The Memphis Grizzlies are in the rumor mill for all the wrong reasons again. Everyone across the association are readying themselves for a potential split between Ja Morant and the team that selecting him second overall in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Marc Stein identified two Western Conference teams who are expected to be headed for major changes in his latest write-up. Unsurprisingly, the Grizzlies were one of the squads who got the spotlight from the NBA insider.
Stein wrote, "Morant's future has been must-monitor going back to the June draft and the buildup to it. That is when rumbles started to circulate in earnest that the contract extension Morant was eligible for this past offseason would not be offered and that this team might no longer revolve around him."
Breaking: Ja Morant has been suspended for one game for conduct detrimental to the team.
The suspension comes as a result of Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo challenging Morant's leadership and effort in a postgame exchange after Friday's loss to the Lakers — to which Morant… pic.twitter.com/ZHexc46JCa
— ESPN (@espn) November 1, 2025
Morant was recently suspended by the Grizzlies after a very public showing of disgruntlement following a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Oddly enough, this brewing saga came full circle with that moment, considering it was the Lakers who quietly began the demise of Memphis in 2023.
DEVELOPING: After Luka, Reaves and Smart clamped Ja Morant all game (Ja had 8 pts in 31 min), the Grizzlies coach decided to not play him in the 4th. Ja was furious after the game, seething and almost throwing a tantrum. The vibes are not good in Memphs. pic.twitter.com/ZhCYuI9SD8
— SLO HOOPS FAN 🇸🇮 (@SloHoopsFan) November 1, 2025
Everything started unraveling for Memphis the moment they poked Los Angeles
2022-23 was a great year for the Grizzlies during the regular season. They finished with a record of 51-31 to claim the second seed in the Western Conference.
That earned them a date with the Lakers in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs. The Grizzlies were young, hungry, and wanted to prove themselves like any team of that nature. It's too bad for them that Los Angeles was a buzzsaw.
The seven-seeded Lakers, who had just come out of the NBA Play-In Tournament, were not going to be punked by an up-and-comer. After saving their season with a big-time makeover at the trade deadline, the Lakers would soon be poised for a Western Conference Finals run.
Their series against Memphis is remembered by many as the one where Dillon Brooks poked a little too hard at the Lakers and got his comeuppance, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis taking it out on his team as a whole. Maybe the Grizzlies saw it that way too, because they refused to bring Brooks back, letting the two-way wing head to the Houston Rockets in free agency instead.
LeBron on Dillon Brooks: "This isn't my first rodeo. I've had this throughout my career with certain individuals. It's easy. It's literally easy. We won tonight, let me not start this. I'm not going to do this." 👑pic.twitter.com/OTwpPu60Tq
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 23, 2023
Say what you will about the known agitator, but as soon as Brooks was gone, the Grizzlies last that extra bit of spark. It was almost like their identity went out the door with him, and that much has quietly become the case in recent seasons.
Memphis has attempted to overhaul their philosophy. That shift has quickly worked towards alienating their star player. Instead of changing for the better, outwardly, it came across as an identity crisis.
It got Taylor Jenkins fired. It left the Grizzlies in a position where most are just waiting for the other shoe to drop and a full rebuild to take place once more.
The Lakers, for their part, can be largely credited for getting the first domino to fall, starting the long unraveling of what was once a team many thought would regularly contend in the Western Conference. It was a long butterfly effect that has led the Grizzlies to a point of hopelessness.