A week after four-time All-Star Trae Young was unsurprisingly traded for pennies on the dollar, two-time All-Star Ja Morant finds himself on the precipice of a similar transaction.
Like Young, Morant is a diminished asset whose game has been picked apart ad nauseam. At 26 years old, the Grizzlies guard still comes with upside, but his floor is even lower than Young's.
Morant appeared destined for greatness early in his career, when his entertaining blend of explosiveness and audacity propelled Memphis to relevance. Morant's ability to consistently make the Grizzlies better than the sum of their parts was impressive, while his style of play and bravado made him a natural candidate to represent brands and to be marketed as a future face of the league.
Then a string of off-court issues, injuries, and individual stagnancy derailed things. A coaching change, a couple of offensive overhauls, and a Desmond Bane trade later, the Grizzlies no longer appear married to a Morant-led future. Memphis has the flexibility, young talent, and draft capital to go a number of different ways. The franchise can retool around former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr., or it can move both Jackson's mammoth contract and Morant's in an attempt to completely reset.
Morant doesn't fit either plan, but how many teams, if any, are willing to part with valuable assets to pry him out of Memphis? It should be a short list.
As a non-shooting point guard who rarely defends, Morant's value is entirely dependent on his ability to get to the rim. However, his rim frequency has declined for a fourth straight season and he's finished there at a 45th-percentile rate among point guards, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Morant is still a fine playmaker who can get into the paint, and there are bursts where he looks like his old self. There are NBA decision-makers out there somewhere who believe Morant can be revitalized by a simple change of scenery. But this isn't a random, short-term issue. The numbers have been trending down for years:
| Morant | Drives/game | Drives/touch | Drives Pts% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 20.9 | 0.27 | 70.8 |
| 2022-23 | 20.3 | 0.26 | 70.8 |
| 2023-24 | 21.2 | 0.27 | 66.0 |
| 2024-25 | 16.6 | 0.25 | 63.7 |
| 2025-26 | 15.4 | 0.22 | 62.1 |
Those hoping for a Morant resurgence are waiting on the return of a player Ja simply hasn't been in three or four years (and not coincidentally, he hasn't made an All-NBA team since 2021-22).
Morant is a year younger than Young, much more athletic, and comes with more team control. But he's almost as bad defensively, his shooting is such a liability that opponents feel comfortable guarding him with centers, and he comes with off-court baggage Young's suitors didn't have to worry about. He's also missed 47% of Memphis' games over the last five seasons and hasn't appeared in more than six consecutive games since the 2022-23 campaign.
It's tough to recall an equivalent star's value ever being so low. Morant is a 26-year-old two-time All-Star under team control for another two-and-a-half years at approximately 25% of the annual salary cap. Players fitting those descriptors would usually command a haul on the trade market. In Morant's case, the Grizzlies might have to take on a bad contract just to convince a rival team to take a flier on him.
Even that might not get a suitor to commit.
Take the Raptors, for example. Toronto might relish the opportunity to get off of Immanuel Quickley's contract - it runs one year longer than Morant's, whose ceiling is unquestionably higher. But Quickley's deal is significantly cheaper per year (by $7 million-$12 million). In addition, the Scottie Barnes-led Raptors need the type of pull-up and movement shooting Quickley provides (and Morant cannot), and betting on Morant's ceiling is an unnecessary risk given the money still owed to him. Flipping one bad contract for another one tied to a more volatile player doesn't make sense.
The Heat have often been linked to Morant, but does Pat Riley's team and everything Heat Culture stands for seem like a good fit for a player who doesn't respond well to being held accountable?
Two teams that might be more realistic options are Brooklyn and Sacramento. The Nets are expected to go star-hunting eventually. They own one of the league's most enviable collections of draft capital and still would even if they included a first-rounder in a package for Morant. The Nets could also make an in-season play for Morant and remain bad enough to land a top prospect in the loaded 2026 draft. Ditto for the Kings, who deserve mention simply because Vivek Ranadive's franchise is prone to this kind of shortsighted transaction.
In any event, if you thought Young's market was almost nonexistent, you ain't seen nothing yet. Whoever acquires Morant will be making a much riskier bet than the wager the Wizards made on Young.
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead NBA reporter.
