Ja Morant traded to Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant
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- Ja Morant is being traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.
- Morant, 26, averaged 22.4 points for his career but played only 79 games over the last three seasons due to injuries and suspensions, including a 25-match ban after he was seen on a livestream holding a gun in a vehicle.
- An earlier 8-game suspension for flashing a gun at a Denver-area nightclub, combined with the 25-match ban, cost Morant approximately $9 million in lost salary.
- Morant joins a Portland point guard logjam that already includes Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard, and Scoot Henderson on the roster.
- Jerami Grant averaged 18.6 points last season for Portland and will be joining his sixth team by moving to Memphis; Kris Murray averaged 5.8 points per game.
- Portland's new owner Tom Dundon, whose Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup, may not be done making moves according to the source.
- Morant's 2021-22 Most Improved Player season powered Memphis to 56 wins (tying a franchise record) behind a core of Morant, Dillon Brooks, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane — all of whom are now gone from the Grizzlies.
Why it matters: This trade completes the dismantling of Memphis's 56-win 2021-22 core: Morant, Brooks, Bane, and Jackson Jr. have all departed. For Portland, acquiring a point guard with overlapping skills to Holiday, Lillard, and Henderson is a high-variance swing — Morant has lost roughly $9 million and three seasons to off-court incidents, so the upside depends entirely on whether the fresh start actually resets his career.
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