The Memphis Grizzlies spent the first half of July acquiring players. The rest of the summer will be about subtracting them. After finalizing the six-team trade that brought back Isaiah Stewart and D’Angelo Russell, and signing rookie Cameron Boozer to his rookie-scale deal, Memphis is carrying 18 players on standard contracts, by Bleacher Report’s count — three above the 15-man regular-season limit every team has to reach by opening night.
The biggest number on that list belongs to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who opted into a $21.6 million salary for 2026-27. Bleacher Report reports he is not expected to be on the roster when the season starts, with Memphis looking to shed the money by trade or buyout. That has been the direction since early July, when word first circulated that the Grizzlies and the veteran guard were headed for a split. Moving a $21.6 million expiring contract is easier said than done, but it is the cleanest path to both roster and financial relief.
Russell is the next name to watch. Acquired as a roughly $5.9 million expiring contract, the 30-year-old is, as Sports Illustrated framed it, an easy asset to reroute — his age and ball-dominant style don’t fit a team building around Kris Murray-sized wings and a young frontcourt. The same surplus problem shows up in the backcourt. Memphis has more rotation guards than minutes, and SI identified Ty Jerome, Cam Spencer and Scotty Pippen Jr. as the guards holding the most trade value, with Spencer the least likely to be the odd man out.
None of this qualifies as a crisis. Offseason rosters can carry up to 21 players, and the Grizzlies have until opening night to get compliant. But the math is fixed: three standard contracts have to come off the books, and the front office has already signaled it is open for business. The order in which Memphis makes those cuts will say a lot about whether this is a retool around the returning core or the front end of a longer teardown.
For fantasy purposes, the logjam suppresses value across the board until it clears. Caldwell-Pope’s likely exit would open steady wing minutes in Memphis but takes a dependable 3-and-D scorer off the board — track where he lands for a redraft bump. Russell is only worth a roster spot somewhere with a clear path to the ball, which Memphis no longer offers. The guard glut caps the redraft ceilings of Jerome and Pippen Jr. until a trade thins the group, while Boozer remains a dynasty hold whose rookie-year role gets cleaner with every subtraction ahead of it.
