Grizzlies Sign Ryan Hollins, Waive Russ Smith

TUESDAY, 11:30am: The signing of Hollins is official, the Grizzlies announced. The team also confirmed that Smith has been waived.

MONDAY, 11:00pm: The Grizzlies will waive Russ Smith in order to make room on the roster for the signing of center Ryan Hollins, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports. Hollins was with Memphis during training camp prior to the season and he made a strong impression on the team, Charania adds. The Grizzlies are limited to giving Hollins the minimum salary, though it’s unclear if he’ll have any guaranteed money.

Smith’s contract runs through the 2016/17 season and he’ll make slightly more than $845K this year, all of which is guaranteed. His salary for next season was set to be roughly $980K, though that salary is non-guaranteed.  The Louisville product was averaging 1.5 points in 4.4 minutes per game this season.

The move to add Hollins isn’t expected to be a temporary one, Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal reports (Twitter links). Backup center Brandan Wright remains out with a knee injury, so Hollins shouldn’t have to wait too long to see minutes for the Grizzlies.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

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