Memphis Grizzlies Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Sixers Notes: New Jersey, Arena, Andonian, Jackson

September 5th, 2024 at 8:59pm CST by Tristan Tucker

In an effort to lure the Sixers into relocating to New Jersey, the state is offering up to $400MM in tax credits and is floating ideas for a new mixed-use arena on the waterfront, according to The Associated Press.

“The reality is we are running out of time to reach an agreement that will allow the 76ers to open our new home in time for the 2031-32 NBA season,” a team spokesperson wrote in an email. “As a result, we must take all potential options seriously, including this one.”

The Sixers called the offer “thoughtful and compelling,” according to the report.

This comes on the heels of the team stating its plans to exit Wells Fargo Arena by 2031 when the lease is up. The team and the City of Philadelphia are also currently negotiating over a planned $1.3 billion arena near Chinatown.

However, a new proposal would turn that space — the Fashion District — into a biomedical research facility, which would impact the Sixers’ plans for a new arena. According to a report from The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff Gammage, the plan is for the science center to provide year-round work and jobs to the area, as opposed to the 150 events that would be planned in a new arena.

As we’ve relayed, citizens have concerns about the impact a new arena and housing would have on the area and how it would affect the community through gentrification.

We have more from the Sixers:

In response to New Jersey courting the Sixers to move, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said keeping the team in Philadelphia “is a priority,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Anna Orso. “But we have a process here in the city of Philadelphia that we are following, and we will allow it to play itself out,” Parker said.
The Sixers are hiring Grizzlies executive Ariana Andonian as vice president of player personnel, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Andonian was included on The Athletic’s NBA “40 under 40” list this offseason and has been with the Grizzlies since 2020. “Those who worked with her rave about her attention to detail and scouting acumen,” Vorkunov wrote.
Philadelphia shook up its roster in a major way this offseason, adding a star player in Paul George and key role players like Caleb Martin. The team also added Reggie Jackson as a backup guard. In a subscriber-only story, Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer spoke to Nuggets reporter Chris Dempsey about the addition of Jackson and what fans can expect from the veteran. Dempsey says Jackson was a total pro who never complained about his role and did whatever it took to help the team win.

Grizzlies Say GG Jackson Will Be Reevaluated In Three Months

September 4th, 2024 at 2:15pm CST by Luke Adams

Grizzlies forward GG Jackson underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair a broken fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot, the team announced (via Twitter). The procedure had been expected after the club confirmed the injury last week.

According to the Grizzlies, Jackson will be reevaluated in approximately three months, which means he’s expected to miss at least the first six weeks of the regular season.

There’s also no guarantee that the 19-year-old will be ready to return at the time of the reevaluation, so it’s possible his absence will extend beyond that.

The timeline doesn’t come as a real surprise, given the nature of the injury. Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes (Twitter link) recently noted that players who have suffered similar injuries missed an average of about 42 games, which works out to roughly three months of the season. As Stotts observes, metatarsal injuries can occur in various ways and in various locations, so recovery times differ from case to case.

It’s an unfortunate setback for the Grizzlies and for Jackson, who enjoyed a promising rookie season after being selected with the 45th pick in the 2023 draft. The former South Carolina standout, who was the youngest player in the NBA last season, averaged 14.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 25.7 minutes per game across 48 outings (18 starts), posting a shooting line of .428/.357/.752.

Even with several players returning from injuries this fall, Jackson figured to play a regular role in the Grizzlies’ frontcourt to open the season. Instead, he’ll get a late start and may have to fight to reclaim minutes once he’s healthy enough to get back on the court.

Grizzlies Have Several Options For Open Roster Spot

August 31st, 2024 at 8:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

DaMichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal examines the Grizzlies‘ options for their open roster spot after waiving Mamadi Diakite this week. Cole states that the team could either promote one of its two-way players, sign a free agent to improve the bench or keep the slot open for a move later in the season. Cole believes Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jay Huff are the two-way players with the best chance of receiving a standard contract, while center and point guard are the positions with the greatest need for more depth.

Grizzlies’ GG Jackson II Injures Foot, Requires Surgery

August 30th, 2024 at 7:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Grizzlies second-year forward GG Jackson II has suffered a foot injury that will require surgery, according to a team press release (Twitter link).

Jackson sustained the injury playing basketball outside of Dallas on Tuesday. He attempted a contested layup and experienced an unstable landing on his right foot.

Subsequent imaging revealed a broken fifth metatarsal in his right foot. The surgery is scheduled to be performed on Wednesday.

Memphis was snake-bit by injuries last season and its run of bad luck continues with Jackson’s offseason ailment.

Jackson excelled in the Las Vegas Summer League last month, getting named to the All-Summer League First Team.

In his first season, Jackson earned All-Rookie Second Team honors. Jackson was the only All-Rookie member who wasn’t drafted in the first round; he was selected 45th overall in 2023 and initially signed a two-way contract before being promoted to the 15-man roster in February. He received a four-year deal at that time.

Jackson appeared in 48 games, including 18 starts. He averaged 14.6 points and 4.1 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per contest, attempting an average of six 3-pointers per game and making 35.7%.

The 6’9” Jackson projects as a backup at both forward spots but he’ll likely miss some early-season action as his foot heals.

Deadline Looms For Teams To Stretch 2024/25 Salaries

August 28th, 2024 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

Thursday, August 29 is the last day that an NBA team will be able to waive a player who has a fully or partially guaranteed salary for 2024/25 and stretch that player’s ’24/25 salary across multiple seasons.

The stretch provision deadline has historically been August 31, and while that’s technically still the case, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement tweaked the wording of the rule. As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), in order to apply the stretch provision to a player’s current-season salary, a team must now ensure the player clears waivers on or before August 31 rather than simply requesting waivers on him by August 31.

The adjusted wording is similar to the CBA language related to the league-wide salary guarantee date in January. In that case, a team must place a player on waivers on or before January 7 in order to have him clear waivers ahead of the league-wide Jan. 10 guarantee date. In the case of the stretch provision rule, a player whose salary is being stretched now must be waived by August 29 at 4:00 pm Central time to ensure he has cleared waivers prior to September 1.

A player who clears waivers between September 1 and the end of the 2024/25 season can still have his cap hit(s) for 2025/26 and future seasons stretched across multiple years, assuming he’s owed guaranteed money beyond this season. But his ’24/25 cap charge would remain unchanged in that scenario, unless he reaches a buyout agreement with his team.

The stretch provision allows teams to gain some short-term relief at the cost of reduced long-term flexibility. It’s used most frequently by teams in the luxury tax who want to lower their projected tax bill (or duck out of tax territory entirely) or by teams who want to create a little extra cap room to accommodate a specific roster move.

Teams haven’t employed the stretch provision all that frequently in recent years, but three players waived this week will have their guaranteed money stretched across multiple seasons. The Suns are stretching the $21.75MM owed to Nassir Little for the next three years, as well as the $2,120,693 owed to E.J. Liddell for 2024/25, while the Grizzlies are stretching Mamadi Diakite‘s $1,392,150 partial guarantee for ’24/25.

Since the stretch provision allows a team to spread the player’s remaining salary across twice the remaining years on his contract, plus one additional year, the new cap hits for those players will be as follows:

Little (Suns): $3,107,143 for seven seasons (through 2030/31)
Liddell (Suns): $706,898 for three seasons (through 2026/27)
Diakite (Grizzlies): $464,050 for three seasons (through 2026/27)

The Suns’ moves reduce their projected tax bill, while the Grizzlies’ move creates a little additional breathing room below the tax line.

We likely won’t see a flurry of cuts today and tomorrow in order to take advantage of this rule, but the deadline is still worth keeping in mind for the possibilities it will take off the table. Any player on a guaranteed expiring contract who is waived after August 29 will have his remaining salary count entirely against his team’s ’24/25 books.

Southwest Notes: Green, Tate, Grizzlies

August 27th, 2024 at 10:16pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Jalen Green was having a solid season until March, averaging 17.9 points per game while shooting 40.4% from the field. He had made some strides on the defensive end but still hadn’t exploded onto the scene as a former No. 2 overall pick, Joe Wolfond of TheScore.com writes.

That was until March, when Green then averaged 24.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per night while shooting 46.1% from the field and 37.0% from beyond the arc in his final 23 games of the season. As Wolfond notes, it wasn’t empty production during the late part of the season, as the Rockets went 13-2 in March.

Green hasn’t yet been extended, however, and reports of Houston’s interest in Kevin Durant or other potential superstars down the line make it seem like the team is open to shaking up the core. As Wolfond writes, this season will be instrumental in determining whether the Rockets will or should commit long-term to the duo of Alperen Sengun and Green, as well as what sort of role Green will carry into the future.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

It might be hard for Rockets forward Jae’Sean Tate to find minutes in 2024, with Tari Eason returning from injury and serving as the primary forward defender off the bench, Rahat Huq of Forbes writes. Tate might crack the rotation if he’s able to become a more reliable shooter in his age-29 season. However, the Rockets brought him back along with the likes of Jock Landale and Jeff Green and could combine salaries of some of their lower-minutes players (around $28MM) to match contracts in trades.
By waiving Mamadi Diakite, the Grizzlies are preserving their 15th roster spot for future flexibility, Damichael Cole of Memphis Commercial Appeal writes. The club could use that spot for a depth piece in the event of injuries or could leave it open until later in the season to ensure team salary doesn’t surpass the luxury tax line.
In case you missed it, Matt Ryan is re-joining the Pelicans on a restructured deal for training camp but it does not contain Exhibit 10 language. The contract is a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary Exhibit 9 deal. That means his deal can’t be converted to a two-way contract. The Pelicans’ standard roster stands at 15 players.

Grizzlies Waive Mamadi Diakite

August 27th, 2024 at 11:24am CST by Luke Adams

11:24am: The move is official. The Grizzlies have formally announced that Diakite has been waived (Twitter link).

11:21am: After acquiring him from Brooklyn last month, the Grizzlies will waive big man Mamadi Diakite, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Diakite, 27, finished last season with the Knicks, then was traded to Brooklyn in the Mikal Bridges blockbuster last month. He was flipped from the Nets to the Grizzlies in a subsequent deal that sent Ziaire Williams to Brooklyn and allowed Memphis to re-sign Luke Kennard while staying out of luxury tax territory.

A 6’9″ forward/center who played his college ball at Virginia, Diakite has appeared in a total of 55 regular season games for the Bucks, Thunder, Cavaliers, Spurs, and Knicks since making his NBA debut in 2021. He holds career averages of 3.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per contest.

Diakite has a $2,273,252 cap hit for the 2024/25 season, but only $1,392,150 is guaranteed, so the Grizzlies will be on the hook for that partial guarantee if he goes unclaimed on waivers. While they have the option of carrying the full amount on this season’s cap, they instead intend to stretch it across three seasons at a rate of $464,050 through 2026/27, according to Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link).

Using the stretch provision on Diakite’s partial guarantee will create a little extra spending flexibility below the luxury tax line, giving Memphis enough breathing room to sign a 15th man without becoming a taxpayer, as we recently noted in our look at the club’s offseason.

Once the move is official, the Grizzlies will have 17 players under contract — 14 on guaranteed standard salaries and three on two-way deals.

Jokic Tops Poll For Best Player; Gilgeous-Alexander Gets Nod For 2024/25 MVP

August 26th, 2024 at 10:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the best NBA player right now but he’s not going to win another Most Valuable Player award next season.

That’s the majority opinion of the 18 NBA coaches, scouts and executives that ESPN’s Tim Bontemps polled. All but three of them believe Jokic is the league’s top player.

However, when the subject of next season’s MVP came up, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received seven votes. A handful chose Mavericks guard Luka Doncic with Jokic only receiving two votes.

The Thunder and Celtics are the solid favorites to emerge from their respective conferences and square off in the Finals. Boston received 13 votes to win the East, while Oklahoma City picked up 14 votes to emerge from the West. The Celtics received eight votes to repeat as champions, while the Thunder were chosen by seven members of the group.

There was no love for the top pick in the draft, Zaccharie Risacher.The Hawks big man didn’t receive a single vote for Rookie of the Year. The same goes for the topic of best player from the 2024/25 rookie class in five years. Grizzlies center Zach Edey garnered a panel-best eight votes for ROY, while Rockets guard Reed Sheppard was chosen by eight of them to be the best of the bunch in five years.

Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama got two-thirds of the vote for top overall player in five years.

Kennard Impressed By Spencer's Shooting

August 26th, 2024 at 8:32pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard said the addition of former UConn guard Cam Spencer, who was drafted in the second round and signed on a two-way deal, gives the club another offensive option. “He can shoot, man,” Kennard said, per Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “He really can. I think he’ll be really close in our shooting competitions. Well let him get in a couple and see how he can hang.”

Ziaire Williams Talks Trade, Joining Nets, More

August 26th, 2024 at 2:45pm CST by Rory Maher

Speaking to Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, former lottery pick Ziaire Williams said he wasn’t surprised to be traded from Memphis to Brooklyn last month. It was a salary-dump move for the Grizzlies, who were focused on staying out of the luxury tax and re-signing Luke Kennard.

“It didn’t catch me off guard. The GM [Zach Kleiman] was kind of letting me know a little bit, just so I wouldn’t be completely shocked,” Williams said. “But when it happens, it’s always like, ‘Damn, it’s real now.’ Like I said, man, I’m happy for the opportunity, and I’m grateful for what I experienced in Memphis, and I’m just looking forward to this next chapter in my life.”

Williams’ interview with HoopsHype covers several topics, including his excitement about joining the Nets and playing for Jordi Fernandez, dealing with injuries the past two seasons, and what skills he brings to a team. Here are a couple more highlights.

On adjusting to Brooklyn:

“It’s been crazy, man. I can’t lie. There’s been a lot, but I got a great supporting cast with me – my mom, my dad, and a bunch of others on my team that are making it a lot easier. Finding new places, meeting new people, learning new plays – everything is super new. It almost feels like I’m a rookie again. To be honest with you, I love it, man. I love this opportunity, and I think it’s really a blessing in disguise for me.”

On what he’s been working to improve this summer:

“Definitely, first and foremost, my body. They say availability is the best ability. I had a nasty little back injury last year, so I’ve been really just every day in the weight room, treatment, just really trying to prioritize my body. And then on the court, just doing all the simple things, man – fine-tuning my shot, reading off closeouts, trying to be great at two or three things rather than trying to be good at a bunch of different things. We, me and the rest of my team, came up with a great plan this summer, and I’ve definitely gotten a lot better. I can’t wait to go out on the main stage and showcase the work I’ve put in the dark.”

A 6’9″ wing who turns 23 years old in a few weeks, Williams is eligible for a rookie scale extension until October 21, the day before the 2024/25 regular season begins.