Ja Morant is frustrated.
He scored just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting in a loss to the Lakers on Halloween night, but his responses to questions postgame show just how bad the vibes have gotten in Memphis. After the game, Morant threw the coaching staff under the bus when speaking to reporters. Check out this exchange (via Lopo on X).
Reporter: “What went wrong for you today?”
“Go ask the coaching staff,” Morant responded.
Reporter: “From the outside... it didn’t feel like you had your usual energy tonight.”
“Go ask the coaching staff why,” Morant replied.
Reporter: “What could have been done differently, other than asking the coaching staff?”
“According to them, probably don’t play me, honestly,” Morant said. “That’s basically what the message was. It’s cool.”
It’s clearly not cool. Morant spoke in the locker room at the same time as coach Tuomas Iisalo, so he was not asked about Morant’s comments. Iisalo was hired at the end of last season after coach Taylor Jenkins was fired, in part because he moved away from Morant’s preferred pick-and-roll to an offense of cuts and player rotations (a less extreme version of what Miami is running this season). After trading away Desmond Bane this offseason, the expectation was that more of the offense would be run through Morant this season, but he is averaging 28.5 minutes a game (the fewest of his career), although the 75.8 touches he is getting a game is up from the 67.7 a game he got last season (and very close to the 77.8 and 77 a game he got his All-Star seasons).
It wasn’t just the reporter in the locker room who noticed Morant’s low energy while hounded by Marcus Smart all night, Blake Griffin called Morant out on the NBA on Prime broadcast:
“This is a guy who is insanely talented. Speed is his No. 1 weapon, and coming off a ball screen, passing the ball like this, kind of lazily cutting to the corner, that’s just not what’s gonna get it done for Memphis... For a guy that’s making $40 million and needs to be the leader of this team, I just don’t love it. I don’t know if he was not feeling well, if he’s hurt, but that to me is a very bad sign and something that has to change.”
Something has to change. Things in Memphis are not good, although it’s not a disaster. Yet. The Grizzlies are 3-3 with a bottom-10 offense in the league (and a -3 net rating overall), and their three wins came against lesser teams (Phoenix, New Orleans, banged-up Indiana). When facing quality opponents like the Lakers, Memphis has looked outclassed.
It leads to long-term questions that are starting to bubble up. Memphis has gone a long way down the Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. path, and if things continue like this, the front office is going to need to conduct a serious assessment of what should come next.