The Grizzlies have moved on from D’Angelo Russell, waiving the veteran point guard as Memphis continues to trim down its roster ahead of the season.
Memphis had been carrying 19 players on standard contracts into Friday, so Russell was always in the mix as a possible cut. By waiving him now, the Grizzlies give him a chance to clear waivers before most teams open training camp next week. Sources told Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints that Russell is hoping to land with a playoff contender.
The team also made a separate addition, signing rookie guard Brendan Hausen, who went undrafted out of Iowa in June. The contract terms weren’t announced, but it appears to be an Exhibit 10 deal that would secure his G League rights and could set him up for a bonus if he spends at least 60 days with the Memphis Hustle this fall.
Russell’s latest stop closes another chapter in a career that has seen a sharp downturn in both minutes and production. A former No. 2 overall pick and 2019 All-Star, he signed a two-year, $11.7 million deal with Dallas ahead of the 2025/26 season with expectations that he’d step in for Kyrie Irving as the starting point guard. Instead, he came off the bench to start the year and eventually dropped out of the rotation.
In all, Russell played 26 games for the Mavericks, starting three, and averaged a career-low 10.2 points per game while shooting .405 from the field, .295 from three and .717 at the line. That followed another rough shooting year in 2024/25, when he hit 39.0% of his field goal attempts and 31.4% of his three-pointers in 58 games for the Lakers and Nets.
Russell was traded from Dallas to Washington at the 2026 trade deadline in the Anthony Davis blockbuster, though he did not have to report to the Wizards for the second half of the season. After picking up his player option in June, he was sent to Memphis in July as part of the six-team deal that also included Isaiah Stewart, Santi Aldama, John Collins and Khris Middleton, among others.
Memphis will still be responsible for Russell’s expiring $5.97 million salary, which was fully guaranteed. The Grizzlies still have work to do before opening night, with 17 players on guaranteed contracts and Jaylen Wells on a partially guaranteed deal, leaving them a few more moves away from finalizing their 15-man roster.
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Grizzlies Just Opened A Bigger Backcourt Question Before Camp
The Grizzlies have already made one of the clearest roster decisions of their new era by waiving DAngelo Russell before training camp even gets underway. After the offseason trade of Ja Morant to Portland, Memphis moved quickly to signal that its focus is no longer on patching together a veteran backcourt, but on leaning into a reset built around younger guards and draft assets.
Russell had arrived earlier in the offseason, but the fit never looked like a long-term one for a team reworking its timeline. Memphis still has several guards on the roster, and the bigger picture now centers on how the franchise surrounds young pieces such as Cameron Boozer and Zach Edey while it sorts out the backcourt hierarchy for the season ahead. [Read more 🡒]
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Training camp opens in Nashville on Sept. 29, and the Grizzlies are already facing the kind of roster squeeze that tends to shape the rest of the preseason. Memphis has 19 players on standard contracts, so the next few weeks are going to be about more than just reps and conditioning. The staff has to sort through possible starting lineups, figure out how the bench should settle in, and begin narrowing the group toward the 15-man roster the team must carry once camp dust clears.
One of the more watchable decisions is at small forward, where the depth chart is not exactly settled and the options carry very different long-term implications. The front office also has a few names that loom over the trim-down process as it works through the back end of the roster, with a handful of young players in position to fight for what could be the final places. By the time Memphis leaves Nashville, the answers there may tell as much about the season ahead as anything the starting five does. [Read more 🡒]