Why Grizzlies put Ja Morant on the trade market and what teams could be interested

May I interest you in a lightly-used point guard?

On the same day that Trae Young’s trade from Atlanta to Washington became official, league sources confirmed to The Athletic that the Grizzlies are listening to offers for point guard Ja Morant. Is newly minted Sixth Man of the Year candidate LaMelo Ball up next?

Let’s get back to Morant, though, since at this moment he’s the center of the trade market solar system.

“Listening to offers,” in the most literal sense, is a euphemism for nothing — every NBA team is always listening to offers. That’s how the front office job works: You check in with the other teams, let them know what they have that interests you, listen to their thoughts on your players and slowly use that information to figure out if there’s a deal. When they ask about your most valuable players, the standard protocol is to indicate that those players aren’t available.

That’s where the Morant news is notable — this type of public advertisement to the league’s other 29 teams falls into another category. While the Grizzlies could technically decide they don’t like any offers on the table and continue with Morant — who is under contract for two more years after this season — the reality is that things don’t progress to this point unless the end is nigh. Similar reports about Young a week ago, for instance, were in retrospect the results of Atlanta already having a deal with Washington near the finish line and feeling out the rest of the market for better opportunities before finalizing the deal.

It will shock nobody if Memphis turns out to already have a Morant deal in its back pocket that the Grizzlies at least feel OK about, and now are trying to learn if they can do better. Either way, there’s a decent chance that Morant — currently out with a calf injury — has played his last game for Memphis.

However, the Morant trade market may differ in some ways from Young’s. It seems clear that the Grizzlies are looking for more than just expiring money in return for Morant, and that the eventual deal will involve some combination of useful players, picks and prospects; maybe not hugely useful players, but Memphis seems intent on getting something positive out of this.

Morant’s availability and behavior in Memphis have been problems, but the other issue that led Memphis to this point is that even with him, the team has still lost ground in the Western Conference hierarchy in recent years. Even after hiring a coach who would implement the pick-and-roll-heavy system Morant wanted, the Grizzlies’ guard still earned a suspension after clashing with new coach Tuomas Iisalo, and the Grizzlies struggled mightily out of the gate. Now it appears the pairing is Finnished. (Sorry.) Maybe they didn’t get as many reps of the Morant-Jaren Jackson Jr.-Zach Edey core under Iisalo as they hoped, but what they saw wasn’t good enough.

This is what I call “West Logic,” which for teams in Memphis’ position differs from “East Logic.” To wit, it’s much easier to turn a middling season into a deep playoff run and the appearance of a “successful” season in the East, and it has been for roughly the last quarter century. The West is so loaded that getting into the top four requires an elite roster.

Even with Morant’s injuries and off-court issues, the Grizzlies won 48 games with a +4.8-point margin last season. All that earned them, however, was a four-game, first-round stomping from the Thunder, after which Memphis concluded — correctly! — that the team had little chance of contending in the West unless it improved significantly.

Further, the Grizzlies determined that Morant was too unreliable — he still hasn’t played in more than six consecutive games since March of 2023 — to be the centerpiece of such a team. That thinking fueled the Desmond Bane trade, even though it was an opportunistic move; there’s just no way an Eastern Conference team in that situation would make the same choice.

Even this year, despite the slow start, Morant’s erratic play, and a rash of injuries to other key players, the Grizzlies don’t suck: They’re 16-22 with a barely negative scoring margin. They have a pretty easy pathway to the Chicago Bulls-style “success” of annual Play-In Tournament trips if they just stay the course. The problem is that you have no chance of surviving even one playoff round in the West without a much higher-ceiling roster. Even at its best, the Bane-Morant-Jackson core struggled to achieve that level.

So the Grizzlies will reset, and some in the league already have questions about what might come next. Would the Grizzlies also consider moving on from Jackson, if not this season, then perhaps this summer? Are they headed toward a full rebuild? Or do they feel good enough about their current predicament to press on? My read on this situation is that Jackson remains a core piece, and he’s signed for four years beyond this one. But as we’ve seen already, life comes at you fast in this league.

Getting back to Morant, though — what sort of trades make sense? The most hilarious outcome would be if Atlanta traded for him, but the Hawks presumably would already have him in uniform if there had been any interest.

A quick canvas around the league indicated that some other potential trade partners also don’t quite add up as Morant destinations. Sacramento’s interest is lukewarm at best, according to a well-placed league source, with the Kings likely looking at a much deeper and longer rebuild than just throwing assets at a Morant deal. They seemingly only get mentioned here because of the “Vivek Ranadivé is crazy enough to do this” factor.

Similarly, teams such as the Clippers and Wolves are so handcuffed money-wise that it’s hard to see them as serious bidders for Morant. The Clippers have won eight of their last 10, already have a better on-ball engine than Morant in James Harden, and don’t want money that goes past 2027 (Morant’s contract runs through 2028).

The Wolves are another team in the lukewarm waters. They would possibly have more interest if it weren’t for those pesky salary-cap rules, but it’s hard to put together a cap-compliant trade that lets them take in Morant’s $39 million salary while staying below the second apron. They would likely need to trade Naz Reid and at least three other players, and they don’t have the depth to withstand Morant only playing half the schedule.

Milwaukee is another team that has the desperation factor, but Morant doesn’t seem like more of an answer for them than Young would have been. The Bucks are low on wings, and two of their best players are point guards (Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins). I’ll get back to the Bucks in a minute, though.

Miami can get the Grizzlies out of dodge on Morant’s contract with all their expiring money (Terry Rozier and Simone Fontecchio, for instance), but the asset portion is in the eye of the beholder. Kel’El Ware seems to be off limits. Do the Grizzlies fancy Nikola Jović or Kasparas Jakučionis at all? Miami might also be the worst city on the planet for Morant off the court, and Morant doesn’t exactly radiate #Heatculture.

Toronto? Now we might be getting warmer. There’s a trade there that could let everyone win the press conference: Immanuel Quickley, Ochai Agbaji and Colin Murray-Boyles for Morant. Toronto, which has been giving off win-now vibes and whose name has come up in discussions for other big veteran names (such as Anthony Davis), would raise its immediate ceiling and put Morant at the controls of an up-tempo team that could use his shot creation in the half court. Morant would also reunite with a familiar face in former Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajaković.

Quickley’s contract runs one year longer than Morant’s, and while the number isn’t as imposing ($32 million a year), it’s arguably just as far underwater on production. The deal would give Memphis a more reliable backcourt starter while the franchise evaluates the rest of its roster at a lower price. The pain point would likely be Murray-Boyles; Toronto might not be comfortable letting him go and instead offer Ja’Kobe Walter as a prospect. Alternatively, the Raptors could offer their lottery-protected 2026 first-rounder in a potential trade for Morant.

Finally, let’s talk about one deep dark horse: Brooklyn. With one trusted league source telling me that Michael Porter Jr. is a lock to move by the deadline so the Nets can sell high on his career year, it makes sense for the Nets to figure out who will be the centerpiece of their franchise a year from now. Remember, Brooklyn owes a pick swap to Houston in 2027 and thus has no incentive to tank next season. They need some players.

Dealing Porter for Morant and picks would allow the Nets to have their cake and eat it, too. They could sell high on Porter, buy low on Morant, and fill their most glaring roster weakness ahead of the 2026-27 season. In the meantime, Brooklyn could follow Washington’s lead post-trade and have Morant’s calf injury “linger” into April so they can collect more ping-pong balls. Let’s just say that Porter’s fantastic season is colliding with other organizational objectives in Brooklyn.

Would the Grizzlies want Porter? Probably not. But would somebody else want Porter? That seems more plausible. That’s where teams such as Milwaukee, Toronto or Miami could come in for a three-way trade where the Nets and Grizzlies split the draft assets, the Nets get Morant, the Grizzlies get expiring money, and the third team gets Porter. The Bucks, who have been actively seeking upgrades around Giannis Antetokounmpo, can trade a 2032 first and a 2031 swap, and could use Kyle Kuzma and three low-salaried players as the salary match. Toronto has a similar pathway using R.J. Barrett, Murray-Boyles, a 2026 first and Agbaji; Miami could use Andrew Wiggins or Rozier plus Fontecchio, Jakučionis and a 2029 first.

But let’s stop speculating. The point here is that the Morant era in Memphis has reached its endgame, and similar to Young’s tenure in Atlanta, it’s coming to an underwhelming end after an electrifying start. The Grizzlies still have four weeks to find Morant a landing spot, but based on the history of similar situations, I’d be surprised if it took half that long.

— The Athletic’s Sam Amick contributed to this report.