Grizzlies Sign Nick Calathes

AUGUST 20TH, 2:20pm: The Grizzlies have officially signed Calathes, the team announced today in a press release. According to Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (via Twitter), the delay was related to Calathes' FIBA letter of clearance.

AUGUST 9TH, 3:57pm: According to Stein (via Twitter), the second year of Calathes' deal will be a team option, which probably means it's non-guaranteed.

2:39pm: After missing out on free agent point guards like Mo Williams and Beno Udrih, the Grizzlies have reached an agreement with a player who didn't have other NBA options. According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein (via Twitter), the Grizzlies will sign Nick Calathes to a two-year deal worth a little less than $2MM. Calathes himself confirmed on Twitter that he'd be heading to Memphis for the coming season.

Calathes, a second-round pick in 2009, has spent the last several seasons playing overseas, most recently for Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia. The 24-year-old guard was named the 2012/13 EuroCup MVP after averaging 12.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 6.7 APG while shooting 52.1% in 17 contests during the EuroCup competition. Memphis acquired his NBA rights in a trade with the Mavericks last month.

According to a report out of Russia after the Grizzles/Mavericks trade, Calathes informed Lokomotiv Kuban that he'd like to come to the NBA for the 2013/14 season. With Memphis in the market for a point guard for the coming year, it made sense for the two sides to work something out. Calathes will be one of Mike Conley's backups, along with Tony Wroten, who played limited minutes in his rookie season, and Jerryd Bayless, who is more of a combo guard.

If he were to sign a minimum-salary contract with the Grizzles, Calathes would earn about $1.31MM over the next two seasons. So, assuming the figure is closer to $2MM, it appears Memphis dipped into its mid-level exception to get a deal done.

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