1:13pm: The deal is official, the team announced. Utah didn’t cut anyone, so the roster is now at 15 players.
8:52am: The Jazz are set to bring aboard Grizzlies camp cut Patrick Christopher, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Utah has an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is required. It’s unclear just what sort of terms the shooting guard will see on his deal, or whether any salary will be guaranteed, but it’s likely a prorated minimum-salary arrangement, even though the Jazz have the capacity to give more.
Christopher, 26, has been with the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate since shortly after Memphis waived his non-guaranteed NBA contract at the end of the preseason. It was the second straight year that Christopher had signed a deal for camp with an NBA team, though Chicago cut him on just the second day of camp in 2013 after having used his presence on the roster to facilitate the addition of others on Exhibit 9 contracts that limited the team’s liability in case of injury. He spent last season in the D-League, racking up 13.6 points in 33.5 minutes per game on sizzling 44.6% three-point shooting. Christopher has made only 39.0% of his attempts from behind the arc in a limited sample size of seven D-League games this year, but his scoring is up to 15.0 PPG in increased playing time of 36.4 MPG. He was a D-League All-Defensive Second Team selection last year, and before going undrafted in 2010, he was twice an All-Pac-10 First Team selection at the University of California.
The Jazz have only 12 fully guaranteed contracts on their roster. Toure’ Murry, who hasn’t played for Utah yet this season, has already earned more salary than his $250K partial guarantee, so he’s on a de facto non-guaranteed contract. It’s conceivable that the Jazz would let him go to sign Christopher and maintain an open roster spot, though there’s no indication that they’ll actually do so. Joe Ingles has a non-guaranteed pact, but he’s averaging 17.6 minutes per game as part of the Jazz’s rotation.