Memphis Grizzlies Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Fallout From/Reaction To Mario Chalmers Trade

November 11th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies almost traded Jarnell Stokes to the Knicks to open a roster spot before the start of the regular season, according to The Commercial Appeal. Instead, Memphis included him in Tuesday’s trade with Miami, the earliest November swap since 2008, which sent Stokes and Beno Udrih to the Heat for Mario Chalmers and James Ennis. People within the Grizzlies organization believe that the shooting and playmaking ability Chalmers has gives the team an opportunity to see how he functions sharing the court with Mike Conley in two point guard sets that would have Conley playing off the ball, the Commercial Appeal report says.

“We just felt that this was a chance to get a guy in Mario Chalmers who is an upgrade as a 3-point shooter, particularly in the playoffs. And you get a little younger,” Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace said. “He’s been in the top 10 in steals percentage. He’s not afraid to step up and take the big shot. It’s an opportunity we had to take. It’s also an opportunity to take a look at a young, athletic guy in James Ennis.”

See more on the trade:

Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal doesn’t see Chalmers as a shooting upgrade over Udrih, but Chalmers is a better defender a theoretically a better fit with the Grizzlies bench, Herrington opines.
The Heat were reportedly seeking the involvement of a third team before the trade became official, and the Sixers were in play to fill that role, but the sides couldn’t work out a way to make it work, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets. A Heat spokesperson denied that a search for a third team held up the trade call with the league, and team president Pat Riley said he wasn’t looking to channel Udrih and Stokes to another team, as Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald notes (Twitter link). Coach Erik Spoelstra answered affirmatively when asked if Udrih and Stokes will be staying with the team, Navarro tweets. “We’re not actively pursuing anything else other than what we have today,” Riley said, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
The move wasn’t primarily about finances, Riley insisted, adding that he doesn’t think the Heat would ever trade a player they thought could help them win a title merely to save money, as Navarro chronicles.

And-Ones: Tavares, King, Chalmers

November 10th, 2015 at 10:19pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Nets, who are off to an 0-7 start to the 2015/16 campaign, are interested in reworking the roster through the trade market, though GM Billy King doesn’t anticipate anything drastic occurring, Tim Bontemps of The New York Post relays. With Brooklyn set to have in the neighborhood of $40MM in available cap space next summer, the team doesn’t want to make a short-sighted move, Bontemps adds. “We can trade now and eat all that space up, get to 30-something wins and make the playoffs in the eighth spot,” King said. “[But] then, where’s the future now? So it’s about adding the right pieces and being patient. We didn’t get here overnight, and we are not going to get out of it overnight. That’s reality. There is not something where it’s, ‘OK, this is the magic wand and we are going to do this and it’s going to change overnight. We knew that going in, we knew that when we made those decisions and it didn’t work, and so now we’ve got to gradually, systematically dig yourself out of it.”

Here’s more from around the league:

The Hawks have assigned center Edy Tavares to the D-League, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Since Atlanta is without its own affiliate, Tavares will be subject to the league’s flexible assignment process to determine the team he’ll report to, Vivlamore adds. This is the first D-League assignment of the year for Atlanta.
The Euroleague’s new alignment and format opens the door to the possibility of a future partnership with the NBA, and a possible “Euro Conference,” international journalist David Pick tweets. Euroleague Basketball A-Licence Clubs and IMG have agreed to a 10 year partnership wherein the two parties will oversee the commercial operation and the management of all global rights covering both media and marketing, according to the official release.
The Heat created a trade exception worth approximately $2.1MM as a result of dealing Mario Chalmers to the Grizzlies earlier today, Ethan J. Skolnick of The Miami Herald notes (via Twitter). The precise figure is $2,129,535, the difference between the salaries of Chalmers and Beno Udrih.

Grizzlies Acquire Mario Chalmers

November 10th, 2015 at 5:10pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

5:10pm: The trade is official, the Heat and Grizzlies have announced, though no mention was made of a second-rounder changing hands in the deal. “This is a tough day for myself and the organization in trading Mario Chalmers and James Ennis,” said Heat president Pat Riley. “Mario was a part of two championships with us and Ennis is a solid young player, but it is part of the business and it was a move necessary to make because of our crowded backcourt. We feel that it is in the best interest of Mario and we want him to be successful and be a part of a good team. We wish them nothing but the best. We would also like to welcome Beno Udrih, an accomplished veteran and someone that has playoff and championship experience, and the addition of Jarnell Stokes, a young player that we would like to develop.”

4:04pm: The Heat don’t see either Udrih or Stokes as long-term pieces, but they’d still execute the two-team trade with the Grizzlies if they can’t find a third team, Stein writes. The ESPN scribe also invokes Andersen’s name, suggesting that he remains available.

2:57pm: The Heat are looking for a third team willing to take Udrih, Stokes or both, and that’s keeping the deal with the Grizzlies from becoming official, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Miami has the option of simply pulling off the two-teamer with Memphis, but the Heat would prefer to include a third team, Stein adds.

12:27pm: The Grizzlies and Heat are have agreed to a deal that will send Mario Chalmers and James Ennis to Memphis for Beno Udrih, Jarnell Stokes and a second-round pick, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). Wojnarowski’s full story indicates Miami is receiving a second-round pick from Memphis, too, but it makes no mention of, who was in Wojnarowski’s Twitter report, which didn’t include the second-rounder. In any case, the teams are preparing for a trade call with the league office today, Wojnarowski notes. Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported a week ago that the sides had talked about a potential trade involving Chalmers, and a few days later Stein wrote about growing concern within the Grizzlies organization amid a slow start. Memphis, at 3-4, next plays Wednesday at home against the Warriors.

The move is a cost-cutter for the Heat, who give up the $4.3MM salary of Chalmers in exchange for Udrih and his pay of $2.17MM, which is only a little more than half of what Chalmers makes. Stokes and Ennis are have identical one-year veteran’s minimum salaries, though Stokes has a full guarantee while Ennis has a partial guarantee of only about $254K, since he and the Heat reworked the terms of his contract before the start of the regular season. Memphis will likely use part of its $967,500 trade exception left over from the offseason Jon Leuer deal to absorb the $845,059 that Stokes makes and offset the unbalanced exchange of salaries, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).

Miami is set to remove about $6MM from its potential luxury tax bill with the trade, according to Wojnarowski, though the tax isn’t calculated until the final day of the regular season. The Heat would still be in line to pay repeat-offender tax penalties in the wake of today’s deal, and many of the same offseason rumors that raised the idea of a Chalmers trade also made mention of Chris Andersen, who could be the next to go, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel speculates (Twitter link).

Memphis hasn’t been pleased with the play of its bench and hopes that Chalmers will be an upgrade behind starting point guard Mike Conley, league sources told Wojnarowski. Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal had heard from some people, ostensibly around the Grizzlies, who quietly expressed disappointment with what they perceived to be Udrih’s lack of conditioning, athleticism and defense, and the team wasn’t ready to turn the backup job over to third-stringer Russ Smith, Tillery also wrote.

A desire to avoid the tax plus confidence in Tyler Johnson and Gerald Green helped prompt the Heat to make the move, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link), though Green remains away from the team following his hospitalization last week. Green is out of the hospital and is reportedly expected to return to the team soon, however. In any case, the acquisition of Udrih gives the team an experienced backup at the point as it attempts to regain its status among the Eastern Conference elite, even with the concerns about Udrih from Memphis. Of course, no guarantee exists that the team won’t flip Udrih to further its efforts to dodge the tax, tweets Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald.

Chalmers first became a trade candidate in June, when Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported that the Heat were shopping him and Andersen to try to clear room for a new deal with Dwyane Wade. Team president Pat Riley denied that, ESPN’s Zach Lowe heard in July that Chalmers and Andersen could be had “for nothing” in return, which speaks to the idea that the Heat wanted their salaries off the books. Miami had apparently backed away, at least temporarily, from the idea of a Chalmers trade by late August, but at that point they wouldn’t rule out a deal as soon as October, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported.

The Grizzlies have to renounce cap holds for unsigned free agents from years past who didn’t return to the NBA, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (All Twitter links). The cap holds they’re renouncing are the ones for Gilbert Arenas, Leon Powe, Stephen Hunter and Marcus D. Williams, according to Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal (Twitter link). That’s because those cap holds technically put the Grizzlies over the tax line, which would mean they could only take in 125% plus $100K of what they sent out — not enough to accommodate this deal, as Marks explains. Renouncing the cap holds would up that limit to 150% plus $100K, which allows the trade to take place, Marks notes.

Which team do you think is getting the better end of this deal? Leave a comment to let us know.

And-Ones: Bryant, Barnes, Pacers

November 9th, 2015 at 10:39pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kobe Bryant would be thrilled to play for USA Basketball in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he told Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. Bryant, who won gold medals the past two Olympics, could end his competitive basketball career in the Olympics if he chooses to retire after this NBA season, Reynolds adds. “It would mean the world to me to be around those guys,” the veteran Lakers’ swingman said. “I think to be able to have a chance to continue the relationship that I already have with most of those guys, talking and just kind of being around each other and understanding that this is it, it’s just us being together, that would be fun.” The 12-player roster is expected to be revealed in June.

In other news around the league:

Dragan Bender, a 7’0” forward who plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv, heads the list of Top 10 NBA prospects compiled by Kevin O’Connor of DraftExpress.com and Celticsblog.com. The 17-year-old could be a draft-and-stash option for the Celtics, who own the struggling Nets’ 2016 first-rounder. The next three players on his list are also 6’10” or taller — LSU point forward Ben Simmons, Kentucky center Skal Labissiere and Duke forward Brandon Ingram.
Matt Barnes is still furious that Knicks coach Derek Fisher went to the authorities after their October altercation at the home of Barnes’ estranged wife, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times tweets. “We’re two grown men who should have handled two grown men’s business, but he wanted to run and tell the cops and the NBA,” the Grizzlies’ small forward said. The NBA is still investigating the matter, according to Ryan Lazo of the New York Post.
Indiana’s Capital Improvement Board unanimously approved a contract Monday to allow the Pacers to build a $50MM practice facility, Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star reports. The five-story, 130,000-square-foot facility will be located across from Bankers Life Fieldhouse and is scheduled to open in 2017.

Southwest Notes: Thornton, Matthews, Grizzlies

November 9th, 2015 at 1:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Marcus Thornton signed with the Rockets this summer knowing that he wasn’t assured a spot in the rotation, much less a starting job, but he felt as though the team was a strong match for his skills and was willing to bet he could boost his value on a one-year deal, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle examines. Coach Kevin McHale elected to go small and promote Thornton to the starting five after the team’s first two games, Feigen notes, a move that’s paid dividends, since Thornton has been the team’s second leading scorer so far.

“It’s been great,” Thornton said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in an offense with coaches that have the ultimate confidence in you. When a coach has the ultimate confidence in you, it’s easy to go out there and play, let the chips fall where they may. If you mess up, get back, get it again. It’s great when you have guys that share the ball, too. It’s fun.”

See more from the Southwest Division:

Agent Jeff Austin thought six teams would aggressively court Wesley Matthews in free agency this past summer if he were healthy, but only two went hard after him, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. One was the Mavericks, who reportedly wound up lifting the value of their deal with Matthews from $57MM to the max of about $70MM after DeAndre Jordan reneged on his decision to sign with Dallas. Both the Raptors and Kings were apparently talking to Matthews before he agreed to join the Mavs, so it’s unclear which of them went farther than the other.
The Grizzlies have no shortage of issues, but poor performances and a lack of cohesion from Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and coach Dave Joerger are far and away the most troublesome, opines Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal.
The Pelicans don’t have a lot of assets to trade, aside from their future draft picks, but even amid a bleak outlook for this season thanks to their injury-hit 0-6 start, their future remains bright, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller believes. That said, New Orleans is the only NBA team without a rookie, as we pointed out.
We rounded up news on the Spurs earlier today.

Grizzlies Notes: Joerger, Chalmers, Randolph

November 7th, 2015 at 9:16pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace is preaching patience and he defended the job of coach Dave Joerger in the wake of a report questioning his job security, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes.

“When things aren’t going well, there’s always a lot of noise from the outside,” Wallace said. “You can’t let it permeate the air you’re breathing as a team. You just have to keep your head down and do what you’ve done in the past to be successful. I don’t see Dave on the hot seat. We’re six games into the season. We’re struggling right now, but Dave’s a proven commodity and he’s got a talented staff.”

Here’s more out of Memphis:

Earlier in the week, the Grizzlies were linked to Mario Chalmers, who is on the trade block because of Miami’s tax implications, but Wallace downplayed the idea of a trade happening, Tillery writes in the same piece. “We’re always searching for ways to improve the team. You can’t predict what will happen. But we’ll never operate with the mindset that you have to do a deal. I don’t think the sky is falling. We have the weapons to be a strong team this year. We just have to be who we are and regain our identity,” Wallace said.
There are rival executives who believe the Grizzlies will ultimately entertain trading Zach Randolph with an eye on adding youth and athleticism to the roster, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Outside of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, Randolph is the trade piece that would most likely net a difference maker, Stein adds. Randolph signed a team-friendly two year, $20MM extension with Memphis in 2014 that kicked in this season.

Dave Joerger On The Hot Seat?

November 7th, 2015 at 6:38pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger might occupy the league’s warmest seat among head coaches, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Memphis has started the season with a record of 3-3, but it’s the way the team has lost those three games that has people within the organization fearing that owner Robert Pera won’t wait long to make a major change, Stein writes. Sources tell Stein that Pera wants to see guard Jordan Adams get an opportunity to play more, and that he hasn’t forgotten that twice last year the Grizzlies waived Hassan Whiteside, who is off to a tremendous start for the Heat this season.

After the team’s blowout loss to the Warriors last week, Joerger responded with this admission: “There are times when we look a little bit old,” Stein notes. The coach repeated the lament after the loss to the Blazers, a game in which Portland received 23 quality minutes from Ed Davis, a player Joerger didn’t have much use for when he saw a career-low 15.2 minutes per game for Memphis two seasons ago. Stein reads Joerger’s “old” comment as barely concealed criticism of the recent choices from the Memphis front office. The ESPN.com scribe points to the acquisitions of Vince Carter and Matt Barnes as examples of moves that haven’t helped the Grizzlies as much as they might have hoped.

What threatens Joerger more than anything else, according to Stein, are internal questions Pera has raised about Joerger’s leadership in the past and the fact that he nearly fired Joerger once before. Another complication is Pera’s fondness for Tom Thibodeau. Pera has gone after Thibodeau before and might make another go at the ex-Bulls coach before someone else beats him to it, Stein posits. Upper management, and not the team’s basketball operations department, was the catalyst for Jeff Bzdelik‘s ascension to the role of lead assistant this past summer, sources tell Stein.

The Grizzlies have only played six games and the team could easily look like the championship contenders that many thought they would be once we get a larger sample size. The schedule does them no favors, as they finish their five-game road trip with contests against the Jazz tonight and the Clippers on Monday. A pair of poor showings could expedite a shake-up, although that is just my speculation.

2015/16 Salary Cap: Memphis Grizzlies

November 7th, 2015 at 5:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.

With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Memphis Grizzlies, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $80,784,915*
Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $419,552
Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $1,286,600
Total Salary Cap Commitments= $82,491,067
Remaining Cap Room= -$12,494,067
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $2,248,933

*Note: This amount includes the $437,080 owed to Fab Melo, and the $163,297 owed to Jamaal Franklin, both of whom were waived via the stretch provision, as well as the $16,034 in salary paid to Ryan Hollins, who was also waived.

Cap Exceptions Available:

None

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000

Last updated: 11/11/15 @ 5:10pm

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Jabari Parker Hires New Agent; Gasols Looking

November 6th, 2015 at 3:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:53pm: Parker has chosen Dr. Charles Tucker as his new agent, Vincent Goodwill of CSN Chicago reports (Twitter link).

3:27pm: Parker is leaning toward hiring Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, Pick hears (Twitter link).

1:10pm: Gerald Henderson is also parting ways with Armstrong, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The Blazers swingman is in the final season of his contract.

11:28am: Jabari Parker is leaving the Wasserman Media Group and agent B.J. Armstrong, he confirmed to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol are also looking for new agents in the wake of Wasserman super agent Arn Tellem’s departure, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt reports (All Twitter links). Zillgitt doesn’t specify whether the Gasol brothers have left Wasserman just yet, but it’s nonetheless the latest round of disappointing news for the agency that’s lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Horford, Danilo Gallinari and Joe Johnson in recent months. Michael Tellem, the son of Arn and the agent who inherited many of his clients, is reportedly leaving the agency, too.

Each of the Gasols is doing his own search for an agent, and they’re not necessarily a package deal, Zillgitt hears (Twitter link). That makes sense, since they’re in different stages of their contracts. Marc re-signed with the Grizzlies this summer on a five-year max deal, while Pau can opt out of his deal with the Bulls this summer. Marc has said he’ll try to recruit Pau to join him on the Grizzlies. Parker is still close to two years away from the next significant negotiation on his NBA contract, since he won’t be eligible for a rookie scale extension until July of 2017.

Arn Tellem left the agency during the offseason to become the vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Pistons. That’s touched off a whirlwind of movement as many of his former clients have sought new representation. Wasserman isn’t the only agency to suffer high-profile losses of late, with Harrison Barnes and DeAndre Jordan also among those making changes.

Heat, Grizzlies Talk Mario Chalmers Trade

November 3rd, 2015 at 9:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:58pm: Chalmers said that he was unaware of any trade rumors regarding himself until he arrived at the arena for tonight’s game against the Hawks, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel writes. “It definitely surprised me,” Chalmers said of the rumors. “But I also know it’s a business. I didn’t know anything until I got here today.”

4:15pm: Some, presumably around the Grizzlies, have quietly expressed disappointment with what they see as Udrih’s lack of conditioning, athleticism and defense, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. The team’s general belief is that Smith isn’t yet ready to assume Udrih’s place in the rotation, Tillery adds.

2:44pm: Sources who spoke with Stein raised the possibility that Udrih could be included in a would-be deal, as Stein writes in a full story. The Grizzlies would have to give up another player to take in Chalmers, however, since Udrih only makes slighly more than $2.17MM this season, as Stein alludes to. The Grizzlies could only absorb 150% plus $100K of the salary they gave up.

2:00pm: The Jazz attempted to trade for Chalmers over the offseason, but the Heat didn’t take them up on it, a source recently told Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link).

1:06pm: The Heat and Grizzlies have talked about a potential trade that wound send Mario Chalmers to Memphis, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who cautions that no deal is imminent (Twitter links). The Heat are in line to pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they finish the season above the $84.74MM tax line, and rumors have persistently surrounded Chalmers, who makes $4.3MM on an expiring contract and ceded his starting job to Goran Dragic last season. Miami had seemingly tabled the idea of a Chalmers trade as of late August but weren’t ruling out a deal as soon as October, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported this summer.

Heat officials offered Chalmers in trades earlier this offseason with the tax in mind, one GM told Jackson (Twitter link), which jibes with reports from throughout the summer. Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com first reported in June that the Heat were shopping Chalmers, as well as Chris Andersen, in an effort to clear the way for a new deal with Dwyane Wade, though team president Pat Riley denied it. Still, ESPN colleague Zach Lowe heard soon after that Chalmers and Andersen were available “for nothing” in return, an indication that the team was simply looking to shed salary.

The Grizzlies, fresh off a 50-point loss Monday to the Warriors, have Mike Conley firmly entrenched at the point, though he, like Chalmers, is on an expiring contract. Beno Udrih is Conley’s backup, with Russ Smith the third point guard. Nick Calathes departed in free agency this past summer. They’re roughly $5MM shy of the tax line, so they could take in Chalmers’ salary, but they don’t have a trade exception large enough that would allow them to absorb Chalmers without sending salary in return. Their only contract without a fully guaranteed salary for this season belongs to JaMychal Green, and it carries a partial guarantee of $150K.

The sides could seek a third team to facilitate a swap that would allow the Heat not to have to take salary in return for Chalmers, though it’s unclear if that idea has come up in the talks between Miami and Memphis. Shedding the $4.3MM owed to Chalmers would lower Miami’s tax bill, but it wouldn’t eliminate it. The Heat have about $91.9MM in guaranteed salary as it counts toward the tax, so the Heat would still need to eliminate about $3MM to duck under the tax threshold. Andersen is on an expiring contract worth $5MM this year, but his name isn’t involved in the latest report.

Chalmers is averaging 6.7 points, 3.0 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 18.0 minutes per game in three regular season contests so far, figures that would extrapolate to one of the worst lines of his NBA career if the numbers held for the entire season. Still, he has a wealth of playoff experience, unlike Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson, who are behind him on the depth chart, and offloading Chalmers without bringing in a comparable player would weaken the Heat as they seek to return to prominence this season, observes Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald.

The interest from Memphis would appear to indicate the Grizzlies want to upgrade their point guard depth, though Udrih has seemingly as well if not better than Chalmers has so far this season, averaging 6.5 points, 4.0 assists and 1.3 turnovers in 15.8 minutes per game. Chalmers could help their outside shooting, which Memphis has long lacked, but he shot just 29.4% from 3-point range last season, well beneath his 36.1% career accuracy from behind the arc.

Do you think the Grizzlies make sense as a trade destination for Chalmers? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.