Larry Kuzniewski
Free agency season starts at midnight on July 1, and the Grizzlies began their offseason moves a little before the draft in the much-heralded Janis Timma for Luke Ridnour for Matt Barnes deal, but last night they had a little bit of news in a 12:01AM press release: The Griz have extended a qualifying offer to point guard Nick Calathes, making him a restricted free agent.
According to the HoopsHype salary page, that qualifying offer was for $1.1 million, and the Griz now have the right to match any offer sheet Calathes receives from another team in order to keep him.
Speculation has long been that the Griz would not be bringing Calathes back after last season; partly because Calathes wanted to leave last summer and return to Europe and the Griz instead exercised their team option to keep him in Memphis for less money, and partly because Calathes played well enough—especially on defense—that some other team is presumably going to pay him more than Memphis would.
By making Calathes an RFA, the Griz have called that into question a bit, but I still wouldn’t be surprised to see Calathes get an offer of a longer, slightly-more-expensive deal somewhere else that the Griz then choose not to match (perhaps a biennial exception deal similar to the one Beno Udrih is currently on for Memphis). Either way, while we all watch and wait for news from the Grizzlies front office’s adventures in Spain, the Grizzlies’ free agency season is underway.
