The trade deadline is often one of the most eventful times on the NBA calendar, and by the looks of it, this year’s edition will be no different. Teams are jockeying for playoff position while others are looking to rebuild, a situation which naturally lends itself to big-name players changing teams. Trae Young has already gotten dealt to the Wizards, and his fellow point guard Ja Morant could be on the move, too.
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ESPN’s Shams Charania reported last week that for the first time, the Grizzlies are open to offers for Ja, a move that could initiate a team-wide rebuild in the wake of the Desmond Bane trade this summer.
Ja’s time in the league has been a troubled one. He’s dealt with a near-constant string of injuries, been suspended multiple times for gun-related incidents and clashed with his coaching staff and teammates. Earlier this year he was benched by new head coach Tuomas Iisalo for conduct detrimental to the team, and just two days ago, he got in a verbal altercation at practice with teammate Vince Williams Jr.
Shannon Sharpe has expressed frustration with Ja on his Nightcap podcast before, and last night, he asserted that enough is enough.
“When it gets like this, it’s time to go,” he said. “It’s time to break it up, before somebody really do put hands on somebody. So look, it’s over with. Ja’s tenure in Memphis is over.”
It’s now an open secret that Ja is going to end up elsewhere, and when asked about it this week, he said he just has to “live with it.” For anybody who’s even casually followed his career, this can’t come as a surprise, because things have been going downhill for a long time.
This just seems like a situation where Ja and the Grizzlies both would be better off turning the page.
Sharpe knew something was up earlier this year when Ja got benched and then told reporters to ask his coach why. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, he ready to go,'” Sharpe remembered thinking. “He’s ready to get up out of there. And I’m not so sure they’re not ready for him to get up out of there.”
Ja has been out with a calf contusion for two weeks, but he has been practicing. He also make a trip with the Grizzlies to Europe, where they lost to the Magic in Berlin last night and will have a rematch in London on Sunday.
Still, Joe Johnson believes that if the Grizzlies are serious about trading Ja, and they seem to be, that they’ll just hold him out until they complete a deal.
“I think at some point, unc, due to this coming out, they may even just send him home until they get a trade for him,” he said. “‘Cause if you ain’t gonna let him play, and you see all this going on with the players, obviously, you don’t want that going around, man.”
Ja’s many issues might give teams pause before trading for him and giving him a lucrative extension. He also hasn’t progressed at all as an outside shooter, and in fact has regressed by shooting a ghastly 20.8% from deep this year. His athletic upside will be too irresistible for somebody to resist, though.
Teams are infamous for believing they can change a troubled player and get the best out of him. Hopefully for Ja’s sake, he lands somewhere where that can actually come true.
