Herrington: Evaluating Zach Kleiman’s Grizzlies free agency/contract negotiation record
Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman speaks during a news conference at the NBA basketball team's media day Sept. 29, 2025, in Memphis. (George Walker IV/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 now splits his time between Minneapolis-St. Paul, where his wife works, and Memphis.
The Memphis Grizzlies are moving from one era to another. They are “pivoting to a younger build” as lead basketball executive Zach Kleiman said after the Feb. 5 trade deadline. They are “moving forward” as the team wrote in a subsequent letter to season-ticket holders.
In this series of five columns, Chris Herrington looks at the Grizzlies’ basketball-management track record in the seven seasons under Kleiman’s direction. How have they operated and how well? And what can we — or, perhaps more importantly, they — learn from past performance as a team rebuild moves forward?
Part 1 looked at his draft record. Part 2 looked at his trade record.
Today’s Part 3 considers free agency and contract negotiations.
Still to come: coaching and player management and the big picture and the future.
I’m dividing the front office’s 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.
Significant outside free agent signings
Kleiman’s front office has never signed a free agent for more than one of the NBA’s mid-level exceptions and have only used those twice:
— Tyus Jones (three years, $28 million mid-level exception, 2019)
— Ty Jerome (three years, $28 million “room” exception, 2025)
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