Memphis Grizzlies sign Myke Henry to two-way contract

The Memphis Grizzlies have signed Myke Henry to a two-way contract. Let’s take a closer look at Henry.

The Memphis Grizzlies announced Saturday that they have signed wing Myke Henry to a two-way contract and waived forward Vince Hunter, who was also on a two-way contract himself. The Vertical‘s Shams Charania broke the news on Twitter first before the official team announcement.

Shams didn’t let us know about the Hunter waiver, but the team informed us of that of their official website soon after.

This move comes on the heels of the deadline to sign a player to a two-way contract. That pleasantry ends on Jan. 15, so the Grizzlies needed to make this move soon to be within the rules. Coincidentally, this move occurred during the G League showcase, which is currently going on in Ontario.

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Hunter was signed to his two-way contract in the offseason, but he made as close to no impact as possible this season. He made an appearance in only four games and played a total of seven minutes. He scored six points and pulled down three rebounds in those minutes, but they were mostly in garbage time, so there isn’t much substance to them.

Henry comes in after spending his last two seasons in the G League with the Oklahoma City Blue. He was underwhelming in his rookie season, but this year he has really picked up his production and efficiency.

Per Basketball-Reference, he is playing just under 29 minutes per game this season. In those minutes, he is whizzing all over the court and finding unique ways to score, posting a scoring average of 15.6 points per game. To go along with those points, he is pulling down 5.4 rebounds and dishing out 2.1 assists per game. He is doing all this on 52.2 percent shooting and 36.9 percent shooting from deep.

On the defensive end, Henry snags an impressive 1.9 steals per game and has an average of 0.6 blocks per contest so far. The defensive end is Henry’s bread and butter; he has posted a positive number of defensive win shares in both of his G League seasons.

He is fairly athletic and he does a good job using his 3-point gravity to create attempts from all over the court. Here, he shot fakes to get his defender off balance and then drives and slams, ironically against his new G League team the Memphis Hustle:

The Grizzlies now have Henry on a two-way contract for the remainder of the season. He will be allowed to be with the Grizzlies for a total of 22 days and he will spend the rest of the time with the Memphis Hustle.

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The Grizzlies front office will be hopeful that Henry can be an immediate contributor who can show promising signs going forward. The team has presumably lost this season, so getting young guys like Henry playing time should be a focus. If the G League is any indication, he should be able to be effective from the jump.