The Memphis Grizzlies re-signed Adama Bal on Monday night after his first 10-day contract expired, keeping the 6-foot-7 French forward in uniform for the final stretch of the season. Memphis called the move a second 10-day contract, but the new deal is different from a standard short-term signing because only six days were left in the season.
Bal will make $43,892 on the new agreement, which runs through Sunday’s regular season finale. The Grizzlies were able to use a hardship exception because injuries had thinned the roster, and Bal was one of four players on hardship deals as Memphis carried a 22-man roster. Standard 10-day signings were no longer permitted at that point in the schedule.
The renewed deal extends a brief run that already gave Memphis enough reason to keep him. During his first 10 days with the team, Bal appeared in six games and played 27.3 minutes per night off the bench. He averaged 8.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steal, while shooting 43.3% from three-point range and going 13 of 30 from beyond the arc.
Bal’s production stood out for a player who had spent most of the season with the Westchester Knicks before joining Memphis. A former Santa Clara standout, he gave the Grizzlies scoring and spacing in a roster that had seven players out with season-ending injuries. That injury list is the reason Memphis could still keep adding help at the end of the year, even as the market for normal 10-day contracts had closed.
The Grizzlies’ patchwork lineup was already set to lose another temporary piece soon. Lucas Williamson’s 10-day contract was set to expire Thursday night, while Dariq Whitehead, Toby Okani and Bal were all under deals scheduled to run through Sunday’s regular season finale. For Memphis, the move to bring Bal back was less about long-term planning than surviving the last few days with enough bodies to finish the schedule.
