It was just three years ago when the Memphis Grizzlies made a trade deadline deal to acquire Luke Kennard from the Los Angeles Clippers to become their sharpshooter off the bench. While he provided consistency with his shooting percentage (46.2% from three in his Grizzlies tenure), the consistency with his attempts failed to make his time more meaningful to the team.
In comes the 2024-25 NBA Sixth Man of the Year finalist, Ty Jerome, signing with the Grizzlies on a three-year, $27.7 million deal with their room mid-level exception. The former Cleveland Cavaliers guard had a career year, averaging 12.5 points on 51.6% shooting from the field, including 43.9% from three in 70 games as their top reserve guard.
Grizzlies fans should be familiar with his game after he averaged 19 points and 4.5 assists on 54% shooting in his two games against the Grizzlies last season. After trading Desmond Bane, the Grizzlies needed to replace both his and Kennard's sharpshooting, and did just that by securing the former collegiate national champion at Virginia.
Jerome is a clear upgrade in the Luke Kennard role
The Grizzlies blew a 27-point lead in game three of their first-round series loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder following another postseason injury to Ja Morant. The primary reason for their blunder in that game came in the form of their lack of additional ball handlers behind the star point guard.
It quickly became apparent that Desmond Bane and Luke Kennard were not built to handle that type of pressure presented by Oklahoma City as primary ball handlers. This left Scotty Pippen Jr. as the Grizzlies' only trusted ball handler, making it easy for the Thunder to force turnovers and eat into their deficit before pulling off the comeback.
Ty Jerome not only adds value in the form of a sharpshooter, but as an additional trustworthy ball handler who can play with Morant or Pippen Jr. in flexible multiple-ball handler lineups. Jerome also adds another primary bench scorer to play alongside Pippen Jr. and Santi Aldama, who averaged 9.9 points and 12.5 points last season, respectively.
The Grizzlies knew what they needed to achieve this offseason, and general manager Zach Kleiman completed a flurry of moves that still require more work. However, adding a player of Ty Jerome's caliber at a good rate, and in a position of need, sets the Grizzlies up to mesh with their star duo of Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. for the foreseeable future.