As I suggested in my last post on the Marreese Speights signing, retaining Speights did not close the door on the Grizzlies bringing back fellow frontcourt reserve Darrell Arthur. But it left the team with a choice: Retain Arthur or have access to the full mid-level exception (starting salary: $5 million) to address perimeter needs. The team’s payroll status and the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement would not allow both.
- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Darrell Arthur
And now the Grizzlies have made their choice — retaining Arthur with a three-year, roughly $9 million contract (with the third year a player option), as first reported by Chris Vernon.
Though the roster now has a pretty steep backcourt/frontcourt imbalance, movement in the market made this an easy choice: With Jason Terry, Ray Allen, Jamal Crawford, and Nick Young off the board, and perhaps the only remaining, obtainable backcourt free agent potentially worth the team’s full mid-level — Courtney Lee — being pursued by the Celtics, the Grizzlies would likely have been overspending with the full mid-level on any one player. And while the team could have split it between two lower-level targets, the ability to do so doesn’t trump retaining Arthur for such potentially good value. At worst, the Grizzlies are well-equipped to balance the roster with in-season trades if desired.
Arthur has had some serious — if seemingly random — injury issues, but has shown the kind of upside that could make this contract a pretty big bargain.
Bringing back both Speights and Arthur also feels like a hedge — short- and long-term — against Zach Randolph returning from a serious knee injury at age 31. If the Grizzlies have apparently skirted the question of moving one of their big contracts this summer, they may not be able to do so a year from now. Having Arthur and Speights under contract will give them flexibility to consider not just Gay but also Randolph, several years older than the rest of the current core, in any future tax-oriented roster restructuring.
Where does the Arthur signing leave the Grizzlies as the free agency period officially begins on Wednesday? Including so-far-unsigned rookie Tony Wroten Jr. and using the best salary estimates available, the team has 12 players and a payroll right at the tax line.
