For 55 games in Memphis in 2015-16, Mario Chalmers played arguably the best basketball of his career. He averaged 10.8 points per game coming off the bench (mostly), with a true shooting percentage of 57 and a PER of 18. He fit in well with the second unit behind Mike Conley.
Then Chalmers tore his Achilles.
“Rio” missed all of last season, but the Grizzlies are going to give him a shot this time around, something broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Free agent guard Mario Chalmers is finalizing a one-year, partially guaranteed deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 19, 2017
This is almost certainly for the veteran minimum ($2.1 million in his case), we don’t know what the guarantee level is. The Grizzlies are hard-capped and still need to reach a deal with restricted free agent JaMychal Green (I’m surprised nobody tried to poach him) and to round out the roster (maybe with Tony Allen).
I like this move. After Mike Conley, there are minutes to be had at the point in Memphis. If Chalmers can prove he is all the way back, they can be his.