Nic Claxton gaining significant connection with Grizzlies as free agency looms

The Brooklyn Nets will hit the upcoming offseason with such urgency and eagerness to negotiate with soon-unrestricted free agent Nic Claxton. As he holds an expiring $9.6MM contract, Nic is widely expected to generate a warm interest in the market due to his enormous upside and defensive pedigree.

As the Nets are already ironing their free agency plans in retaining Claxton and cementing him as a long-term piece of their desired future, they appeared to have finally found their initial and legitimate threat in signing the big man — which is the Memphis Grizzlies.

Clax as a Grizzly?

Last Monday, as the Nets landed in Tennessee to pick up a solid 111-86 dub over the Grizzlies, Nic managed to catch up with Ja Morant’s father, Tee, in the postgame of the duel.

Claxton and Morant were former AAU teammates and are tracing their roots in South Carolina. From this, they are holding a solid brotherhood relationship off the court.

Apparently, this encounter ignited an intriguing idea for the Grizzlies to possibly pursue Claxton this summer. And when the 24-year-old was asked about the prospect of joining them, Nic just dropped a two-word answer that sparked such excitement and anticipation amongst Memphis fans.

“We'll see,” Claxton told Damichael Cole of Memphis Commercial Appeal.

A massive threat

The handicapped, lottery-bound Grizzlies squad has massively disassembled their big man depth this season by trading both Steven Adams and Xavier Tillman in separate deals. As such, they are highly expected to be aggressive in acquiring imposing replacements who can help them for a season of redemption this 2024-25 — making a potential Claxton free-agency pursuit a compelling one to execute.

Interestingly, Ja himself already dropped such a huge hint about his and the Grizzlies’ probable intentions to acquire Claxton. In a now-deleted repost of a tweet in X, the Memphis superstar made some noise by supporting a proposed Grizz lineup with Claxton in the middle.