{"id":22873,"date":"2019-06-30T18:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T22:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22873"},"modified":"2019-06-30T18:00:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T22:00:04","slug":"report-jonas-valanciunas-re-signs-with-the-memphis-grizzlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/06\/30\/report-jonas-valanciunas-re-signs-with-the-memphis-grizzlies\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Jonas Valanciunas Re-signs with the Memphis Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valanjo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonas Valanciunas<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has signed a three-year deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/nba-teams\/memphis-grizzlies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> worth $45 million. The 27-year old center was traded to the Grizzlies for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gasolma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc Gasol<\/a><\/strong> around the 2019 Trade Deadline.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Jonas Valanciunas Inks Deal with the Memphis Grizzlies<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The deal comes as no surprise. The Grizzlies <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/06\/19\/mike-conley-traded-to-utah-jazz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traded away both franchise stars<\/a> in Gasol and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/conlemi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Conley<\/a><\/strong> in an attempt to fill the roster with young talent. Valanciunas served as a Gasol replacement for part of last season, but will now fill the role long-term.<\/p>\n<p>The news was <a href=\"http:\/\/es.pn\/2Lsb4Fy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first reported<\/a> by Adrian Wojnarowski before free agency officially began.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">ESPN story on free agent C Jonas Valanciunas planning to commit to a three-year, $45M deal to return to the Memphis Grizzlies. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7WoTfERYCw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/7WoTfERYCw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1145392607423602689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite splitting time between the Grizzlies and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/nba-teams\/toronto-raptors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Raptors<\/a> last season, Valanciunas had his best NBA season to date. On the year, he averaged 15.6 points and 8.6 rebounds. In Memphis, though, those averages jumped to 19.9 points and 10.7 boards per game in 19 games.<\/p>\n<p>The Grizzlies locked down talent at center to go along with their young core. The team will look to second-year forward <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=jacksja01,jacksja02&amp;search=Jaren+Jackson&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaren Jackson<\/a> Jr.<\/strong> and incoming rookies <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/05\/17\/ja-morant-nba-draft-player-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ja Morant<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/05\/29\/brandon-clarke-nba-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Brandon Clarke<\/strong><\/a> to lead the team going forward. Valanciunas adds veteran leadership and a noticeable inside presence to a team in need of both.<\/p>\n<p>Valanciunas declined his $17.6 million player option in pursuit of a longer deal. He may have sacrificed some money to do so, but ultimately got what he desired. The Center will have a semblance of long-term security with the Grizzlies in the prime of his career, with a chance to anchor a <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/05\/27\/memphis-grizzlies-future-remains-unclear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rebuild<\/a> for a team in desperate need of revitalization.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"L-QgY85JRMBxIzIhjlVONA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/488932518\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'L-QgY85JRMBxIzIhjlVONA',sig:'SlNJ_fXw_iFMJk4ycDcslSsFUcaNoyITfg66-R3xCck=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'488932518',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonas Valanciunas\u00a0has signed a three-year deal with the Memphis Grizzlies worth $45 million. The 27-year old center was traded to the Grizzlies for Marc Gasol around the 2019 Trade Deadline. Jonas Valanciunas Inks Deal with the Memphis Grizzlies The deal comes as no surprise. The Grizzlies traded away both franchise stars in Gasol and Mike [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3009,"featured_media":22902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[32,62,3],"tags":[1970,65,167,207,96],"class_list":["post-22873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-nba","category-news","tag-2019-nba-free-agency","tag-basketball","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba"],"modified_by":"Tyler Marling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22873","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\/3009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}