![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769794838_179_54_orig.jpeg\")
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Daily Memphian<\/p>\n
Chris Herrington<\/p>\n
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise\u2019s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he\u2019s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He now splits his time between Minneapolis-St. Paul, where his wife works, and Memphis.<\/p>\n
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The Memphis Grizzlies are moving from one era to another. They are \u201cpivoting to a younger build\u201d as lead basketball executive Zach Kleiman said after the Feb. 5 trade deadline. They are \u201cmoving forward\u201d as the team wrote in a subsequent letter to season-ticket holders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In this series of five columns, Chris Herrington looks at the Grizzlies\u2019 basketball-management track record in the seven seasons under Kleiman\u2019s direction. How have they operated and how well? And what can we \u2014 or, perhaps more importantly, they \u2014 learn from past performance as a team rebuild moves forward?<\/p>\n
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Part 1 looked at his draft record.<\/a>\u00a0Part 2 looked at his trade record.<\/a> <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Part 3 considers free agency and contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Still to come: coaching and player management and the big picture and the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n I\u2019m dividing the front office\u2019s free agency\/contract work into four general categories: significant outside free-agent signings, minor signings (minimum contracts or close to it), rookie-contract extensions or two-way elevations, and veteran contract extensions.<\/p>\n
Significant outside free agent signings
<\/p>\n Kleiman\u2019s front office has never signed a free agent for more than one of the NBA\u2019s mid-level exceptions and have only used those twice:\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Tyus Jones (three years, $28 million mid-level exception, 2019)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Ty Jerome (three years, $28 million \u201croom\u201d exception, 2025)<\/p>\n
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