The Memphis Grizzlies are open to trading Ja Morant, and over the next few weeks, many will see what his value truly is. There are several teams who need a point guard, and someone like Morant could help them, but they may not be willing to make a deal for him due to various factors.
Those factors have to include things on and off the court, and executives are already talking about how low his value is, according to Tim McMahon on The Hoop Collective.
“I’ll just quote an East executive. The combination of pain in the a–, injury prone, not that good anymore, and big contract, is a bad one,” McMahon said.
This season alone, it looks like Morant has taken a step back, and he doesn't look like the explosive player he was just last season. That's always been a big part of his game, and oif he doesn't have that, he doesn't have much.
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“Again, he’s not attacking the rim,” McMahon said. “He did recently have a 40 point game that was kind of like a reminder, or even an indication of like, hey if I want to I still can. How often does he want to? How often is he even available. He’s a bad jump shooter, who is shooting more jump shots than ever.”
When looking at what his value could be, it's hard to compare it to Trae Young, who has a player option this offseason and his contract was better to deal with what he brings to the floor. Anybody who trades for Morant is going to have to take on the remaining few years of his contract, where he's making over $40 million a year.
Then, you have to take account of his health over the past few seasons, and the off the court stuff, and you have a player that has a lot of baggage.