Memphis Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today that the club has signed restricted free agent Josh Smith to an offer sheet. Per team policy, terms of the offer sheet were not disclosed.
Under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Atlanta Hawks will have seven days to match the Grizzlies’ offer to Smith, who has played all four years of his NBA career for the Hawks.
Smith, 22, has finished second in the NBA in blocks per game in each of the past two years and averaged team-highs in blocks per game (2.80) and steals per game (1.57) while also ranking second on the Hawks in points per game (17.2), rebounds per game (8.2) and assists per game (3.4) in 81 appearances last season.
The 6-9, 235-pound forward averaged 15.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.86 blocks in helping the eighth-seeded Hawks push the eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics to a decisive seventh game in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk Champion in 2005, Smith owns career averages of 13.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.5 blocks in 307 career games over four seasons with Atlanta, who drafted Smith 17th overall in the first round of the 2004 NBA Draft out of Oak Hill Academy (VA).
The Grizzlies renounced their rights to free agents Casey Jacobsen and Andre Brown, Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today.
Jacobsen, a 6-6, 198-pound guard, averaged 2.0 points and 1.2 rebounds in 53 games last season with the Grizzlies. The four-year NBA veteran, who signed with Memphis on July 24, 2007, owns career averages of 5.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 287 games with the Phoenix Suns, the New Orleans Hornets and Memphis.
Brown, a 6-9, 245-pound forward, posted 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in 33 games for Memphis last season. The two-year NBA veteran, who signed with Memphis on July 20, 2007, holds career averages of 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in 71 games with the Seattle SuperSonics and Memphis.
Per the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, a renounced player no longer counts toward team salary, so teams use renouncement to gain additional cap room. After renouncing a player, the team is still permitted to re-sign such player, but the team must either have enough salary cap room to fit the salary, or sign the player using the Minimum Salary exception. After renouncing a player, a team can still trade the player in a sign-and-trade agreement.
