Luke Kennard signs one-year, $11 million contract with Memphis Grizzlies
Luke Kennard has agreed to re-sign with the Memphis Grizzlies on a one-year contract worth $11 million, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. He will now return for his third season with the team.
Kennard appeared in 39 games with 22 starts in 2023-24 to average 11.0 points per game while shooting 45% from 3-point range. He is a career 43.9% shooter from beyond the arc and should be a key role player off the bench for the upcoming season.
The former No. 12 overall pick out of Duke is preparing to enter his eighth NBA season and has also played for the Pistons and Clippers in his career. He finished fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in the 2021-22 season after leading the NBA with a 44.9% clip from downtown and 11.9 points across 27.4 minutes per game.
Kennard was traded to Memphis from the Clippers in the middle of the 2022-23 season. He was a big part in helping the Grizzlies get to the playoffs that season and will look to help get them back in 2024-25 after missing this past year.
Memphis is coming off of a 27-55 finish but had several key players injured. With stars such as Ja Morant and Desmond Bane set to return healthy and the addition of No. 9 overall pick Zach Edey, they figure to be much improved.
The Grizzlies also have several intriguing young prospects who should continue to develop with GG Jackson, Scottie Pippen Jr. and Santi Aldama. They advanced to the Summer League Championship Game earlier this month but lost in overtime to the Miami Heat.
TBS, Warner Bros. Discovery file lawsuit against NBA after losing bid for broadcast rights
TBS and Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against the NBA in New York County Supreme Court on Friday in response to the league rejecting the network’s attempted match of the Amazon media rights bid, per Daniel Wallach of The Athletic.
“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” TNT Sports said in a statement Friday. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms — including TNT and Max.”
It was announced Wednesday that the NBA rejected TNT’s media rights offer, instead opting to enter an arrangement with Amazon for at least the next 11 years beginning with the 2025-26 season. The NBA’s new media rights deal with Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBC and Amazon is worth $77 billion over 11 years. Amazon‘s portion is worth $1.8 billion, an offer which TNT claimed it matched.
The 2024-25 season will instead be the final season in which NBA games will be broadcasted on TNT.