5 players the Grizzlies never should have signed
By Elaine Blum
1. Chandler Parsons
Chandler Parsons looked great before he came to Memphis. During the 2015-16 season, he averaged 13.7 points on 49.2 percentage shooting from the field and 41.4 percent shooting from distance while also registering 4.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists for the Dallas Mavericks.
The Grizzlies desperately needed some outside shooting, so they offered Parsons a four-year $94.5 million max contract in 2016.
That contract quickly came back to bite them in the behind.
Parsons was severely overpaid. Over the course of his max contract, he never played more than 36 games per season due to knee problems and his production dropped accordingly.
His best season was the 2017-18 season, when he averaged 7.9 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from deep in 19.2 minutes per game.
The other two seasons, however, he never shot more than 38 percent on field goals or 31 percent on threes.
To make matters worse, Parsons’s contract was pretty much untradeable until the final year.
No one wanted a player with knee problems on a max contract that he did not live up to. Parsons was 27 at the time the Grizzlies signed him. He should have been in his prime but, instead, he turned out to be a waste of money for the team, even if it was not his fault.
