The Memphis Grizzlies have an important decision to make during the first half of their first full season of rebuilding — to figure out what to do with the expiring contract of veteran Andre Iguodala.
The franchise reportedly has no intentions to work out a buyout agreement with the veteran, who is owed $17 million for the 2019-20 season, especially after seeing the interest from the Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers, and the Houston Rockets for his services. The Grizzlies are hoping to yield a first-round pick in exchange for the aging veteran, but that has proved problematic with all three of these teams having spent arduous resources over the course of the summer.
“It is going to be a matter of whether the Grizzlies blink on this one or not,” an NBA exec told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. “You have a guy who does not want to be there but has some value. He does not have a ton of value, though. He’s 35, 36 years old. So what do you do, hold him hostage? If you want him to be a guy to help your young players but he does not want to do that, does that really help your young players? Most teams figure they can wait (the Grizzlies) out on this.”
The Grizzlies see him as a valuable mentor, a role he partially played during the last few years of his tenure with the Golden State Warriors. However Iguodala doesn't figure to get major minutes for a rebuilding side that is throwing all their effort in developing young players.
At some point the Grizzlies will be forced to evaluate if Andre Iguodala is worth $17 million of valuable instructions for their young players, or if they simply must work out a buyout to keep from paying a beefy stack to a veteran that might just be in the last year of his career.
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