2018 NBA free agency grades: Grizzlies pick up Shelvin Mack

The Memphis Grizzlies have picked up guard Shelvin Mack. Here’s the team’s free agency grade for the move.

Tuesday morning, ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that the Memphis Grizzlies are going to sign guard Shelvin Mack to a one-year deal. The money is yet to be announced, but it’s more than likely that this deal will be a minimum deal ($2 million).

Mack is still relatively young at 28, but at this point in his career, he’s not going to be anything more than he is. That’s not a huge issue because he will be backing up Mike Conley.

Mack is a solid backup and is coming off of a season in which he led the Orlando Magic with 3.9 assists per game. It’s good that he led the team in that stat category, but for a player to lead a team with that many assists is less impressive. No disrespect to him, but the Magic are just not where they want to be right now as a team, despite taking steps in the right direction.

Shelvin Mack was a second round pick back in the 2011 NBA Draft. The former Butler Bulldog played in 69 games and started in three of those last year. He also averaged 6.9 points, 3.9 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 19.8 minutes per game. Those are pretty good stats if he’s going to be the primary backup on the Grizzlies — provided he wins that job.

His best season was during the 2015-16 campaign when he was a member of the Utah Jazz. He only played in 28 games, but he also averaged 12.7 points, 5.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 31.4 minutes per game.

For the Grizzlies, this isn’t a bad move and it’s likely that they will be going through a rebuilding phase fairly soon. They may look to be competitive with Conley coming back, but they won’t be winning an NBA title with him and Marc Gasol — not at this stage in their careers.

They’d be wise to move both of them and start a full rebuild behind rookie Jaren Jackson Jr. Regardless of what they do, getting Mack on a one-year deal was a pretty good move. This is a little taste of what Memphis will be getting.

In this game you can see that he will help out by giving the ball to his teammates without any troubles. He’s not afraid of giving the ball up and that is important for the other four players on the court.

He has the ability to shoot the ball from 3, but it’s not huge strong suit. Last season he averaged 2.0 attempts per game and made 0.7 of those. Most of his points will come at the rim because of his big physical frame at 6’3″ and 203 pounds.

Mack isn’t the best backup point guard, but he’s not the worst either. He’s a solid player to have on the team and the Grizzlies did nothing wrong by adding the veteran point guard. This could limit minutes for rookie Jevon Carter, who seemingly looks like a future Grit-N-Grind type player already.

The more competition the better because it will give Carter a chance to show out and play harder knowing that his job is on the line. The Grizz don’t necessarily need Mack, but he’s a good option to have on your bench, especially if Conley suffers from any more injuries.

Grade: B