Controversial NBA superstar Ja Morant closing in on blockbuster trade out of Memphis, insider reveals
The Memphis Grizzlies are reportedly open to moving on controversial guard Ja Morant before next month’s NBA trade deadline.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Morant, 26, could be offloaded by the Grizzlies in exchange for draft picks and younger players midway through his sixth season with the team.
For the first time since drafting him with the second overall pick in 2019, they are said to be entertaining trade offers for their two-time All-Star ahead of the deadline on February 5.
Multiple teams are now pursuing a potential trade, with the player under contract through the 2027-28 season. He is also eligible to sign up to a three-year, $178million extension in the summer.
Morant, who is averaging 19 points and 7.6 assists in 28.3 minutes per game while shooting a career-low 40.1 percent from the field this season, has featured only 18 times for the Grizzlies in 2025-26 due to injuries and a one-game suspension for hitting out at coach Tuomas Iisalo and his staff back in September.
He has proven a controversial figure in Memphis after frequently landing himself in hot water off the court, including when he previously served a 25-game ban for flashing a gun on two separate live streams within the space of three months.
The Memphis Grizzlies are reportedly open to moving on Ja Morant before the trade deadline
Morant was suspended for one game by the Grizzlies earlier this year for hitting out at coach Tuomas Isaola (pictured)
In March 2023, the former Murray State star was first seen waving a gun during an Instagram Live captured in Shotgun Willie’s, a strip club in Glendale, Colorado, following a loss to the Denver Nuggets.
The move sparked severe backlash with the NBA initially handing down an eight-game suspension to Morant, who checked himself into a private counseling facility in Colorado.
But eight games seemingly weren’t enough to drive the message home, as 10 weeks later he was caught in yet another gun-flashing incident.
This time, having not learnt his lesson, Morant was captured waving a firearm in a car on friend Davonte Pack’s Instagram Live.
Once again he faced blowback, this time bigger than ever. It was the second incident of this nature in three months and the league took its time deliberating its punishment, before NBA commissioner Adam Silver landed on a 25-game suspension.
Back in November, Morant was suspended by the Grizzlies for takine a swipe at their coaching staff following a defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers.
He has landed himself in hot water on several occasions in Memphis, including when he received a 25-game suspension for flashing a gun on an Instagram Live stream in 2023
After they were beaten 117-112 by the Lakers in the NBA Cup, he was asked by a reporter in the locker room what went wrong for Memphis on the night.
‘Go ask the coaching staff,’ Morant fumed. ‘Go ask them. They had a whole spiel in here, so…’
Another media member then asked what Iisalo’s men could have done differently to avoid the shortcoming against Los Angeles.
‘According to them, probably don’t play me,’ Morant claimed. ‘That’s basically what the message was after.’
