Grizzlies trade Ja Morant to Trail Blazers before free agency

The Memphis Grizzlies sent Ja Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, finishing a three-star teardown that began with Desmond Bane on June 15, 2025, and Jaren Jackson Jr. on Feb. 4, 2026. Memphis has now moved all three members of its former core since the 2025 playoff sweep by Oklahoma City, choosing a reset over the reputational and roster risk that followed Morant for years.

Morant, 26, still carried two years and about $87 million on his contract, but his production had slipped to 19.5 points per game last season, with career lows of 41.0 percent shooting from the field and 23.5 percent from 3-point range in 20 games. His career averages, 22.4 points and 7.4 assists, still reflect top-end talent, but Memphis decided the gap between ceiling and reliability had become too wide.

The off-court history mattered as much as the box score. The NBA suspended Morant for 25 games in June 2023 after a social-media video showed him with a firearm, and ESPN later reported a one-game team suspension after a confrontation with coach Tuomas Iisalo. Combined with injuries that have limited him to 79 games over three seasons, those episodes made the Grizzlies’ answer a franchise reset rather than another year of patience.

Portland is betting the opposite way. The Trail Blazers are taking on a former No. 2 overall pick and two-time All-Star to accelerate a backcourt rebuild around a team that just reached the playoffs for the first time since 2021. ESPN noted that the Blazers’ guard group is already crowded with veterans, so the deal is as much a wager on structure and locker-room stability as it is on talent.

The timing made the message harder to miss. NBA free-agency negotiations open June 30 at 6 p.m. ET, and Memphis moved before the market could harden around Morant’s price or Portland’s needs. The Grizzlies chose Grant, 32, and Murray, who is headed toward restricted free agency next summer, as pieces that fit a broader cleanup; the Trail Blazers chose the far messier bet that Morant’s talent can outgrow his past.