Ja Morant #12 of the Memphis Grizzlies could be a trade target for the Miami Heat.
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Ja Morant #12 of the Memphis Grizzlies could be a trade target for the Miami Heat.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, when it comes to a potential trade in which the Miami Heat–or any NBA team now–would bring in point guard Ja Morant is that it has taken the Grizzlies this long to put Morant on the market in earnest. Morant, of course, established his stardom almost from the get-go when he arrived in Memphis in 2019, but as an explosive, undersize scoring point guard, his NBA usefulness has always been limited.
So has his availability. The most games Morant has played in a season was 67, and that was when he was a 20-year-old rookie. When he won the league’s Most Improved Player award in 2021-22, he averaged 27.4 points but played only 57 games.
More recently, his production has nosedived because of chronic injuries and suspensions. He is currently out with a calf injury and has played just 77 games in the last three seasons combined. Morant is on the books for $39 million this season, with $42 million in 2026-27 and $45 million the following year.
Last week, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Grizzlies are making it known they’re welcoming offers on Morant, which has surely caught the attention of the Miami Heat.
Ja Morant Could Be Had for a Package With a 1st-Round Pick
The Heat have had trade interest in Morant in the past, but the Grizzlies were not the motivated sellers they appear to be now. And because Miami would be buying low, it would not cost the team much to bring him in.
As veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein noted on the “All NBA” podcast, if a first-round pick enters the conversation, Morant likely will be gone.
“It’s interesting that the Grizzlies made it so well known, so generally known that they were willing to take calls on him because they had generally been so resistant to that,” Stein said. But I think the reality, when you take a step back … we’ve been reporting ab out Trae Young and LaMelo Ball and Ja Morant and the possibility of these guys being traded since before Thanksgiving. Now, can the Grizzlies expect to do better than the Hawks did?
“The early word is that the Grizzlies are hoping for at least one first, if they trade Ja Morant. Is there a team out there that is going to furnish a first after Trae Young essentially went for an expiring and a role player? We’ll see.”
Miami Heat Could Include Pick or Young Player
Young was dealt away from the Hawks for the small price of CJ McCollum and Cory Kispert, with no draft capital going to Atlanta. Just getting off his contract was motivation enough for the Hawks, and adding a pair of role players was the final return.
The Heat could afford to put together a package, built around Terry Rozier‘s contract with, perhaps, Simone Fontecchio and filler, that would allow the team to match salaries with Morant and include a future first-rounder, in 2029. The Heat could even put protections on the pick, as they did with the 2027 pick that is slated to go to Charlotte (it is protected for the top 14, and unprotected if it is pushed to 2028.)
The question for the Heat, though, is whether they’d rather give up the pick or instead send a young player to Memphis. They would almost certainly not deal Kel’el Ware in a Morant package, but they could seek to move Nikola Jovic or Jaime Jaquez Jr., keeping their current slat of draft capital intact.
There are still more than three weeks to go before the trade deadline, but the Heat and Morant are worth monitoring.