The first maximum salary, the Grizzlies sign Jackson to lock in the future space, and signing Jerome may leave huge hidden dangers

Today, the free agent market has been fully opened in 2025, and each team has signed the players they like as fast as possible, so as not to be extended by other teams. And the teams that are extremely active in the market today, in addition to the Rockets, there are also the Grizzlies, which are also part of the West. But the operational evaluations of the two teams are very different.

The Rockets signed Finney Smith and Capela in a short time ago and received media A+ level evaluations, while the Grizzlies, which cost more and signed more people, had only a B-level evaluation.

First, they signed the core player of the team, Gallon Jackson, for $240 million in five years, and also contributed the first maximum salary to the 2025 player market. As Jackson, who is only 25 years old and has been selected into the All-Star twice and has been selected into the All-Defensive Team three times, it is undoubtedly a happy thing to be able to get a maximum salary. But there are various statements about how he can be worthy of the maximum salary in recent years.

As the top defense 4 and 5 swingman in the league, Jackson has shown good deterrence at the basket since entering the league. In the rookie season, Gallon Jackson averaged 13.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1 blocks per game. He shot 50% from the field and 35.9% from three-point shooting.

and then he paid more attention to outside shooting, increasing from 2.4 per game to 5.3 per game now. While maintaining a good shooting percentage, this has made Xiao Gallon's scoring data rise, and he has finally entered the ranks of players averaging 20 points per game in the past two years. However, compared with other All-Star players, Little Gallon has always been a bit single in scoring methods.

In the playoffs, Xiao Gallon never proved himself. Last year, he was swept out 4-0 by his opponent against the Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. With Morant injured, Xiao Gallon did not show the influence he should have as a core. He averaged only 16 points, 5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, shot 37.9% from the field and shot 27.3% from three-pointers. This is too low for an inside player of 2.08, let alone an All-Star player like Xiao Gallon.

Therefore, the five-year max salary contract of US$249 million has completely locked down the salary space after the Grizzlies. The management chose to believe in Little Gallon, and undoubtedly took huge risks.

After renewing the contract with Little Gallon, the team signed Aldama for 3 years and $52.5 million. Although Aldama, as a league space insider, performed very well overall last year, his average performance of 12.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game is not cost-effective compared to the contract with an average salary of $17.5 million.

When talking about Aldama's contract renewal, the media said that the player who was selected for the 30th pick in the first round in 21 years had a market price of about $15 million. As the Grizzlies who have been there for four years, renewing their contract with him has a natural advantage. A four-year, $56 million contract may be more in line with his value.

The last signing seems outstanding but actually has huge hidden dangers. The team used 3 years and $28 million to sign Jerome, who performed very well with the Cavaliers last season. Watching data, Jerome is indeed worth the price. Last season's regular season averaged 12.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists, shooting percentage of 51.6% and three-point shooting percentage of 43.9%.

However, Jerome's shortcomings were exposed on the playoff defensive end, which is also an important reason why the Cavaliers did not consider renewing their contract this summer. For Jerome, the Grizzlies also let the backcourt main player rotate Kennard, who joined the Hawks with a two-year, $11 million contract.

He is better than Jerome in terms of shooting ability and organization of teams. More importantly, his defense is more stable, and his total renewal price is only one year less than Jerome, but his total salary is 17 million US dollars less.

So from the overall signing of the Grizzlies, although they successfully won three powerful players, the overall cost is too high. At the same time, the team's defensive ability declined significantly because Kennard ran away in the backcourt. If the Grizzlies cannot achieve good results next season and want to seek change, then the relatively saturated salary space will be a huge problem for them. What do you think of the Grizzlies' signing operations? Welcome to like, follow, and leave a message to discuss!