Portland is done being patient. The Trail Blazers traded for Ja Morant on June 29, giving up Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to bring the two time All Star to the Pacific Northwest.
Memphis added a million dollars in cash to make the deal work. That is a small detail, but it says a lot about how much the Grizzlies wanted this to be over.
Morant is 26 years old. He is entering the fourth year of his five year, 197 million dollar designated rookie extension. He is under contract through 2027-28. If he is healthy, he is a top 15 point guard in the league. If he is not, this trade could go sideways fast.
Let’s talk about the Blazers first. Portland now has a backcourt with Ja Morant, Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard, and Scoot Henderson. That is four point guards on one roster. Someone is going to be unhappy.
The Blazers do not need four point guards. They need a real frontcourt. They need a defender in the paint. They need shooting. Instead, they went for star power at one position and now have to figure out the rest.
The move likely means one of the other guards is on the way out. Holiday is 35 years old and expensive. Lillard is 36 and coming off a torn Achilles. Henderson is 23 and cheap and still developing. The math suggests one of the veterans gets moved to make room.
Portland’s front office has to be planning something else. Chauncey Billups needs a functional rotation, and he is not going to play three point guards at once for 82 games.
Morant’s fit is the question. His best basketball has always been chaotic. He is a downhill attacker who lives at the rim. That is not the profile of a player who thrives sharing the floor with another primary ball handler.
Portland is betting they can make it work. If Morant is happy and healthy, he is going to score 25 a night and give Portland a real box office draw. Lillard back in Portland gives fans something to celebrate. The Blazers are marketing this as a nostalgic revival with a young star at the center.
Memphis is the more interesting side of this. The Grizzlies have now traded Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr. since being swept by Oklahoma City in the 2025 playoffs. All three franchise cornerstones. Gone.
Memphis is rebuilding. There is no other way to describe it. The Grizzlies have picks and young players. They are done pretending the previous core was going to work. Zach Kleiman is starting over.
The Grant piece is fine. He is a stretch four who can defend multiple positions. He is not going to be the answer for a Memphis rebuild, but he has value. Kris Murray is a young shooter who could develop into more.
The problem for Memphis is that they gave up the star. Morant is 26. He is under contract. He is theoretically their most valuable asset. Trading him for a rotation player and a young wing feels like Memphis prioritized moving on more than maximizing return.
Some of that comes back to Morant’s off court history. The suspensions. The reputation issues. His draft value was down.
Still, if you are Grizzlies fans, you have to be asking whether the return was enough. Portland got a top level talent. Memphis got role players.
This trade is going to be judged by how Morant plays over the next two years. If he stays on the floor and puts up numbers, Portland wins. If he does not, Memphis will be quietly relieved to have moved on when they did.
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.
