gone through, Cobb notes in a mailbag column. Memphis believed it was parting with Wayne Selden and MarShon Brooks, while the Wizards were expecting to receive Dillon Brooks. Washington wound up moving Oubre to Phoenix, where he has played well. But Cobb notes that if the Grizzlies had taken on his $15MM salary, they probably couldn’t have made room for Andre Iguodala in a deal that landed them a future first-round pick from the Warriors.
- The Grizzlies are thrilled with the start by first-round pick Ja Morant, whose 70 points are the most in four games by any rookie in team history, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. In addition to his obvious athleticism, Morant has impressed coaches with how quickly he has adapted to the NBA game. “He’s got great chemistry with his teammates,” head coach Taylor Jenkins said. “His IQ is kind of helping him navigate day in and day out, game after game after game and the sky’s the limit for the guy.”
- De’Anthony Melton considers his rookie year with the Suns to be a “learning experience” about life in the NBA (video link from The Arizona Republic). After playing 50 games and starting 31 in his first season, Melton was sent to Memphis in July in a four-player deal. It marked the second time he had been traded, after being dealt from Houston to Phoenix before playing his first game. “I’m not worried about one year; I’m worried about 10 years, 15 years,” Melton said. “People have had crazier stories.”
Here are Friday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA G League:
- With the Celtics dealing with frontcourt injuries, they recalled rookie center Tacko Fall from the Maine Red Claws for tonight’s game against the Knicks, Nicole Yang of the Boston Globe tweets. The 7’5” Fall made his NBA debut on Saturday, contributing four points and three rebounds in four minutes against the Knicks.
- The Wizards assigned swingman C.J. Miles to the Capital City Go-Go, the team’s PR department tweets. Miles joined them for a practice as he works his way back from a foot injury.
- The Grizzlies assigned forward Bruno Caboclo and guard De’Anthony Melton to the Memphis Hustle, the team’s PR department tweets. They went there for practice and then were recalled. They’ll do the same on Sunday. Both have only made brief appearances in two games this season.
After being traded to the Grizzlies in a salary-dump deal over the summer, former No. 4 overall pick Josh Jackson had his 2020/21 rookie scale option turned down by his new team. However, Memphis isn’t giving up entirely on the 22-year-old, having sent him to the G League for an assignment with the Memphis Hustle to start the season. As David Cobb of The Memphis Commercial Appeal relays, Jackson is hoping the change of scenery will benefit him.
“I think this year we have a lot more structure (with the Grizzlies) as opposed to what we did in Phoenix,” Jackson said. “The team was just a little bit too young. And with that comes a lot of things that you don’t know, that you have to learn. Here I feel like we’ve got great guys in place as far as a coaching staff and training staff to kind of coach us a little bit more as to how to be a pro.”
The G League regular season will get underway a week from today, on November 8. Presumably, the Grizzlies plan on having Jackson stay with the Hustle through that date to ensure he’ll play regular minutes in live games. However, the team hasn’t publicly offered many specifics about its plan for the former Sun. And, as Cobb details, Jackson is somewhat in the dark as well.
“As of now, no specific benchmarks,” the Grizzlies forward said. “No timeline, either, of when or if I’ll be called up. Right now, it’s just all about putting in the work, getting better. That’s all I’m focusing on.”
Thursday, October 31 is the deadline for teams to exercise rookie scale options for the 2020/21 season. These options apply to either the third or fourth year of a rookie scale contract for players who were drafted in the first round. If they’re not exercised, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent the following summer.
These decisions must be made a year in advance, so even though Lonzo Ball has just started his third season, the Pelicans are already required to exercise his fourth-year option for $11MM+.
Most clubs facing these options decisions have already made them. As our tracker shows, of the 58 rookie scale options for 2020/21, 48 have been exercised so far. That leaves just 10 outstanding rookie scale options to be picked up or turned down by the end of the day on Thursday.
Here are the 2020/21 rookie scale options that have yet to be exercised:
- Marvin Bagley III, Kings (third year, $8,963,640)
- Josh Jackson, Grizzlies (fourth year, $8,930,242)
- Note: Memphis won’t exercise Jackson’s option.
- De’Aaron Fox, Kings (fourth year, $8,099,627)
- Harry Giles, Kings (fourth year, $3,976,510)
- Ante Zizic, Cavaliers (fourth year, $3,872,215)
- Caleb Swanigan, Kings (fourth year, $3,665,787)
- Josh Okogie, Timberwolves (third year, $2,651,040)
- Robert Williams, Celtics (third year, $2,029,920)
- Jacob Evans, Warriors (third year, $2,017,320)
- Omari Spellman, Warriors (third year, $1,988,280)
Teams only have to take action if they intend to pick up these options. Otherwise, they can simply let the deadline pass without exercising them. That’s reportedly what the Grizzlies intend to do with Jackson; we’ll see if any other teams follow suit.
Players like Bagley, Fox, and Okogie are locks to have their options picked up, but that’s not necessarily the case for everyone on this list. Zizic and Swanigan are among the candidates to potentially join Jackson as unrestricted free agents in 2020.
- Windhorst wonders if the Nuggets might try to find a small forward capable of slowing down stars like Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James in the postseason. Torrey Craig is Denver’s best option for now, but if the team seeks an upgrade, Andre Iguodala could be a target. Using Mason Plumlee‘s $14MM expiring salary, the Nuggets might be able to put together an offer that appeals to the Grizzlies, says Windhorst.
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Every night during the NBA G League season, Hoops Rumors provides the assignments and recalls by each team. With training camps now open, here are Monday’s assignments and recalls from around the G League:
- Bulls swingman Chandler Hutchison was assigned to the Windy City Bulls, the Bulls’ PR department tweets. Hutchison, who recently had his contract option for the 2020/21 season picked up, is working his way back from a hamstring injury.
- As expected, the Grizzlies assigned former lottery pick Josh Jackson to the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ PR department tweets. That was the plan all along when Memphis acquired the former Suns forward this offseason and he attempts to jump-start his career.
- Undrafted rookie guard Jalen Lecque was assigned to Northern Arizona by the Suns, according to the team’s Twitter feed.
- The Jazz assigned Miye Oni to the Salt Lake City Stars, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets. The rookie guard out of Yale was selected with the 58th overall pick in June.
- The Timberwolves assigned forward Keita Bates-Diop, guard Jaylen Nowell and center Naz Reid to their Iowa affiliate, according to a team press release. Bates-Diop was a second-round selection last year, while Nowell was chosen in the second round this June. Reid is an undrafted rookie out of LSU.
- The Mavericks assigned rookie forward Isaiah Roby to the Texas Legends, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News tweets. Roby, who played at Nebraska, was chosen in the second round in June and acquired in a draft-night deal.
- The Sixers assigned swingman Zhaire Smith to the Delaware Blue Coats, the team’s PR department tweets. Smith, a 2018 first-round selection, recently had his 2020/21 contract option picked up by Philadelphia even though he missed most of his rookie campaign due to injuries.
- The Hornets assigned rookie forward Jalen McDaniels to the Greensboro Swarm, according to a team press release. McDaniels, a second-round pick, made his NBA debut on Friday.