{"id":181389,"date":"2026-03-12T21:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=181389"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:18:22","slug":"why-the-grizzlies-jazz-added-undrafted-rookies-to-15-man-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/03\/12\/why-the-grizzlies-jazz-added-undrafted-rookies-to-15-man-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Grizzlies and Jazz Added Undrafted Rookies To 15-Man Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Tis the season for non-playoff NBA<\/a> teams to get an “up-and-close” personal look at players whom they may want to keep around next season. The Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz are two such teams, and each made a move earlier today.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies and Jazz Add Undrafted Rookies To 15-Man Roster<\/h2>\n

Projected to be severely shorthanded for its home game tonight against Dallas<\/a>, Memphis<\/a> (23-41)\u00a0 announced the signing of\u00a0 Tyler Burton<\/a> to a 10-day hardship contract. As a result, the Grizzlies do not need to make a corresponding move.<\/p>\n

“The Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> today announced the team signed forward Tyler Burton to a 10-day contract,” the Grizzlies announced via press release. “Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.”<\/p>\n

Memphis had 11 players listed on its injury report for the game against the Mavericks, including five players dealing with “long-term injuries.” Zach Edey<\/a> and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> are out for the season. Meanwhile, Brandon Clarke<\/a> has been out since December, Ja Morant<\/a> since the end of January, and Santi Aldama<\/a> last played on February 4. Clarke is slated to be re-evaluated later this week, and Morant’s reevaluation is expected next week.<\/p>\n

Aldama will sit out his 16th straight game due to a knee injury. However, he could return at the end of the month<\/a>. Scotty Pippen Jr<\/a>. is also out against, marking his third straight absence with right great toe sesamoiditis, and doesn’t have a timetable to return.\u00a0 Walter Clayton Jr.<\/a> (ankle), Cedric Coward<\/a> (right knee management), Taj Gibson<\/a> (reconditioning), and Ty Jerome<\/a> (right calf) were all listed as doubtful and ruled out before tipoff. Cam Spencer<\/a> (lower back soreness) was listed as questionable before being listed as out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton was one of eight active Grizzlies against the Mavericks, making his debut. Burton played 16 minutes in the first half, tallying three points on 1 of 5 shooting (all three pointers) with one rebound and one block.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Is Tyler Burton?<\/h3>\n

Burton has spent the last two seasons in the Grizzlies system with the \u00a0Memphis Hustle after going undrafted in 2024 out of Villanova. The 6-7 forward, who took part in training camp with the Grizzlies, earned the promotion due to elite production with the Hustle.<\/p>\n

Burton is a confident spot\u2011up shooter with range who is capable of attacking closeouts and scoring in bunches. Burton put at least 20 points on 21 occassions in the G-League<\/a>, including three 30-point contests. He poured a career-high 4o points on 11 of 20 shooting, including 4 of 8 from deep, on February 1 against the Motor City Cruise. Additionally, he is a good team defender.<\/p>\n

Burton averaged 19.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.3 steals in 33 minutes over 43 appearances. He also averaged 2.6 threes with shooting splits of 45.1\/38.6\/81.7.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Petre Thomas, Imagn Images<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p><\/h3>\n

Utah Jazz Signing Bez Mbeng<\/h3>\n

In a surprising announcement, NBA Insider Jake Fischer<\/a> reported that the Utah Jazz<\/a> plan to sign defensive standout Bez Mbeng<\/a> to a 10-day contract.\u00a0 Mbeng will make a little over $73,000 when he signs his contract.<\/p>\n

“The Utah Jazz are signing Bez Mbeng to a 10-day contract, per sources,” Fisher said. “The Yale product has spent this 2025-26 season with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mbeng went undrafted this past June after playing at Yale, where he was a three-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. The 6-4 guard spent the summer with the Golden State Warriors, appearing in two games, before landing with the Miami Heat on an Exhibit 10 deal late in training camp.\u00a0 After getting waived by the Heat, he was assigned to the Skyforce.<\/p>\n

Mbeng averaged 6.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.8 steals in 27.5 minutes per game over 41 appearances for the Skyforce. He posted two double-doubles, including one triple-double, and had shooting splits of 49.5\/27.0\/57.1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mbeng excels as a point-of-attack defender, with anticipation and discipline as staples, and strong team\u2011defense awareness. He is capable of guarding all three backcourt positions. Offensively, the 23-year-old is limited, though he is a capable connector who moves the ball, cuts, screens, and keeps the offense flowing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Utah has 18 players under contract after signing Andersson Garcia<\/a> to a 10-day contract yesterday. So, the Jazz will have to make a corresponding move before Mbeng’s signing becomes official. Garcia and Mo Bamba<\/a>, who signed a second 10-day contract, are the most likely players to get waived. However, Kevin Love and Jusuf Nurkic are also candidates for release, as both are unrestricted free agents at the end of the year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Tis the season for non-playoff NBA teams to get an “up-and-close” personal look at players whom they may want to keep around next season. The Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz are two such teams, and each made a move earlier today. Grizzlies and Jazz Add Undrafted Rookies To 15-Man Roster Projected to be severely shorthanded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":181399,"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":[1608,2,32,62,3,24],"tags":[2659,1332,4745],"class_list":["post-181389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-grizzlies","category-nba","category-news","category-jazz","tag-g-league-callups","tag-nba-g-league","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181389","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\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181400,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181389\/revisions\/181400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}