Zach Randolph received a four-year, $66 million contract extension from the Grizzlies on Sunday evening. Randolph gets his extension on the current CBA, while Memphis is guaranteed of retaining one of the game’s best volume scorers and rebounders.

While there are character clauses to protect the Grizzlies (1), Randolph gets the stability of an average annual salary of $16.5 million at a point in NBA time where salaries are expected to decrease.

There is no denying the importance of Randolph’s value to the Grizzlies. Memphis was 14-5 in games where Randolph scored 24 or more points. He had a PER of almost 26.5 in wins and 17.8 in losses.

Randolph is a savant scorer and should continue his current levels of production throughout the length of his extension since he is not overly reliant on using his athleticism. Randolph will turn 30 this summer and is coming off nearly 6,000 relatively healthy NBA minutes.

Randolph’s TS% has been right around 55% since joining the Grizzlies and his PER of 22.6 in 10-11 was his highest since the 06-07 season.

He is able to get nearly 20 per night despite having a smaller usage than he ever had with Portland since his breakout 03-04 season.

Randolph uses more than half of his shots out of the post and on the offensive glass. Opposing team specifically gameplan to stop Randolph in the post, but he is still quite easily one of the best high volume scorers in this area in the game.

Randolph is a decent jump shooter for a power forward, but he probably relies upon it a little more than he probably should. As bigs age, they increasingly shoot a higher percentage of jumpers. But Randolph has actually attempted far fewer long-range jumpers in each of the past two seasons, while he has attempted many more shots per game in that short-range around seven or eight feet.

For Randolph, he gets far more money than he would on the open market unless he were to return home to play for the Pacers. As important from a basketball perspective, Randolph is assured of remaining the focal point of a playoff contender’s offense. 

Grade for Zach Randolph: A

Randolph has proven to be worth $15 million per season, but that is on the current CBA scale. We frankly don’t know what will happen with the new CBA and how it will impact the flexibility of a team’s payroll.

The Grizzlies very well may have locked themselves into Randolph, along with Rudy Gay and Mike Conley with the lucrative contracts they have handed out over the past 10 months.

Even though Marc Gasol will be a restricted free agent, retaining him will be difficult for Memphis. If they are unsuccessful in coming to terms, the Grizzlies can ill-afford to let Gasol walk without some type of assets returning back since they already traded away the second overall pick of the 2009 NBA Draft.

The Grizzlies have justified the Pau Gasol trade because it provided an opportunity to acquire a whole new frontcourt in Randolph and Marc Gasol, so they are at least assured of retaining half that combo.

But I’m not sure re-signing Randolph would have been any more difficult following the (potential) lockout.

Grade for Grizzlies: C+

Notes 

1.) Randolph is a decent guy and a good teammate, but is the type of person that tends to need a structured environment to stay out of trouble. A long lockout can see Randolph get into some of the same type of trouble we have seen him in during the past, or even eat his way out of shape.