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The Grizzlies are reportedly seeking draft picks and young players in return for Morant, and are still open to keeping him, according to Charania. Morant has two more seasons under contract after this one averaging about $43 million per year on the cap sheet.
Morant has had a down season by his standards. His scoring efficiency has been atrocious with a -7.4 rTS%, which captures true shooting percentage compared to league average. His scoring volume is also way down to 31.6 points per 100 possessions, which is his lowest since his second season in the league, and down from 35.5 last year. The Grizzlies get out-scored by nine points per 100 possessions when Morant is on the floor, and when he’s off they essentially play teams even with a -0.3 net-rating. The biggest thing holding back his trade value could be that he’s often unavailable, be it for suspensions or injuries or anything else. He’s already been suspended for a game this season, and openly clashed with his head coach.
Morant is only 26 years old, but the team trading for him has to hope he isn’t declining physically already. He’s never been a good three-point shooter or defender, so he needs to be scoring at the rim and using his scoring gravity to set up teammates to be effective. Morant should still have a market on the trade block. Here’s three teams that make sense.
It’s hard to make a one-for-one trade between the Kings and Grizzlies that doesn’t have bad salary coming back to Memphis. In this trade, the Grizzlies stomach the final year of DeMar DeRozan’s deal which is reportedly only guaranteed for $10 million to get a Kings pick in 2032. Owning a future Sacramento pick is always a prudent move with the franchise typically in the cellar of the Western Conference over the last two decades. Monk could be a nice addition for Memphis’ present roster construction, too. The Kings have been desperate to fix their point guard issues, and signing Dennis Schroder over the summer has been a bust. Morant could inject some excitement into one of the most irrelevant franchises in the league. Sacramento badly needs a full reset, but they probably shouldn’t be putting future first-round picks on the table to do it. At least Morant is still young enough to potentially regain his superstar status. When a team is desperate to dump a bad apple, the Kings should be their first call.
The Bulls are the Kings of the East, only with a bigger market, prouder history, and worse lottery odds every year. Chicago is deeply irrelevant with no obvious path to getting out of the play-in tournament, and zero hope on the horizon for ever winning a playoff series. Going for Morant would be a big swing for an ownership group that doesn’t like having max contracts on the books, but this deal is palatable if it doesn’t include future draft capital. This deal would give the Grizzlies a look at Coby White before his unrestricted free agency — and at this point there’s a case to be made that White is better than Morant by himself. All three pieces the Grizzlies receive in this trade are expiring contracts, which would help them reset their books. The Bulls have been such a boring team for the last 10 years that trying to trade for Morant makes some sense, but ultimately it would probably be doomed to fail. Chicago knows what it’s like to watch an electrifying point guard’s body break down early, and it’s possible that could be happening with Morant. The Bulls are a bad franchise, and a bad franchise is the most likely to roll the dice on Morant.
This might have to be a multi-team trade to make the salaries work, but the Raptors could build a deal around R.J. Barrett and Gradey Dick for Morant (it doesn’t work monetarily straight up). The Raptors haven’t gotten as much as they hoped out of Immanuel Quickley, and at this point no one is taking his bloated contract. Swinging for Morant and moving Quickley to the bench before they can flip him could work. Dick has struggled this season on both ends of the floor, but fits the mold a young player Memphis could want to rehab. Barrett has had the best season of his career this year, and losing him would hurt Toronto. This would be a risky move for the Raptors, but ultimately they need shots at upside, and Morant has more than Barrett.
I considered the Milwaukee Bucks for this list too, but we’ve already seen what it looks like with a smaller, poor defensive guard next to Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Minnesota Timberwolves are another potential suitor, but it’s hard to make the salaries work. The biggest takeaway: I don’t see a first-round pick out there for Morant unless Memphis can scam the Kings.