Marko Jaric Goes to Spain, Leaves the Grizzlies With a Light Payroll

Grizzlies guard Marko Jaric has found a team which will apparently play him. Unfortunately for American fans of the Serb, that team happens to be in Spain. Real Madrid of the ACB has signed Jaric to a deal, according the team's own website. The Grizzlies had previously given Jaric permission to find a new team, either by trade in the NBA or an outright signing in Europe. The most likely scenario -- which seems to have played out here -- is that Jaric would find a deal abroad and Memphis would buy out his contract, which runs $15 million for this and next season.

But here's the real interesting note among NBA fans: Memphis has somehow found a way to get its payroll below that of any other team in the league -- and possibly below the league mandated minimum team salary threshold.

As we reported back in August, the Grizzlies' trade for Zach Randolph served to lessen the teams immediate cashflow concerns because while Randolph counts as $16 million on the salary ledger, the Grizz only have to pay the power forward $11 million this season. Randolph signed a contract in which 30 percent of his pay could be deferred until 2012. Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley has in the past attempted to sell the team -- you assume he hopes to do so by 2012, when Zach's $5 million pay-out would come due.

With the Randolph trade and the Allen Iverson signing, Heisley looked to escape accusations of favoring profit to competitive basketball. But the Randolph trade was essentially the cheapest way to exceed the league's minimum salary requirements (due to the deferral) and Iverson (a cash play in its own rite -- the team, well within its rights of course, attempted to sell tickets and jerseys off Iverson) ended up costing the Grizzlies only $437,000 after being cut three games in.

Jaric has now left some portion of his 2009-10 Memphis pay on the table. His contract with Real hasn't been reported in the Spanish media, but I imagine Jaric's Memphis buy-out will be the difference between his owed $7.1 million and his new salary. If that's $4 million, well, that's more cash saved for the Grizzlies. The NBA's minimum payroll is $43.27 million this season. All Grizzlies other than Jaric will be paid $40.76 million this season. If Jaric's Real deal is more than $4.5 million, the Grizzlies will have undercut the league's minimum payroll with no ramifications (given that Randolph's full salary counts against the cap this year).

Of course, the Grizz are winning for the first time in years, and Randolph has been a pleasant surprise. Just be careful not to buy into Heisley's line that he's paying for a winner. No team is cheaper, and it really seems as if the Grizzlies are winning in spite of management's blueprint for minimizing payroll. The franchise's desire to keep the league's tighest payroll will be evident this summer, when Rudy Gay moves on and Memphis struggles to replace him on the cheap.