2017 NBA free agency grades: Memphis Grizzlies re-sign Wayne Selden

The Memphis Grizzlies have taken an interesting flyer on the undrafted Wayne Selden Jr. as both parties have agreed to a two-year deal.

Slowly but surely, the Memphis Grizzlies are starting to take a different approach when it comes to building their roster.

First reported by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, the Grizzlies have agreed to a two-year deal with Wayne Selden Jr., which was made official by the team shortly thereafter.

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders added later that the deal is worth the minimum ($1.3 million this year, $1.5 million next year) and that the first year is fully guaranteed.

It’s certainly a more unheralded signing by the Grizzlies, as many of their transactions have been during this free agency period, which is a stark contrast to the very lucrative deals they handed out last summer.

While Selden is more known for his time at the University of Kansas, he’s already been on quite a journey in his lone season at the professional level after going undrafted in the 2016 NBA Draft.

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For the majority of his season last year, Selden logged many minutes as part of the then-Iowa Energy, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate (the team’s new affiliate is now known as the Memphis Hustle).

In his 35 games for the Energy, Selden averaged 18.5 points per game, shot 44.9 percent from the field as well as 34.9 percent from three and dished out 2.9 assists per game.

Selden’s play in the G-League was good enough to garner a 10-day contract from the New Orleans Pelicans in early March. After his 10-day contract expired with the Pelicans, Selden returned to the Grizzlies organization after agreeing to a partially guaranteed, multi-year contract.

From there, Selden was seamlessly inserted into the team’s rotation, even logging some minutes in the team’s first round series against the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs last year.

To commemorate his signing, Selden has been showing out during the Grizzlies’ ongoing Summer League run as he’s averaged 24.6 points per game on 46.4 percent shooting from the field and 11-of-30 shooting from three in the team’s five games to this point.

For the Grizzlies, Selden’s signing is just another indication that the team is exploring different options at the wing.

With Vince Carter now with the Sacramento Kings and Tony Allen not expected to return to the River City, the Grizzlies are taking various flyers beyond Selden as they also signed Ben McLemore to a two-year, $10 million deal.

Having the sharpshooting Troy Daniels also in the fold, the Grizzlies will be sporting a new look at the 2-spot and it’ll be interesting to see if a friendly competition for minutes will arise from all of this.

Now whether Selden will earn minutes is another question as he still will have to show that he can play at the NBA level consistently. There’s no question that Selden has the tools to become a solid role player in time, but he’ll have to back that up with production in the opportunities that will come his way.

Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far

The question will be whether he can start to show some of the potential he possesses in his sophomore season with the Grizzlies and only time will tell if that’s the case.

Grade: C+

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