The Grizzlies sign Ty Jerome and lock up Jaren Jackson Jr and Santi Aldama

The Grizzlies sign Ty Jerome and lock up Jaren Jackson Jr and Santi Aldama

[Applause] mor with a running start Element overdone Gasol will turn his he is gone Memphis on top 17 remaining And finally now a three Count it A 15-point lead for Memphis And Blake Griffin gets into it on the floor with Randol Hard to tell if there are any punches being thrown under there but Griffin took exception Adams going long Mor [Applause] insanity [Applause] You got to be kidding me Welcome to Grits and Grinds a Memphis Grizzlies podcast My name is Keith Parish The Grizzlies were the star of the show as NBA free agency opened up on Monday evening They locked down Jiren Jackson Jr on the long awaited renegotiation and extension They kept Santi Alama with a three-year deal They made a big surprise by acquiring free agent Tai Jerome for an unexpectedly low amount They also gave Cam Spencer a deal to join the main roster So a lot of Grizzly stuff to go over in this brief amount of time since Free Agency has opened Before we get to it just a reminder if you want to support the creation of this show you can do that at patreon.com/fastbreak If you join my Patreon you can join the listener Slack channel We have a Grizzly Slack channel where we’ve been talking about all this stuff as the news broke as we tried to figure out exactly what the deals were If you want to join that if you want to get also some bonus episodes and bonus content it’s at patreon.com/fastbreak All right let’s go in order of Shamsherania tweets Maybe that’s the best way to go through this exciting evening of Grizzlies news where lots of things happened The first thing we got out of Shams was that the Grizzlies had worked out a quote maximum renegotiation and extension with Jiren Jackson Jr Now this just happened a couple of hours ago as I record right now I’m not totally sure what he meant by maximum here but it’s a big deal and there are details still to be worked out but the important part is they have renegotiated the last year of Jiren’s deal for this upcoming season Then they’ve added three years onto that plus another year the final year which is the 2029 2030 season That is a player option So this is reported as a five-year $240 million deal Kevin Pelton from ESPN his math is saying what they mean here is $217 million in new money But again the bullet point is it’s essentially a 4-year extension going on the end of this current contract which starts or the final year of his current contract which the 2025 2026 season and then the last year of that deal is a player option So that’s good news I mean we lock Jiren down You prevent him from going into free agency into unrestricted free agency next year You locked down one of your best players in Jiren Jackson Jr of course when this news came out We’ve been waiting for it but we’ve been waiting for the explicit details of how exactly they were going to do this because they lacked the cap space to make this happen Now as I record this right now near 8:00 p.m Central time I still don’t know exactly how they’re making it happen The way it seems they’re making it happen is they are waving and stretching Cole Anony’s contract Now I don’t have that as an absolute certainty That’s not confirmed Shams had a weird tweet that was hard to understand talking about uh working out a resolution with Cole Anony’s reps at Excel Sports to uh give the Grizzlies the necessary cap space Well we know Cole’s not gonna give back his whole salary That’s not a thing that happens Um we know no team is taking Cole Anthony for free Um like Shams followed this up by saying uh Cole Anthony is entering the marketplace as in the free agent marketplace meaning he’s been waved And to create the cab space he can’t just wave Cole Anthony because he had a $13 million contract plus a a team option for the year after that We all infer that oh that means the Grizzlies just waved them and stretched that money meaning they’re gonna have dead money on the books for this year and the following two seasons I don’t feel like that’s an ideal bit of business but they did what they have to do I mean technically if you want to do the full tally the full tally of things the Grizzlies had to do to create the necessary cap space to renegotiate and extend Jiren Jackson Jr these are all the things you did to keep Jiren from going into unrestricted free agency And of course at that point he still could have resigned with your team But they apparently stretched Cole Anthony after him being involved in the Desmond Bane trade Of course they declined Jake Laoravia’s option last season Jake Laavia signs a new contract with the Lakers Congratulations to him a two-year $12 million deal Of course they used a second round pick to salary dump Zire Williams Zire Williams signed a new deal with the Nets Congratulations to him They also of course used the 18th pick in this year’s draft to salary dump Marcus Smart’s contract last year So they celebrated him smart and Zia Williams They got rid of Jake Raia They stretched Cole Anthony They also stretch of course Mobday Dit All of that to give Jiren Jackson Jr this contract So Jiren Jackson Jr is a great player I’m not going to go over his qualifications for receiving this money I think absolutely it’s a it’s a fair contract It’s a good contract Jiren is a huge impact player He does the things that affect winning Plays great defense He is an unbelievable scorer Really good score I think he’s comfortably a top 30 top 20 player around there in the NBA This is what they get paid He’s still very young Still can get better The money by itself is a great deal All the things it took the Grizzlies Also I pro I should probably include it also meant they did not get involved in free agency the last two seasons or three seasons They didn’t sign any free agents because they didn’t want to add any money They didn’t trade for any players that would have more money So there’s an opportunity cost for the last two seasons there as well All to keep Jiren Jackson Jr of course Quite notably the Grizzlies haven’t won a playoff series in a while either But the happy news Jiren Jackson Jr returns Seemingly that means they waved and stretched Cole Anony’s contract All right so that news broke The Jiren Jackson Jr news broke Next up was Santi Alama getting a three-year 52 million deal 52.5 million deal according to uh his representatives Santi signs I think what we felt was a market value deal I think three year 17 a year is about what I was guessing for 351 Very close there Santi I mean had a really good season really good regular season last year Uh kind of faltered in the postseason Didn’t really give you a lot Of course his defensive efforts and liabilities maybe showed up a bit in important games and as the team struggled down the stretch but I think it’s a fair contract I don’t think it’s going to become a bad contract And this turns out I think to be a great success story for the drafting of Santi Alama who of course was a 30th pick in the draft I don’t think it’s that controversial them keeping Santiama Of course the front court right now decimated as Zach Edi is going to miss the beginning of the year Brandon Clark they’re hopeful he’s going to return and be healthy by the beginning of the season But your front court it was Jiren an injured Edy a injury question mark guy and Brandon Clark and then Jay Huff So adding Santi a four and he played some three last year seems good Also you have to keep the scoring you have to keep the shooting I feel like by moving on from Bane of course Canard not coming back The shooting of Santi the offense of Santi is important And again you might as well keep your guys I I don’t think it’s a bad deal I think you could trade that deal if you ended up needing to later on down the line The next bit of news was expected for a while but then as the Grizzlies got involved in the draft once they made the Desmond Bane trade and brought on extra players it kind of had fallen back in my brain a little bit as far as thinking about it It’s just that Cam Spencer was given a or is going to be given a regular NBA contract It’s for two years about $5 million that essentially is he’s going to sign for the league minimum And that’s important actually because the way it’s going to work is the order of operations are important with the very confusing salary cap Since they did end up eventually creating cap space to renegotiate Jiren that means they’re a cap team And that’s going to be important for the Tai Jerome the very surprising Tai Jerome signing meaning they only had their room exception to work with And they were able to keep Santiama’s cap hold But once they pay Santi Alama they could only give my understanding is they could only give Santia excuse me Cam Spencer at this point a minimum contract So he gets a minimum contract He of course had some big impact plays last year playing on that two-way contract We joked he was going to be the cheap replacement for Luke Canard and I think that worked out He maybe provided a little bit more than Luke Canard with that defensive spark with the effort he plays with So Cam Spencer has an opportunity perhaps to be more involved with the Grizzlies next year And then the biggest news I guess beyond the Jiren Jackson Jr thing like the Jiren Jackson Jr thing was anticipated and expected The way they got there apparently stretching Cole Anthony a little bit surprising but we figured they were going to get there with Jiren Jackson Jr It seemed most likely they would bring Santiama back into the fold Getting Ty Jerome was for me totally unexpected up until the point Mark Stein mentioned it as a rumor over the weekend where I was like why would the Grizzlies get Ty Jerome and I even you know released an episode earlier on Monday where I spelled out I’m confused how the Grizzlies would get Ty Jerome because Ty Jerome who finished third in the sixman vote was going to get paid more than the Grizzlies could afford to pay him I was wrong Ty Jerome available for the room exception The Cavs chose to keep Sam Merrill for the same money that Ty Jerome got I mean Sam Merryill got more guaranteed money It’s a three-year deal with a player option in year three but it starts at the room exception The Grizzlies got Ty Jerome who’s a very interesting combo guard scorer Unbelievable regular season Fantastic shooting numbers great three-point shooting numbers His effective field goal percentage was over 60% Had a career year I mean he’s done basically nothing before in his entire career Averaged over 12 points per game last year playing for the one seed Cavaliers It’s interesting to me that this guy was available and also available for just a salary starting under $9 million for next year I do not think the fit is great with Ty Jerome but having ball handling and shooting is something that is always needed He’s the type of guy you think would fit into any lineup I don’t think the defensive upside of like Jaw and Tai playing together isn’t great really but I think with the number of games that Jarant misses having Ty Jerome who can play on and off the ball gives the Grizzlies a much better overall team look than what they would have had if Cole Anthony stuck around or you know what they had just without Ty Jerome coming in And again even if I don’t love the fit I think the contract is a home run Ty Jerome on this deal is absolutely tradable One thing I’ve started trying to say more and more is to remind Grizzlies fans that players signed for good deals are assets That’s a good thing to have This whole explanation why the Grizzlies never use their MLE or anything I mean we were saving our cap space for the Jiren Jackson Jr renegotiation summer But this contract for Ty Jerome has value on its own If things go poorly for the Grizzlies if the fit is bad you could still trade him for other stuff But I think it’s a very interesting acquisition and you wonder how much of the perhaps offense that Tomas Eelo wants to run He’s like man we got to have more shooting and more more ball handling and Ty Jerome would be a perfect guy for it So right now you’re going to have this threep point guard kind of platoon I mean Jaw obviously your starter I assume right now Ty Jerome is going to keep that sixth man role but like if if Contavius Cowwell Pope misses games It wouldn’t surprise me if Tai Jerome starts at the two alongside Jaw But like you have Jaw you have Scotty Pippen Jr You have Ty Jerome to handle all 48 minutes of your point guard minutes And then Ty Jerome also going to play a lot at the two I bet And then you know your wings are still a little bit questionable Jaylen Wells we hope is going to take that step forward Contavius Cwell Pope you hope he has more in the tank Of course our hopes are high for the rookie Cedric Coward We hope Vince Williams Jr can bounce back You sprinkle in some Ken Spencer some John Kchar here and there By the way congratulations to John Kchar Still surviving still around We were certain he was going to be the answer for how do the Grizzlies create enough cap space but John Kchar is still here By the way if this assumption that Cole Anthony has been waved and stretched which I think it is right the Grizzlies now have 15 players under contract for next season it’s possible Like they’re done like they finished up their roster before July 1st The 15 guys under contract let’s guess the starters doesn’t really matter but let’s guess the starters are John Marant Kavius Cwell Pope Jaylen Wells Jiren Jackson Jr and Zack Edy Of course Zack again going to miss the beginning of the season with his ankle surgery Then your bench you got Scotty Pippen Jr and Ty Jerome Cedric Coward Santi Alama Brandon Clark Maybe that’s your six through 10 on the depth chart Maybe someone like Vince Williams Jr or Cam Spencer breaks into that But then the rest of the players on the team Cam Spencer Vince Williams Jr John Kchar Gigi Jackson and Jay Huff those are the 15 Grizzlies players If you had to open up a roster spot I mean you don’t want to wave Jay Huff You probably could I mean you could stretch another player And man we just got done paying Kennedy Chandler’s contract We already have Made Dit’s little bit of stretched money for next year Now going to have some Cole Anthony dead money on the books it looks like But a very involved Monday for the Grizzlies All over the news as they do these big things And I guess I should go back to wrap up maybe with the Jiren money It’s not actually a max contract I think when Shams says a maximum extension they mean a maximum based off what the Grizzlies could carve out to pay him because they could only extend him 140% off of his final year of this deal So if they did if they did renegotiate him move him from 23 million in this upcoming season to 33 million then in fact the maximum they could offer him after that would be 217 or less than that sorry it would be 27 million You add all that together with the new 10 million and this year’s 23 million Are you following the math that equals the 240 million they talked about But again all this just happened a couple of hours ago We don’t have the specifics Sometimes these numbers get rounded up Famously you remember Luke Canard’s like $11 million deal last year and I joked like what if it’s eight and a half plus two million and unattainable bonuses and that rounds up to 11 And it turns out that’s basically what the contract was So we don’t know all the details but again to wrap up this episode this emergency update episode I mean Ty Jerome’s a grizzly That’s very surprising That is not an outcome I saw occurring a week ago So that part’s exciting Jiren Jackson Jr is now signed to a long-term deal to stay with the Grizzlies Santi Alama going to continue his career with the Grizzlies Cam Spencer gets that callup joins the regular roster and now this might be the team uh that goes into the regular season Of course I think they still have a lot of work to do to become a team that can get out of the first round of the playoffs but they do have flexibility They have some of those matching contracts now They still have some picks They could do work this off season They might just wait and see what happens Um oh finally I don’t know if this is real but there’s a lot of stuff on social media that Jiren Jackson Jr is changing his number to eight changing from 13 to eight So I don’t know if that’s real or not but I saw it on social media I’ll pass it along I associate the number eight of course with James Inennis but maybe you think of Lamar Stevens It doesn’t matter Anyways thanks everybody for listening to this special episode If you want to support the creation of these shows do that at patreon.com/fastbreak [Music] All right Hope you have a great day I’ll talk to you soon Go Grizz [Music]

The Grizzlies came out of the gates swinging in NBA Free Agency and made a splash by acquiring Cavaliers 6th Man Ty Jerome, and took care of Jaren Jackson Jr, Santi Aldama, and Cam Spencer with new contracts. 

Also- the team moved on from Cole Anthony to create the space for Jaren’s long-awaited renegotiation and extension. This episode discusses all the moves and the roster as it currently stands. 

Join the listener slack and support the creation of this show at http://patreon.com/fastbreakbreakfast

Use promo code FBBF and for a limited time Underdog Fantasy will match your first deposit up to $1000! https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-fastbreak-breakfast

Check out deals on Grizzlies, NBA and Fastbreak Breakfast merchandise here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/fastbreak-breakfast?ref_id=9887&utm_campaign=9887&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=Fastbreak%2BBreakfast

Use promo code FASTBREAKBREAK and get $20 off your first Seat Geek order.

#nbafreeagency #nba #tyjerome #camspencer #cedriccoward #nbadraft #javonsmall #washingtonstate #tennesseevols #desmondbane #memphis #memphisgrizzlies #jamorant #jarenjacksonjr #tyjerome #nbafreeagency2025
#nbafreeagency