Portland traded for Ja Morant, and the entire NBA is going to spend the season finding out whether that was brilliant or reckless.
The Trail Blazers acquired Morant from Memphis in exchange for Jerami Grant, Kris Murray and $1 million in cash considerations. The deal ended Morant’s seven-year run with the Grizzlies, a tenure that started with him as the face of the franchise and ended with both sides ready to move on.
How It Got to This Point in Memphis
Morant played 20 games last season before being shut down in January with an elbow issue. That followed years of off-court incidents that produced multiple league suspensions and burned through most of the goodwill he had built.
The final crack was on the court. Morant openly questioned how new head coach Tuomas Iisalo was using him, which is the kind of public friction that usually ends with somebody getting moved. It did.
Memphis has now traded all three of its franchise cornerstones since getting swept by Oklahoma City in the first round of the 2025 playoffs. Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. are all gone. That is a full teardown of a core that was supposed to contend for a decade.
The Portland Backcourt Is Now Ridiculous
Here is what the Blazers are working with: Ja Morant, Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, plus Deni Avdija coming off his first All-Star selection as the team’s primary ball-handler. Portland reportedly plans to start Morant, Lillard and Avdija together.
The offensive talent is undeniable. Morant at his best is one of the most explosive guards the league has produced, and pairing him with Lillard gives Portland two players who can generate a good shot from anywhere on the floor with the shot clock winding down.
The defensive math is terrifying. Morant has never been a plus defender, Lillard is in the back half of his career, and Avdija is now being asked to guard up. Holiday helps enormously when he is on the floor, but he cannot cover three positions at once.
The Injury Problem Just Got Worse
Portland also lost Shaedon Sharpe to a torn meniscus, with a six-month timeline that points to a late February or early March return. That removes the young wing who averaged 20.8 points last season and thins out an already guard-heavy rotation.
Morant, for his part, has embraced the change. He described joining the Blazers as “like starting all over again,” which is exactly the framing a player in his position needs.
The Verdict
Portland gave up real rotation pieces for a player with an injury history and a discipline history, which is precisely why the price was low enough for them to get him. Grant and Murray are useful. They are not Ja Morant at his peak.
If Morant stays healthy and stays out of trouble, this is a steal and the Blazers are a playoff team in the West. If he does not, Portland has an expensive backcourt logjam and no wing depth.
That is a bet worth making for a franchise that has been stuck in neutral. Sometimes the right move is the risky one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.