{"id":124360,"date":"2025-02-18T06:53:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=124360"},"modified":"2025-02-18T06:53:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:53:35","slug":"ja-morant-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/18\/ja-morant-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant Might be On the Trade Market This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> trade, things in the NBA have shifted dramatically. No star player is safe. When a team trades its 25-year-old superstar, fresh off an NBA Finals appearance, then nobody is safe. While the trade shocked everyone in the league, we might be heading to an even more interesting summer. According to an NBA insider, this summer, we might be looking at a possible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n<h2>Ja Morant Might be On the Trade Market This Summer<\/h2>\n<p>The report comes courtesy of Howard Beck from The Ringer. In his latest podcast, he talked about how he has spoken to NBA executives and they believe we might have a Ja Morant blockbuster trade this summer. He said,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am constantly checking in with executives around trade deadline about like, okay, what we saw, what we didn&#8217;t see, what&#8217;s next, and in this league, you are always, always, always on the lookout for who&#8217;s the next wave of stars that are going to get dealt, right? And somebody out of the blue said, keep an eye on Ja Morant this summer. I&#8217;m just saying it&#8217;s one of those things I&#8217;m just kind of keeping an eye on if they were to flame out early.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An NBA executive pegs Ja Morant as a star to \u201ckeep an eye on\u201d as a potential trade candidate this summer if the Grizzlies flame out early, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HowardBeck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@HowardBeck<\/a> on <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ringer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ringer<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#39;m constantly checking in with executives around trade deadline about like, okay, what we saw, what we didn&#39;t\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QL3LXpgMSa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/QL3LXpgMSa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; APHoops (@APH00PS) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/APH00PS\/status\/1891659299341906011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 18, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Interesting Summer for the Grizzlies Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>The Grizzlies will have plenty of work this summer. They have two big decisions they need to make, and neither involves Morant.<\/p>\n<p>Their first priority is re-signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aldamsa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santi Aldama<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/13\/grizzlies-santi-aldama-free-agent-priority\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">forward that they drafted<\/a> in 2021. He has improved every year since he has been on the team. This year, he averages 12.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. Most notably, he is shooting 38.6% from behind the arc, giving them a stretch big that changes their dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>The second priority is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>. He will have one more year on his contract, but the Grizzlies should try their best and re-sign him to a contraxt extension. Some may say Jackson is the Grizzlies most important player, as the defensive center can impact the game on both sides of the floor.<\/p>\n<p>While there will be reports that the Grizzlies might make a decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/03\/luka-doncic-ja-morant\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">trade Morant<\/a>, he is the franchise cornerstone. The team stood behind him when he was dealing with controversy off the floor, and now that he is on his best behavior, there are not many reasons to trade him.<\/p>\n<h3>Teammate Doesn\u2019t Believe Ja Will be Traded<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jacksgg01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GG Jackson<\/a>, their young, second-year player recently talked about why he doesn\u2019t believe Ja will get traded like Doncic did. Speaking on the \u201cRun it Back\u201d podcast, he said,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJa is always on time, he shows up, he puts in the work, and you know, he and our coach Taylor Jenkins have a very close relationship. Kind of you know, like almost like a yin and yang really. They can coach each other about what they see on the floor and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"GG Jackson on Why Ja Morant Won&#039;t Get Traded Like Luka Doncic!!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SbYz1rWTVUY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another difference between a Morant trade and the Doncic trade is that Morant has several years remaining on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/31559\/ja-morant\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contract<\/a>. He is signed through the 2027-28 season, at a salary that takes at most 25% of the cap. Because he signed the contract before the new TV deal and increased cap, Morant will account for only 23.99% of the team salary cap in his final year. The Grizzlies are second in the Western Conference, 7-3 in their last 10 games, and have a shot to make it to the NBA Finals. Yet, in the NBA, you never know what can happen if a team has a disappointing postseason.<\/p>\n<h3>Teams That Might Make a Ja Morant Trade<\/h3>\n<p>When we look at the state of the NBA and teams that might need a star point guard, there are three teams that might look into a Morant trade. Miami is always interested in a star, but we have to include the Rockets here. They have a well-rounded young team that needs a floor general to put things into motion. A surprise team might be the Phoenix Suns. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bookede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devin Booker<\/a> has shown he can be a two-way player, and someone like Ja will take the load off of him offensively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the Luka Doncic trade, things in the NBA have shifted dramatically. No star player is safe. When a team trades its 25-year-old superstar, fresh off an NBA Finals appearance, then nobody is safe. While the trade shocked everyone in the league, we might be heading to an even more interesting summer. According to an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":124375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,32,62,4721],"tags":[4933,1822,1948,1133,49042],"class_list":["post-124360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-grizzlies","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-gg-jackson","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-luka-doncic","tag-santi-aldama"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124360"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124376,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124360\/revisions\/124376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}