Tag: Jon Leuer

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Griz, Tony Allen Agree to Four-Year, $20 Million Deal

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Grindfather Returns

On a day when wing players around the NBA were signing bigger-than-expected deals — four years and $27 million for J.J. Redick, four years and $30 million for Kevin Martin, three years and $16 million for Chase Budinger, and four years and $22 million for Martell Webster — the market for Grizzlies guard Tony Allen seemed to be moving in divergent directions.

On the one hand, the asking price for starting-caliber but non-All-Star wing players was coming in higher than the Grizzlies may have hoped to go for Allen. On the other, some potential Allen suitors — notably the Clippers and Pacers — seemed to be filling up roster spots or salary space needed to entice Allen.

In the end, the negotiation between Allen and the Grizzlies seems to have come down to years — a guaranteed fourth year for the 31-year-old guard with a sometimes balky knee. And Allen got his fully guaranteed fourth year in a four-year, $20 million dollar deal that is, nevertheless, still less on a per-year basis than any other wing player signing on Tuesday. This for the only player in the group that has made three straight all-defensive teams, the only player in the group who just started on a conference finalist, and, certainly, the only player in the group to have significant, tangible box-office and marketing value beyond his on-court merits.

According to a source with knowledge of the negotiations, Allen’s contract is set up with escalating salaries. Based on 7.5% raises allotted in the league’s collective bargaining agreement, and my own algebra, Allen’s contract should look something like this year-by-year:

2013-2014: $4.5 million
2014-2015: $4.8 million
2015-2016: $5.2 million
2016-2017: $5.5 million

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Free Agency: Griz Decline Qualifying Offers on Leuer/Daye, Meet with Tony Allen

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Austin Daye

A Grizzlies source confirmed today at the team has declined to extend qualifying offers to free agents Austin Daye and Jon Leuer, making both unrestricted free agents.

Daye’s qualifying offer was $4.1 million, well above his market value, so not extending to him was a foregone conclusion. Leuer’s qualifying offer was $1.1 million and his situation was more up in the air.

The Grizzlies lose matching rights to both Daye and Leuer in free agency but are not precluded from negotiating deals outside of the framework of each player’s prior contract. With Leuer, there’s a good chance the team may try to reach agreement on a multi-year deal with team options that would start a little below Leuer’s qualifying offer for next season, helping the team navigate beneath the league’s luxury tax line. As for Daye, the Grizzlies could still sign him to a lower salary if there’s roster and payroll space left after the smoke clears on higher-priority free agent targets.

With free agency negotiation beginning today, team CEO Jason Levien and head coach Dave Joerger met with incumbent free agent Tony Allen this morning. Other teams with reported interest in Allen include the Clippers, Bucks, Pacers, and Knicks.

It’s unclear at the moment which outside free agents the Grizzlies will target, but other outlets have reported interest in swingmen Chase Budinger and Kevin Martin and re-confirmed interest in center Greg Oden.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 94, Bobcats 75 — Conley Leads a Bench Brigade

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

DSC_6908.jpeg

The Lead: As a home game against the league’s worst team that was bridging both a three-game West Coast road trip and a high-wattage weekend ahead, this was likely to be a pretty subdued game. And for three quarters it was.

The Grizzlies seemed to be playing at about 80 percent intensity but building a solid lead anyway, pushing their lead to nine at the end of the first quarter off a show-off Marc Gasol baseline bucket and a power transition hoop-and-harm from Ed Davis.

Still leading by nine at the half, the team got especially listless, letting the Bobcats whittle the lead completely away. This sent Lionel Hollins looking to his bench for energy and execution and this time he found it in a big, big way.

With Mike Conley opening the fourth quarter surrounded by four reserves — Quincy Pondexter, Austin Daye, Jon Leuer, and Ed Davis — the Grizzlies went on a 15-0 run, pushing a three-point lead early in the quarter to an 18-point lead with with under eight minutes to play. A minute later, Conley’s driving lay-up gave him another 20-point scoring night, bringing the lead to 19 and Conley to the bench for good. He was the only starter to play in the fourth.

It was a particularly good night for Daye (10 points on 4-7 shooting and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes) and Leuer (11 points on 4-4 shooting and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes).

One sequence — the play of the night — symbolized the fourth-quarter explosion: A Davis block into a Daye defensive rebound, which he dribbled toward mid-court before firing a no-look pass to Leuer, on the move in the middle of the lane. Leuer caught the pass and finished a twisting lay-up for the hoop-and-harm.

In his best performance of the season, Leuer showed everything he’s got. In addition to the transition bucket, he scored on two long pick-and-pops off Conley, got a dunk off a Davis feed, was solid on the defensive boards, and forced turnovers. After all that, he even decided to drop some dimes, setting up three-point buckets on back-to-back possessions.

“I kept looking for people to have energy,” Hollins said about going deep into his bench. “We weren’t running and had lost our pizzazz. I rolled the dice a little keeping Mike [Conley] in, but I thought he could lead that group and would be able to get into the lane with the floor more open.”

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Small Deal, Big Meaning: Breaking Down the Grizzlies’ Cost-Cutting Trade

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

While everyone has been waiting for a big move from the Grizzlies, involving Rudy Gay or, less likely, Zach Randolph (who was the subject of a specious trade rumor over the past weekend), the Grizzlies surprised the hoops world with a smaller deal on Tuesday morning. With the smoke still clearing, let’s look at what happened and what it might mean:

Wayne Ellington has been erratic, but the Griz may miss what shooting hes provided.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Wayne Ellington has been erratic, but the Griz may miss what shooting he’s provided.

The Particulars: The Grizzlies traded three reserve players — Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, and Josh Selby — along with a protected future first-round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for reserve forward Jon Leuer. The pick can’t be exchanged until at least 2015. The complicated protections on the pick are such that it will go to Cleveland in 2015 or 2016 only if it falls between picks 6 and 14. It will be protected through picks 1-5 in 2017 and 2018, and unprotected in 2019 in the unlikely event it still hasn’t been exchanged. The deal also generates a $6.4 million trade exception the Grizzlies will have access to for the next year.

The Ostensible Rationale: This was, first and foremost, a financial move. It brings the Grizzlies safely under the league’s luxury tax threshold — a team source suggests the Grizzlies may have been closer to $6 million over the tax line rather than the widely reported $4 million due to potential contract incentives, if you’re wondering about the inclusion of Ellington — without having to move any of the team’s top seven players (assuming Darrell Arthur and Quincy Pondexter as the most valued reserves).

What’s Going Out and What’s Coming Back: I’m somewhat sanguine about the short-term roster changes this deal will entail. Marreese Speights is a useful player whose real value is somewhat less than his surface stats. A lot of people who follow the Grizzlies seem to be under the impression that Speights bloomed into something dramatically different than he had previously been after donning Beale Street Blue. But, really, Speights just got more playing time.

He’s remained much the same player: A good-not-great scorer and rebounder who’s dependent on an excellent mid-range jumper but who is also mistake-prone, a poor defender, and someone who’s overall impact grades out fairly poorly based on on-court/off-court breakdowns. Speights’ poor-man’s-Z-Bo production was a big help for a desperate Grizzlies team last season, but as first Randolph and then Darrell Arthur got healthy and back into the rotation, Speights was starting to settle, naturally, into the fourth slot in the team’s frontcourt rotation. This month, in games where Randolph, Gasol, and Arthur have all been active, Speights has been playing about 12 minutes a game. $4.2 million was a lot to pay a player in that role, especially for a team over the tax.