{"id":101343,"date":"2024-10-15T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T22:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=101343"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:49:59","slug":"grizzlies-sign-undrafted-scotty-pippen-jr-long-term-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/15\/grizzlies-sign-undrafted-scotty-pippen-jr-long-term-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Sign Scotty Pippen Jr. To Long-Term Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies have been trying to decide who their backup point guard was going to be ever since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/23\/grizzlies-more-details-come-light-derrick-rose-split\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">reaching a buyout<\/a> with the now retired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rosede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick Rose<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Considering that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smartma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Smart<\/a> \u2014the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year \u2014has played point guard extensively, he could have been the choice. Yet, with the team\u2019s desire to have an elite point-of-attack defender in the first unit, Smart has retained his starting spot. That may still change. After all, starting two perimeter players whose biggest weakness is their three-point shooting isn\u2019t ideal.<\/p>\n<h2>Grizzlies Sign Undrafted Scotty Pippen Jr. To Long-Term Contract<\/h2>\n<p>The Grizzlies now appear set to make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scotty Pippen Jr.<\/a> their backup point guard. On Tuesday, Memphis signed the 23-year-old to a four-year contract, per HoopsHype insider Michael Scotto.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Memphis Grizzlies agreed to a four-year deal with Scotty Pippen Jr, sources told <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hoopshype?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@hoopshype<\/a>. He averaged 12.9 points, 4.7 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals last season, emerging as a Grizzlies role player. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KlutchSports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@KlutchSports<\/a> CEO Rich Paul and agent Shayaun Saee negotiated the deal. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xcOfxG7VTP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xcOfxG7VTP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeAScotto\/status\/1846308832576000311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Pippen was originally on a two-way contract, which he signed in January.<\/p>\n<h3>Scotty\u2019s Roller Coaster Ride<\/h3>\n<p>For those who have followed Pippen since his days at Vanderbilt, there\u2019s been little doubt that he\u2019s a rotation-caliber NBA guard. The Sierra Canyon product averaged 20.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 1.9 steals per game in his final two seasons with the Commodores.<\/p>\n<p>Like many players who grew up around the game, his basketball IQ allows him to be an high-level on-court processor. Like his father, Hall of Fame forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scottie Pippen<\/a>, he\u2019s a determined defender. Though he didn\u2019t have a pure stroke from beyond the arc, he was a crafty and instinctive scorer.<\/p>\n<p>That obviously wasn\u2019t good enough for him to be among the 58 prospects selected in the 2022 NBA Draft. However, the Los Angeles Lakers all but immediately signed him to a two-way contract. He spent considerable time with their G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, where everything he showed in college would translate. However, he didn\u2019t really get a chance to show his stuff in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhat surprisingly, the Lakers waived Pippen last October. A few months later, he signed a two-way contract with a Grizzlies squad that was hampered by injuries.<\/p>\n<p>As they say, one man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure. Capitalizing on the minutes he received after Smart and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a>\u2019s injuries, Pippen posted 12.9 points, 4.7 assists, and 1.7 steals in 25.1 minutes per game. He even found success from beyond the arc, shooting 41.7 percent from three.<\/p>\n<p>With nothing guaranteed, he\u2019s kept his foot on the pedal. In Summer League, he averaged 20.1 points, 7.8 assists, and 3.3 steals per game. This preseason, he\u2019s averaging 10.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 1.0 steal in 20.5 minutes per game while shooting 37.5 percent from long range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Memphis Grizzlies have been trying to decide who their backup point guard was going to be ever since reaching a buyout with the now retired Derrick Rose. Considering that Marcus Smart \u2014the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year \u2014has played point guard extensively, he could have been the choice. Yet, with the team\u2019s desire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":101364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,8,62,3],"tags":[428,297,894,49058],"class_list":["post-101343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-bulls","category-nba","category-news","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-scottie-pippen","tag-scotty-pippen-jr"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}