Herrington: How Jaren Jackson Jr.’s All-NBA bid could impact his Grizzlies’ future
Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr.’s salary is $25.3 million this season, declining to $23.4 million in 2025-2026, which will be the contract’s final season. (Brandon Dill/AP file)
Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s 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 and his wife have two kids and, for reasons that sometimes elude him, three dogs.
Jaren Jackson Jr. is an All-Star.
This is a deserving recognition for a player who seems to be putting his whole game together in his seventh season, still at only 25 years old.
But Jackson’s been an All-Star before, and beyond respect and recognition, there wasn’t much at stake in the honor this time around.
That’s not necessarily the case with what’s next: A bid for All-NBA.
Jackson is currently in the third season of a four-year contract. It was a deal signed after a season Jackson had mostly missed with a major knee injury; before Jackson emerged as a full-fledged star; before he was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year; before he was named an All-Star, and then an All-Star again.
In a league with a salary-cap system, the Grizzlies have enjoyed having Jackson emerge while on a contract that’s been a relative bargain. They’ll likely enjoy that again next season. And then those days are done.
Jackson’s salary is $25.3 million this season, declining to $23.4 million in 2025-2026, which will be the contract’s final season. If Jackson reaches the conclusion of that contract without an extension, he would be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026.
What Jackson’s next deal could be and when it could come is currently governed by one set of NBA rules. If Jackson were to reach what is colloquially referred to as “supermax” eligibility, those rules would change.
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