Once a future face of the league, Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant now may have to make his NBA home elsewhere, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania:
The Memphis Grizzlies are entertaining offers to potentially move two-time All-Star Ja Morant ahead of the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, sources told ESPN.
Multiple teams are pursuing Morant in trade talks, and rival executives believe the Grizzlies would prioritize draft picks and young players in return, sources said. This is the first time the Grizzlies have
engaged other teams in trades for Morant, who was the No. 2 pick in the 2019 draft.
Morant, 26, is under contract with the Grizzlies through the 2027-28 season. He is eligible to sign up to a three-year, $178 million extension this summer. He’s averaging 19.0 points and 7.6 assists in 28.3 minutes per game this season, while shooting a career-low 40.1% from the field and 20.8% from 3-point range.
Charania also reports that “multiple teams are pursuing Morant in trade talks.” Unsurprisingly, Memphis is reported to want young players and drafts assets in return. Morant signed a five-year, $197M contract with Memphis in 2023, and is owed $39M, $42M, and $45M this year and the following two seasons.
The 26-year-old Morant has played fewer than 20 games in a season that has been the worst of his career by many metrics, shooting a career-low 40% from the field (42.9% effective field goal percentage), averaging a career-low 3.2 boards, and scoring just 19 points per game. Morant has played just nine and 50 games in his last two full seasons and has missed the majority of the current season after averaging 62 games played per season in his first four campaigns.
An up-and-coming franchise player a few seasons ago, Morant has since been suspended multiple times by the NBA for firearms-related infractions. Despite a public apology that credited counseling for helping manage his stress, Morant has been at times prickly with his franchise, including back in November when he was hit with a one-game suspension for questioning the Grizzlies’ coaching staff after they reportedly tried giving him direction in a game where he scored just 8 points on 3-14 shooting.
If the Blazers were interested in getting in on the Ja Morant business, they would have to find salaries to roughly match the $39M he makes this year. One possibility – strictly financially speaking – would be to send Scoot Henderson ($11M), Robert Williams III ($13M expiring), and Matisse Thybulle ($11.5M expiring) to Memphis with draft capital. Whether this is something Portland would want to do or that Memphis would be interested in is a different story. While Morant has boundless athletic talent, it feels like a real “but it MIGHT work for us!” scenario that other teams talk themselves into while ignoring that despite being in his prime, Morant has not consistently delivered for Memphis since the Biden administration.
The Blazers and Grizzlies next play in Portland on both Feb. 6 and again on Feb. 7, just after the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline.
