{"id":173601,"date":"2026-01-20T16:09:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=173601"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:09:46","slug":"ja-morant-trade-update-new-orleans-pelicans-lurk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/20\/ja-morant-trade-update-new-orleans-pelicans-lurk\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant Trade Update, Seldom-Discussed Suitor Lurks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vibes were high after the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Orlando Magic in London, an energized Ja Morant<\/a> returning after a two-week absence and shredding their oft-praised defense with 20 points and 10 assists in the first half. Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo was among those to be conspicuously complimentary<\/a> of Morant, the rift in their relationship<\/a> the elephant in the room. For a moment, it seemed like the months of tension that preceded that moment would drift away — water under the bridge.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the Grizzlies front office hasn’t been skipping around in a botanical garden just because that may have been a watershed moment. In fact, they’re still likely to trade Morant. Though the 26-year-old wants to remain in Memphis, the circumstances contributing to his downward spiral are all but too hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

“I do think that as of right now if you’re saying, does Ja stay [in Memphis] past the trade deadline? I would lean more towards no, based on what we know<\/a>.” – Damichael Cole of The Commercial Appeal (h\/t Locked on Grizzlies)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ja Morant Still Likely To Be Traded, New Orleans Pelicans Lurk?<\/h2>\n

When news about the Grizzlies’ willingness to trade Morant broke, there were three teams named as potential destinations: the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings. Last week, the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans joined that list as well<\/a> (h\/t HoopsHype insider Michael Scotto).<\/p>\n

However, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps has expressed doubt<\/a> about Morant landing in Miami or Milwaukee. For myriad reasons, Sacramento is an unlikely home for him<\/a> (h\/t The Athletic’s Sam Amick). In a feature about the future of the Raptors franchise, Sportsnet’s Michael Grange made it quite clear that Morant won’t wind up in Toronto<\/a> either.<\/p>\n

If so, that leaves the Pelicans as the last team standing.<\/p>\n

Is This The Right Trade For The Pelicans?<\/h3>\n

On multiple levels, Morant heading to New Orleans legitimately makes sense.<\/p>\n

At 10-35, they have the worst record in the NBA and won’t even be able to get anything out of it after trading their 2026 first-round pick<\/a> to the Atlanta Hawks. Though they have several fascinating and effective point guards, none of them puts on a show like ’12,’ a high-flying fastball and nifty dimer with the personality to match his game. Across his All-Star seasons, he averaged 26.8 points and 7.4 assists per game, routinely taking over in clutch time.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The alternative is sticking it out with rookie point guard Jeremiah Fears<\/a>. A shifty ball-handler, Fears has flashed like a diamond in the sun. Yet, he’s still too raw as a decision-maker and playmaker. To that point, though he averages a respectable 13.9 points in 26.5 minutes per game, he shoots 43.4 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from 3. He’s also averaging just 3.2 assists per game, a modest number.<\/p>\n

While Fears grows, Morant can take the lead. Frankly, taking that pressure off of Fears might help him develop more smoothly. His future will be even brighter if Morant’s a mature leader during his time in Louisiana, showing him ways to use his speed to his advantage and teaching him how to be a better floor general. That may be a lot to ask given Morant’s recent history. Nonetheless, miracles can be made out of a change of scenery.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vibes were high after the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Orlando Magic in London, an energized Ja Morant returning after a two-week absence and shredding their oft-praised defense with 20 points and 10 assists in the first half. Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo was among those to be conspicuously complimentary of Morant, the rift in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":173624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[32,1608,62,33,3,4721],"tags":[1822,49956,4774,1382,662],"class_list":["post-173601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-ja-morant","tag-jeremiah-fears","tag-rumors","tag-nba-trade","tag-nba-trade-deadline"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173601","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173627,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173601\/revisions\/173627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}