Offseason Approach
Figure out a Ja Morant trade and start the rebuild in full
Actual Cap Space
-$2.4 million
Practical Cap Space
-$12.1 million
Projected Luxury Tax Space
$44.4 million
Under Contract (14)
Santi Aldama
Brandon Clarke
Walter Clayton Jr.
Cedric Coward
Zach Edey
Taj Gibson (non-guaranteed)
Taylor Hendricks
Ty Jerome
Jahmai Mashack (two-way)
Ja Morant
Scotty Pippen Jr. ($350K guaranteed)
Javon Small (two-way)
Cam Spencer
Jaylen Wells ($300K guaranteed)
Potential Free Agents (4)
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (unrestricted – player option)
GG Jackson (restricted – team option)
Olivier-Maxence Prosper (unrestricted – team option)
Rayan Rupert (restricted – two-way)
Dead Cap (2)
Cole Anthony ($3.7 million)
Mamadi Diakite ($464,050)
Projected Signing Exceptions
Non-Taxpayer MLE ($15.0 million)
Bi-Annual Exception ($5.5 million)
Notable Trade Exceptions
Jaren Jackson Jr. ($28.9 million)
Projected First Round Draft Picks (pre-Lottery)
#6
#16
Notable Extension Candidates
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (veteran extension – if player option exercised)
Brandon Clarke (veteran extension)
Taylor Hendricks (rookie scale extension)
Ja Morant (veteran extension)
Jaylen Wells (veteran extension)
Analysis
On one hand, the Memphis Grizzlies offseason is pretty straight forward: Trade Ja Morant and lean into the full rebuild they began this past season.
Easy to say. Hard to do.
Almost since Day 1 of being a Grizzly, Morant has been the face of the franchise. He and the city bonded in a special way that few players experience. His brash, in-your-face style flipped what looked like a long rebuild into a “We’re here now and we’re going to make sure you know it” jump into the playoffs in Morant’s second season. While not the same as the beloved Grit ‘n’ Grind Grizzlies, this Morant-led group rallied Memphis behind them in a similar way.
Unfortunately, things went sideways off the court and injuries hit Morant pretty hard. In the summer of 2025, with the roster getting expensive and already having changed the head coach, Zach Kleiman tried to reset things by trading Desmond Bane. Unfortunately, more injuries (to Morant and several others) and contentiousness with head coach Tuomas Iisalo plagued Morant and the season spiraled. That led to the trade of Jaren Jackson Jr. and left the Grizzlies ready to rebuild.
In a lot of ways, Morant is the last man standing. When Memphis reportedly tried to trade their star point guard at the deadline, the market was fairly tepid. To be fair, Morant was injured and there were worries he wouldn’t return. That, combined with a large salary, mad an in-season trade hard to find. This offseason, that market is expected to widen considerably.
So, it’s great that there will be more of market for Morant this summer. It’s even good if the Grizzlies lean further into the rebuild. They have a lot of really fascinating young talent, will add more at the draft (more on that in a bit) and their cap sheet will be very clean post-Morant. All good things.
Yet, it’s still a breakup, and that’s really, really hard. Even when you know a breakup is the right thing, it’s not always easy. But doing the right thing is rarely the easy thing.
In a Morant trade, since Memphis has already prioritized rebuilding, they can look for a package centered around draft picks and young talent. They’d probably be fine to even go heavier on the draft picks side, as this roster is already pretty jam-packed with players.
The good new for the Grizzlies is that by the time they’ll be listening to Morant offers, they’ll know their place in the 2026 NBA Draft. Pre-Lottery, Memphis holds the sixth pick. That should have the Grizzlies in prime position to draft their point guard of the future. If they don’t move up or down significantly, players like Darius Acuff Jr., Kingston Flemings, Keaton Wagler, Mikel Brown Jr. should be available for Memphis. Any one of those guys should slide right into a young, exciting lineup alongside Cedric Coward, Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells.
With their second first-round pick, Memphis should look for frontcourt depth. Ideally, a 4/5 that can play with Edey, then slide over to back him up, would be ideal. If the Grizzlies don’t get a guard with their earlier pick, there will still be good lead-guard options available in the middle of the round including players like Bennert Stirtz, Christian Anderson Jr. and Labaron Philon Jr.
In free agency, things are fairly uncomplicated for Memphis. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope should pick up his player option, as he’s not likely to find $21.6 million waiting for him in free agency. As soon as that happens, Caldwell-Pope should become a trade piece for the Grizzlies, as he’s been pushed out of the rotation by younger options.
Memphis should pick up their team options for GG Jackson and Olivier-Maxence Prosper. Both have shown enough that they should stick around. With Jackson, Memphis could decline their team option for him and make him a restricted free agent. But Jackson hasn’t popped quite enough that controlling his free agency is that necessary. If he has a big season this year, the Grizzlies could do an in-season extension.
Rayan Rupert is the team’s only other free agent. He showed enough as a two-way player that Memphis should consider bringing him back. Standard roster spots are likely to be an issue, but the Grizzlies could bring Rupert back on another two-way contract, at least to start the season.
Of the Grizzlies non-guaranteed players, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jaylen Wells are no-brainers to bring back. Both return a good amount of surplus value on contracts that are essentially minimum deals.
Taj Gibson will likely be waived. If Memphis wants to bring Gibson back, they can sign him to a new minimum deal that will carry a lesser cap hit. But roster spots are the real issue here. To bring in two draft picks, never mind any other outside free agents, a couple of people have to go.
Extensions should be pretty quiet for Memphis this summer. Morant is far more likely to be traded than extended. Same is true of Caldwell-Pope. Brandon Clarke hasn’t stayed healthy enough over the last few seasons to warrant an extension, and he could also be part of a trade like the two veteran guards. Jackson and Pippen Jr. both don’t become extension-eligible until we’re in-season, so nothing will happen there this summer.
That leaves Jaylen Wells. He didn’t make a huge leap in Year 2, but Wells was overtasked a bit as a self-creator. That’s not really his game, or it isn’t yet, at least. All of that said, don’t expect an extension for Wells this offseason. As the Grizzlies rebuild, they’ll likely want as much flexibility as possible moving forward. If Wells gets off to such a strong start that Memphis doesn’t want to risk him being even a restricted free agent in the summer if 2027, they could always do an in-season extension. Either way, expect him to be a part of the Grizzlies young core moving forward.
And that’s what this summer is about for the Memphis Grizzlies: moving forward. After four playoff appearances in the last six seasons, but never quite breaking through, Zach Kleiman started the rebuilding process this past season. Trading Ja Morant will move Memphis further toward a new era, with some young talent in the fold and even more on the way.