The Memphis Grizzlies have been enveloped by trade rumors over the last few weeks, culminating in a report from ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania that the team was open to exploring a new home for Ja Morant. If that were to pass, some reports have suggested that the Grizzlies would view big man Jaren Jackson Jr. as their new building block moving forward, which drew mixed reactions from fans.
Meanwhile, recently, Klutch Sports agent Rich Paul took to the “Game Over” podcast with Max Kellerman to publicly float the idea of the Los Angeles Lakers trading Austin Reaves to the Grizzlies in exchange for Jackson, and now, Jackson himself is sharing his reaction to those comments.
“There’s just a lot of podcasts,” Jackson said, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “At first, I didn’t think it was real. You have to figure out if it’s real, usually now, and I’m not as versed technology-wise as these people younger than me. I was figuring out if it’s AI, deepfake, all that stuff. That’s all I had, I didn’t really have much of a reaction.”
Paul has never been shy about publicly pining to get his clients where he wants them to go, and many eyebrows were raised when he floated the idea of trading Reaves for Jackson Jr.
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It remains to be seen how the Grizzlies themselves would react to such an idea. Jackson Jr. would surely help the Lakers out on the defensive side of the ball, where they have struggled mightily so far this year, but the Grizzlies would be getting older by making this swap, and it's unclear if they would view Reaves as a potential building block piece at the age of 27.
In any case, the Grizzlies will next take the floor on Thursday for a game against the Orlando Magic.