The Grizzlies have flexibility going into the 2024-25 season
After the Memphis Grizzlies’ moves this summer, where do they stand in regards to the luxury tax for the 2024-25 season?
A move that came as a surprise to most, the Memphis Grizzlies waived Derrick Rose on Monday ahead of the final year of his contract. It seemed perplexing, as the Grizzlies organization openly valued Rose’s veteran presence in the locker room. In addition, he was owed guaranteed money this season, a puzzling move to a Grizzlies team that’s been avoiding the luxury tax.
ESPN’s Tim McMahon reported that Rose won’t receive any money from his contract for this season, and it won’t affect the Grizzlies’ cap sheet. It’s another layer to an intriguing development, and everybody is now enthralled with what’s next for both parties.
With Rose, it remains wait and see on his next move. I won’t speculate on anything. Nonetheless, it was cool to see the former Tiger as a Grizzly.
So let’s focus on the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies currently have 13 main roster spots open with all three two-way contracts filled. After the Rose news, the Grizzlies are roughly $5.9M away from the luxury tax, per Spotrac.
Some notes on the Grizzlies’ luxury tax situation — plenty of people have opinions of their favorite teams spending into the luxury tax. The mode of operations are clear. They want to see how this team looks healthier with the flexibility to make moves if needed.
Again, the rationale is justified. The trio of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. has proven to be a core that can regularly win 50 games a season. There are 20 games of data of Marcus Smart’s fit with Memphis — 6 of those outings were ones Morant played in. Brandon Clarke is back healthy. Clarke, Luke Kennard, and Santi Aldama are good fits next to the core. Vince Williams Jr., GG Jackson, and Jake LaRavia earned goodwill with their play last season, and the organization could want to get a gauge of their fit in optimized roles next to the core. Then, they want to clear the runway for Zach Edey, who possesses more upside than attainable free agent center — and has impressed teammates as well.
It’s fair to see how it looks before making moves. Staying out of the luxury tax gives them room to do so in this new apron-world. If they were hard-capped at the first apron next season, which was their projection at the beginning of the offseason, they’d have the following restrictions:
With the Grizzlies currently out of the luxury tax, they have these trade exceptions at disposal:
$12,600,000 from the Steven Adams trade
$1,930,681 from the Xavier Tillman trade
$2,718,240 from the David Roddy trade
On top of that, they don’t have any buyout or trade restrictions. Those functionalities would have been lost if they remained hard-capped in the luxury tax.
All in all, I don’t mind them not getting into the luxury tax heading into the offseason. They possess a promising roster that needs to be explored in the early portion of the season, and now have the real flexibility to do so. And with the harsher tax penalties, why start the clock on any repeater tax punishments before Jaren Jackson Jr.’s next contract? As long as it doesn’t come at the expense of winning a championship, I’m cool about the luxury tax either way.
Anyways, with the Grizzlies’ roster size down to 13, what are their options?
They could get creative and sign some veterans to training camp deals and have them battle it out for the final roster spot. The Golden State Warriors have deployed a similar strategy in recent years.
They could just outright sign a free agent without any training camp pressure. But who? My picks:
Markelle Fultz: definitely the murkiest fit, but probably the best talent available that fills a gap as an emergency backup point guard.
Dennis Smith Jr.: a bit undersized and is a non-shooter, but is quietly one of the best defensive guards in the association.
Robert Covington: offers real positional versatility ranging from positions 3-5, while also being a honest shooting threat and generating defensive events at an extraordinary level (ranking in the 86th percentile or higher in both steal and block percentage in each of the past three seasons, per dunksandthrees).
Doug McDermott: you can never have too much shooting and positional size.
Or, the Grizzlies could make the simple move and promote Scotty Pippen Jr., which would be my preferred move. It nets them the most value not just next season but beyond.
Pippen emerged as a true NBA point guard after arriving in Memphis in January. He averaged 12.9 points, 4.7 assists (against 2.7 turnovers), 3.2 rebounds, and 1.7 steals on 49.3 percent shooting from the field and 41.7 percent shooting from 3 (3.4 attempts per game) in 21 games. In Summer League, he leveled up to show that he can be an answer for the Grizzlies’ backup point guard question. He immediately showcased value as a change-of-pace guard that involves his teammates and applies pressure throughout the entire floor — hounding ball-handlers to disrupt the opposition’s offensive flow, and applying pressure on the rim both in the halfcourt and in transition.
The Grizzlies could simply convert Pippen to a standard deal with the 14th roster spot. If they sign him to a deal similar to Vince Williams Jr. — who’s making $2,120,693 next season — they’d remain roughly $3.8M away from the luxury tax. This move would grant them flexibility both with their open spot on the main roster and with an extra two-way spot open.
With the main roster, they could wait to address the 15th roster spot until they identify a need to fill. The Grizzlies could get creative with their trade exceptions. Thinking about what they did with Adams, they could trade him to a team and slot the incoming roster spot into an exception, which would start the clock on a new one. They could also be an attractive buyout destination too in the event if they hold an open roster spot while underneath the luxury tax — whether they make a trade or not. As long as they’re winning at a contender’s level.
If they promote Pippen, they could opportunistically keep the two-way spot open, scooping up a young player that may be let go from previous teams. After all, that’s how the Grizzlies signed Scotty Pippen Jr. in the first place.
The Grizzlies have options of what to do with the 14th and 15th roster spots, and they have financial wiggle room — something that wasn’t in the forecast even several months ago. The Grizzlies have positioned themselves to acquire information on a promising roster, while possessing the flexibility to bolster their roster in a hopeful championship push.