Well, the Randolph extension has ripple effects that extend to the rest of the offseason as well. The main one: he's opting into his original contract for next season, and then the extension takes hold after. That means before he's paid $10 million per season in '15-16 and '16-17, he'll be owed a hefty $16,938,333 this season.
Sheesh. That's a lot of money, and more than Randolph can realistically live up to. It's the main bullet the Grizzlies swallow in getting Randolph to accept the extension for the two seasons after this next one. Given that Gasol and Conley are due for extensions of their own over the next two offseasons, the Grizzlies were probably willing to overpay Randolph a bit this year to see his cap hit scale back just as the other core members get their new deals. We can credit them for that foresight.
Loading up on Randolph's payout this season will pressure them a bit this offseason though, and there are things that the Grizzlies would've liked to do with cap flexibility. Right now, they don't have much of it. Presuming draftees Jordan Adams and Jarnell Stokes get the first round rookie-scale and rookie minimum contracts respectively, the Grizzlies are already on the hook for $70,862,611 for next season.
That's well above the projected salary cap of $63.2 million for next season, but there's still breathing room under the luxury tax threshold of $77.0 million. They'll have the $5.3 million Mid-Level Exception to use, and then just minimum contracts in free agency after that.
Expiring this offseason are Ed Davis, Mike Miller, James Johnson and Beno Udrih. Davis will be a restricted free agent, but the Randolph extension and the Stokes pick likely push him and the pricier-than-ideal contract he would've demanded out of the picture. Jon Leuer and Kosta Koufos are still around, and with limited cap flexibility already, there's no reason for the Grizzlies to play the restricted free agency game with Davis when he spent most of last season on the rotation bubble anyway.
So, Boss appears all but gone at this stage. For all the upside he flashed, he never really got going with the Grizz in their loaded frontcourt. He's 25 now and still doesn't look fully polished, but some team out there would probably be willing to pay him MLE money. Matching that offer sheet would cost the Grizzlies the room to use theirs, and it only makes sense to let him go. Here's hoping he can put it together elsewhere!
I expect Miller, Johnson and Udrih all want to be back, but for now, they're way down on the list of the team's priorities. We'll circle back to them later on.
