How Dillon Brooks became a distraction the Grizzlies could no longer afford

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Dillon Brooks may have spent the past few weeks regrettably poking a rather large bear in Los Angeles, but after LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers knocked him out of the playoffs, it was the words of another Brooks foe that seemed to ring the most true. Last season, Brooks infamously claimed that the Grizzlies were “building our dynasty” after a blowout win over the Golden State Warriors. A year later, one of the central figures of those dynastic Warriors disagreed. 

“The dynasty starts after you,” Draymond Green said in March. “Not with you.”

Green may not have known just how right he was. A few weeks after his latest dust-up with Brooks, the NBA and the NBPA finalized a new collective bargaining agreement. While the deal didn’t explicitly create rules to prevent teams from retaining their own players, it did add a second luxury tax apron that inflicts enormous penalties on the league’s biggest spenders. Teams that cross that line will lose flexibility in free agency, pay higher tax rates, face severely restrictive salary matching rules on trades, and in some cases, even see their first-round pick drop to the bottom of the round. The days of handing out extensions first and asking questions later are gone. The NBA is about to enter a new period of fiscal responsibility.

The timing is less than ideal for a Grizzlies team that is about to get pricey. Ja Morant’s max rookie extension kicks in after the season, and Desmond Bane will be eligible for a similar deal this offseason that will being during the 2024-25 campaign. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brandon Clarke have also been locked into long-term deals, and Steven Adams, Tyus Jones and Luke Kennard are all set to earn eight figures next season. As it stands, they currently sit around $25 million below the projected tax line for next season.

That figure does not include a new deal for Brooks, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and was reportedly informed this week that he will not be back with the team “under any circumstances.” 

Memphis could have easily…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/how-dillon-brooks-became-a-distraction-the-grizzlies-could-no-longer-afford/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2023-05-02 17:26:04

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