What are the Memphis Grizzlies doing?

[Astaluego]

confused with the management of the Grizzlies... Really good and deep team, they are second in the wild west...
With a really competent front office (looking in from the outside) excellent at recruiting young talent...
We hit the deadline and they use assets to save!!?? not even trying to maximize the return to win now (I mean, why not take Brogdon instead of Bagley/Davis? if you are trying to win...) in my eyes, their time to win is now and I expected them to be aggressive (as buyers) in the deadline ...
In this context, what do you think is their next move, or what would you do if you were in charge...

[ChinoDerien]

I'm thinking Grizzlies ' time will be around 2026-2028 .
Until then,I figure they will wait and see if their whole youth is worth keeping and at what cost (GG,Williams,Wells,Edey,Aldama),they will resign Jackson and see if he can maximize his potential and help Ja grow as a leader,player and person.
They will also most certainly trade for a superstar at some point, although they're not this type of organisation. Besides, I dont think KD or some other superstar would make them much better right now, they're already really deep and improving as a core, playing for each other. If JBrown or some other GF becomes available in the future, maybe they do it and trade for a superstar.
I also expect them to sign/trade for some qualified veterans in summer 2025.(get a Norman Powell or a Buddy Hield kinda guy.CJ McCollum would be ideal,but dont think money works)

[jayjaysee]

confused with the management of the Grizzlies... Really good and deep team, they are second in the wild west...
With a really competent front office (looking in from the outside) excellent at recruiting young talent...
We hit the deadline and they use assets to save!!?? not even trying to maximize the return to win now (I mean, why not take Brogdon instead of Bagley/Davis? if you are trying to win...) in my eyes, their time to win is now and I expected them to be aggressive (as buyers) in the deadline ...
In this context, what do you think is their next move, or what would you do if you were in charge...

They are set up well to renegotiate and extend JJJ this offseason, bring him up to his max next year and keep him at a discounted rate for his next contract due to it. Which is huge for a smaller market with two other expensive stars..

Benefits being bigger than just the discounted contract, also means he won’t see UFA in 2026 when there will likely be a lot of teams willing to pay him big and promise him whatever (likely no Fox/Luka) and you don’t risk him deciding to walk..

They were rumored with KD. And all the talk about Memphis/Butler, means they likely at least called on him… So they did try to get aggressive to contend and once it didn’t work, they shifted to keeping their cap sheet clean.

If I was a fan, I’d be very happy with the overall plan. Going and getting “Hunter” wasn’t going to change their playoff success/failure this season. Ingram isn’t worth making hard decisions on other current Grizzlies..

As for getting better expiring once you pick this direction, I definitely agree with you… They should have added seconds to not end up with the actual players they ended up with... If not Brogdon, someone from a third team..

[Godaddycurse]

Can they renegotiate and extend JJJ while keeping aldamas cap hold?

[jayjaysee]

Can they renegotiate and extend JJJ while keeping aldamas cap hold?

To get him to the max, they probably need to move on from one of Clarke/Aldama? But they probably plan to anyways..

[Scoot McGroot]

Can they renegotiate and extend JJJ while keeping aldamas cap hold?

A little bit. Not up to a max. But if they agree to something based around the room exception, they could renounce him and use that extra cap space to renegotiate JJJ and then sign Aldama with the room exception? Or find some salary to dump elsewhere? Maybe Clarke could move into someone’s MLE for an affordable price?

[the_process]

The Grizz are getting ready to make an offer for Embiid in the offseason.

[Hook_Em]

They can probably steal KD this summer.

[psman2]

They can probably steal KD this summer.

If that was true then we would have kept the expiring next year Smart for salary matching. We tried to push all in and be a tax team on KD already, that didn't work out and now we are really go all in on the current roster and going to shed more money to lock up JJJ. We have good depth but not yet proven yet, so it is a risky path. So no KD or Embiid.

[ecuhus1981]

Memphis is doing very well. They do not have enough to make it out of the West, they might even lose in the 1st round of the wrong team matches up with them. But time is on their side. Ja will be better next season than this one, as long as he stays in the straight and narrow. They have depth for days, and they still need to figure out who fits and who can be part of a consolidation trade.

[Ell Curry]

Can they renegotiate and extend JJJ while keeping aldamas cap hold?

A little bit. Not up to a max. But if they agree to something based around the room exception, they could renounce him and use that extra cap space to renegotiate JJJ and then sign Aldama with the room exception? Or find some salary to dump elsewhere? Maybe Clarke could move into someone’s MLE for an affordable price?

Aldama seems like a non-tax MLE guy to me. 14M a year. Young free agents who don't suck are rare, and appeal to rebuilding teams. And he's never made big money, obviously.

Looking at the cap, that's:

Charlotte - Could use a shooting 4. Sets up a logical future of one more year of maybe tanking depending on Lamelo and Mark Williams' iffy health and then in 2026-27, tons of expiring money to get aggressive with on a trade to add to Lamelo, the 2025 1st, Brandon Miller, Aldama and the 2026 1st.

San Antonio - Need shooting around Wemby, have room. Long-term Harrison Barnes replacement makes a nice team going forward with all the shooters in the late lotto (Tre Johnson, McNeeley, Knueppel):

Wemby-#15
Sochan-Aldama
Vassell-#10-Kelden
Castle-Vassell-Champagnie
Fox-Castle

looks pretty balanced, with Castle as the backup 1, Vassell the backup 2 and they draft a SF type floor spacer.

Detroit - if they want to pay Schroeder and one or both of Hardaway and Beasley and operate over the cap (can give them all 14M a year say and still be under the tax), though that's like 13 rotation quality guys which is a bit of a mess, but maybe they pay those vet guards decent money on 1+1 deals and basically commit to a deadline deal of 2 or 3 of them (include Fontecchio as an expiring vet here), a young guy and some picks for a 30-40M player who becomes available. Or a 50M player if it's for a starting 5 and Isaiah Stewart is in the deal.

But can't the Grizz pay Aldama the Non-tax MLE now with Smart gone? Fine this year, then the cap will go up again the year after when JJJ presumably gets his massive raise, and right now it looks like you're about 85-90M under the tax in 2026-27, so even paying JJJ about 60M and Aldama 15M a year is fine.

[shrink]

Which is huge for a smaller market with two other expensive stars...

Correct, and the impact of market size is something we don’t talk about enough.

We tend to think of a few teams as big markets and others as small markets. I would propose a third category - micro markets.

For example, cities like DET, MIN, ORL may be seen as small markets, and are a third the size of NYK. However, MEM is a third the size of DET. OKC and NOP are similarly sized. How small is this? Smaller than cities like Greenville, Hartford and Austin.

Smaller cities mean smaller economies. Teams may be owned by billionaires, but revenues from the team do make some difference when it comes to the financial decisions a team has to make.

MEM and OKC should be applauded for the success they’ve achieved developing their young players. Their success at least makes it possible that a star free agent would want to join, even if they’d struggle to afford him. I’m not surprised by the Smart trade, and even though it’s a negative for the team, it puts them in a realistic position to renegotiate JJJ, and extend him off his contract at a better number for both the player and the team. Smart didn’t work out because of injuries, and they are turning the page.

[esvl]

confused with the management of the Grizzlies... Really good and deep team, they are second in the wild west...
With a really competent front office (looking in from the outside) excellent at recruiting young talent...
We hit the deadline and they use assets to save!!?? not even trying to maximize the return to win now (I mean, why not take Brogdon instead of Bagley/Davis? if you are trying to win...) in my eyes, their time to win is now and I expected them to be aggressive (as buyers) in the deadline ...
In this context, what do you think is their next move, or what would you do if you were in charge...

We have two rookies in our starting line - what “time to win now” are you talking about man? The Grizz want to keep JJJ for the next 5 years. That’s the priority.

PS Brogdon is ***. And we already threw one veteran away. No need for another one.

[shangrila]

They're doubling down on their core guys, considering it looks like they want to renegotiate and extend JJJ to keep him.

If you believe in that core as well then they're doing everything fine, especially with their proven ability to find guys on the margins (the Heat get a lot of credit for finding diamonds in the rough but Memphis is right there with them). If you don't believe in the Morant-Bane-JJJ trio though, then yeah they're setting themselves up for failure.

[jbk1234]

They did put a bid in on Butler and he clearly wasn't interested in going there. The truth is that a lot variables have to line up in terms of who is available, whether those players are okay getting traded to your team, and whether the trade partner values your assets more than the next best offer.

If the right player isn't available, a team like the Grizzlies isn't going deep into the tax with JJJ needing a contract.

[gswhoops]

In terms of rosters you'd want to have for the next 10 years, Memphis is definitely top-10 and arguably top-5. Young superstar, two extremely high caliber young supporting players who compliment their star well, and a lot of interesting young pieces. They also own all of their own picks IIRC.

Unless the right opportunity presents itself, I think they're right to prioritize retaining and developing their own guys for the time being. Their window is long.

[Scoot McGroot]

Can they renegotiate and extend JJJ while keeping aldamas cap hold?

A little bit. Not up to a max. But if they agree to something based around the room exception, they could renounce him and use that extra cap space to renegotiate JJJ and then sign Aldama with the room exception? Or find some salary to dump elsewhere? Maybe Clarke could move into someone’s MLE for an affordable price?

Aldama seems like a non-tax MLE guy to me. 14M a year. Young free agents who don't suck are rare, and appeal to rebuilding teams. And he's never made big money, obviously.

Looking at the cap, that's:

Charlotte - Could use a shooting 4. Sets up a logical future of one more year of maybe tanking depending on Lamelo and Mark Williams' iffy health and then in 2026-27, tons of expiring money to get aggressive with on a trade to add to Lamelo, the 2025 1st, Brandon Miller, Aldama and the 2026 1st.

San Antonio - Need shooting around Wemby, have room. Long-term Harrison Barnes replacement makes a nice team going forward with all the shooters in the late lotto (Tre Johnson, McNeeley, Knueppel):

Wemby-#15
Sochan-Aldama
Vassell-#10-Kelden
Castle-Vassell-Champagnie
Fox-Castle

looks pretty balanced, with Castle as the backup 1, Vassell the backup 2 and they draft a SF type floor spacer.

Detroit - if they want to pay Schroeder and one or both of Hardaway and Beasley and operate over the cap (can give them all 14M a year say and still be under the tax), though that's like 13 rotation quality guys which is a bit of a mess, but maybe they pay those vet guards decent money on 1+1 deals and basically commit to a deadline deal of 2 or 3 of them (include Fontecchio as an expiring vet here), a young guy and some picks for a 30-40M player who becomes available. Or a 50M player if it's for a starting 5 and Isaiah Stewart is in the deal.

But can't the Grizz pay Aldama the Non-tax MLE now with Smart gone? Fine this year, then the cap will go up again the year after when JJJ presumably gets his massive raise, and right now it looks like you're about 85-90M under the tax in 2026-27, so even paying JJJ about 60M and Aldama 15M a year is fine.

Of course they can. But then that means they won’t have cap space to possibly renegotiate and extend JJJ which was what we were discussing the possibility of….

[Godaddycurse]

Of course they can. But then that means they won’t have cap space to possibly renegotiate and extend JJJ which was what we were discussing the possibility of….

Ya sounds like one of clarke or aldama has to go

[Ell Curry]

Of course they can. But then that means they won’t have cap space to possibly renegotiate and extend JJJ which was what we were discussing the possibility of….

Ah, so dump Aldama, Clarke and Konchar and you have about 30M to add to JJJ and get him to 53M a year, sort of thing? What is JJJ eligible for?

[esvl]

Of course they can. But then that means they won’t have cap space to possibly renegotiate and extend JJJ which was what we were discussing the possibility of….

Ya sounds like one of clarke or aldama has to go

Can they extend JJJ first, then Aldama? Boston somehow extended the entire roster.