Former Mavs Guard Tyrell Terry To Sign With Grizzlies

Former Dallas Mavericks guard Tyrell Terry has signed a 10-day hardship contract with the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Dallas Mavericks used the No. 31 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft to select Tyrell Terry, who did not last even a calendar year with the organization before being waived. 

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Terry is signing a 10-day hardship deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. They were one of the organizations intrigued by Terry during the draft process but they ultimately opted to take Desmond Bane the pick prior. 

The Grizzlies are signing guards Tyrell Terry and Shaq Buchanan to 10-day hardship deals, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 25, 2021

There was a lot of intrigue surrounding the Terry selection from outsiders and from the Mavericks, too. The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor went as far to describe Dallas taking Terry as the "STEAL OF THE DRAFT" after the Stanford product had six months to add weight and improve his stock. O'Connor also had Terry No. 9 overall on his 2020 NBA Draft Big Board.

“I was able to find a little bit of positive out of this horrible situation that the world is going through,” Terry told O'Connor around the time of the draft. “If the draft was in June, I wouldn’t have been as strong as I am now, or had this explosiveness, or been as mature on and off the floor, or been able to master some of the arts of the game that I have been studying.”

Terry never managed to live up to the pre-draft hype during his time with the Mavericks. He was sidelined due to personal reasons for most of his rookie campaign. He ultimately went away from the team in training camp due to what was described as personal reasons again. 

One of the concerns that persisted about Terry was his inability to run high ball-screens at a high-level. During the 2021 Las Vegas Summer League, he continued to struggle with handling basic drop coverages as he big defender was often too much for him to account for. 

A key area to watch for Tyrell Terry is his execution using high ball screens. He largely continued to struggle in those sequences during his summer league debut.

Shot creation against pressure and executing against drop coverage both are still areas to improve. pic.twitter.com/stzyw87F2O

— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) August 10, 2021

Given that Terry is just 6-foot-2, there are limitations to the type of actions he can be a dynamic shooting threat when deployed in. If he's going to struggle running ball screens, is limited in off-ball actions, and isn't much of an isolation threat all while being a defensive liability, there are plenty of limitations he faces. 

Putting all of the basketball analysis aside, what matters most when it comes to Tyrell Terry is that he can stay available for his team to play. Whether that ends up being the Grizzlies, Memphis Hustle, or any other professional basketball team.