One of the most enduring headlines of the NBA season has been around the future of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant. On Halloween night, the Grizzlies faced the Los Angeles Lakers with the opportunity to get a win to hang their hat on, given the team’s previous struggles against the Lakers in the playoffs. Under the brightest lights of the season, the Grizzlies limped to a loss, with Morant coughing up just eight points all night. After the game, Morant seemed to pass on the blame, stating, “Go ask the coaching staff” when asked about the cause of the loss during post-game interviews. For these comments, Morant was suspended for one game by the NBA. In the wake of this news, many analysts theorized that the Grizzlies would look to trade a seemingly disgruntled Morant.

The darkest cloud over Morant’s reputation has been a pair of suspensions he was issued in March and May of 2023. On two occasions, Morant showed a firearm to the camera while livestreaming on Instagram. For his first offense, the guard was issued an eight-game suspension, voluntarily removing himself from the lineup for the first two games. For the second offense, a 25-game suspension was issued to be served at the start of the 2024-25 season. In the two years since, Morant has not been suspended by the NBA outside of the one game he was made to miss following the loss to the Lakers.

Morant is also described as having an attitude problem, both in regard to comments he makes to the media and his actions on the court. Most recently, a scuffle began during a game against the Dallas Mavericks after Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama tripped Dallas’ Cooper Flagg, at which point veteran Klay Thompson came to Flagg’s aid and talked to Aldama. The pause in the game allowed Morant and the rest of the Grizzlies bench to enter the court and back up their teammate, but no fouls were issued to anyone besides Aldama. The game ended with a missed three-point shot from Thompson, giving Memphis the win. Morant, who Thompson has a history of rivalry with following a 2022 playoff series, went up to Thompson after the game, pointed in the Mavericks guard’s face, and called him a “bum.” 

On Dec. 3, ESPN’s Tim McMahon and Bobby Marks published an article about the possibility that Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets as well as Morant could be traded ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline. On Morant in particular, authors Bobby Marks and Tim McMahon went after the former All-NBA player for on-court inconsistency and off-court controversies. Anonymous general managers were interviewed on his trade value, which generated resoundingly negative outlooks. “Morant is going down, down, down,” one GM from a Western Conference team said. Another GM from the Eastern Conference called Morant a “pain in the ass, injury prone, [and] not very good anymore,” before adding he would never want Morant on his team regardless of the salary.

Through it all, the Grizzlies organization and Morant have remained on good terms, which is atypical for a player with the kind of media portrayal the guard has. That atypicality is because the portrayal is from the outside looking in; through the eyes of the fans and staff of the Memphis Grizzlies, Morant is untradeable.

The team knows that there’s more to how Morant reached his current predicament than a loss of focus or character issues. Memphis’ 2023-24 season was catastrophic, and by no fault of their own. By nearly every conceivable metric, that year’s Grizzlies team was the most injured team in the history of the NBA. Grizzlies players missed a combined 578 games to injury that season, equating to more than seven full NBA seasons worth of missed games. To avoid forfeiting due to a lack of available players, GM Zach Kleiman had to sign 33 players that season resulting in 51 unique starting lineups. No team in NBA history has ever signed that many players, used that many different starting lineups or missed that many games to injuries. That number excludes the 25 games Morant was suspended for to start the season; however, the guard suffered a season-ending labrum tear after just nine games. The team finished the season as a 13-seed with a 27-55 record.

Although 2024-25 featured far fewer injuries, the team still had a lot of internal issues. Head coach Taylor Jenkins and Kleiman were struggling to agree on directions for the team and unbeknownst to the public, one of them would likely be leaving the team before the season was over. Kleiman saved himself with one of the most impressive draft classes in recent memory, drafting two All-Rookie team selections in the forms of Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells. As for Jenkins, his inability to strategize and win close games caused his departure with nine games left in the season, capped off with three consecutive losses to game-winning shots while Memphis was fighting for a playoff spot. Following the decision, Kleiman stated that the decision was wholly his own and the players were not consulted on the decision. Then-assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo was promoted to interim head coach before sealing the permanent job in the offseason.

Looking back at the ESPN article with the context of what the Grizzlies and Morant have gone through, a lot of the critiques seem contradictory, misleading or difficult to justify. For instance, one GM commented, “Has Ja already lost his pop? … When [was] the last time he put his chin above the rim?” To be clear, Morant recorded the second highest in-game vertical leap among the 13,600 dunks since the NBA began tracking the stat two seasons ago at 43.6 inches. Since then, Morant hasn’t suffered any serious leg injuries that would interfere with his leaping ability. 

The article also touches on his lack of attempts at the rim this season, with another GM adding "Either you're declining at a rapidly fast rate, or you've quit on this [coach]." Regardless of the dangers of generalizing a 12-game sample into a character concern, there are more factors that have led to Morant’s change in shot patterns. For one, Coach Iisalo has brought in a whole new offense for the Grizzlies that has led to the entire team taking fewer shots at the rim. The Grizzlies take 24.3 attempts within five feet of the rim per game this season as compared to their 28.4 attempts a night from last season. Additionally, Morant’s ability to get to the rim is helped significantly by having a center to set screens for him. For the vast majority of Morant’s games, Memphis was forced to use third-string center Jock Landale to clear the lane rather than the 7 feet, 3 inches, 305-pound Zach Edey.

Most dangerously of all, the article concludes with comments from another GM, stating “[The Grizzlies are] going to have to move [Ja Morant]. They don't have a choice.” Including a quote in the article such as this one indicates to a reader that a trade is imminent, despite other reports indicating the opposite; that, in fact, Zach Kleiman has never responded to trade inquiries involving Morant before or since the 2025-26 season began. This information, despite its importance to the future of Morant’s career, is never mentioned alongside the interviews with GMs. 

Ja Morant isn’t a saint. His actions on and off the court have to be questioned and reasoned through with the same care as any other player’s. Still, when so many problems are pinned on an individual or their character, failing to include context breeds misunderstandings about the player that have real consequences. 

If you look past Morant, Memphis is in the midst of building a very enjoyable team to watch and root for. Zach Kleiman has made a point of the kind of player he wants on the Grizzlies: “dogs.” The types of players who were cast aside, but worked too hard and showed too much to be underrated any longer. Kleiman has made a career out of finding diamonds in the rough, so much so that 11 of the 18 players currently on the Grizzlies were selected after the 20th pick in their draft. Three of the most impactful players for Memphis this season have been second-round selections: Jaylen Wells at pick 39, Vince Williams Jr. at pick 47 and Cam Spencer at pick 53. Directing all of the discourse about the team to be critiques of Ja Morant has distracted from how great these late selections have been for the Grizzlies.

More youth is on the way as well. After a trade with the Orlando Magic, Zach Kleiman got five additional first round picks, choosing to deal two of them to the Portland Trailblazers for the opportunity to draft Cedric Coward. Both trades look great for Memphis; Coward is in the race for Rookie of the Year and very few teams have a history of drafting with the kind of accuracy Kleiman has. 

If there is anything to be applied from this article, it’s that the Grizzlies have a very underappreciated cast of characters that have often been overshadowed. Cam Spencer has been great for the team after spending his 2024-25 season pulverizing the G-League. In one game against the Birmingham Squadron, Spencer caught fire with 51 points on 12 three-pointers. His scoring outburst was so great that the Squadron’s X account posted — then promptly deleted — “Cam Spencer can shoot the basketball quite well.” Zach Edey has also proved himself greatly this season; despite being a two-time National Player of the Year in college, many analysts thought the Canadian big man would be too slow to keep up with other players in the NBA. After missing the beginning of the season due to ankle surgery, Edey has been dominant, exemplified by a 32-point, 17-rebound, five-block clinic against the Sacramento Kings in his third game of the season.

In essence, criticizing Morant — or any player, for that matter — is justifiable. However, the volume of criticism far exceeds what is reasonable given his actions, the time he has already served and circumstances he has been in. Beyond the volume, the criticism itself is no longer in good faith. Even when far more reasonable explanations are available, the blame is often still pinned on Morant. Morant and the Grizzlies have stayed incredibly loyal to one another. Just as Zach Kleiman was fully capable of trading Morant after early playoff exits or incidents of misconduct, Morant was fully capable of requesting a trade after head coach firings and record-breaking injury numbers. Morant has the team logo tattooed on his back. If one party wanted to get away from the other, it probably would have happened already. The narratives the NBA community creates have heroes and villains, but Morant and the Grizzlies don’t have to be the villains.

Just as Morant isn’t a saint, he also isn’t innocent. Being criticized to this kind of extent and effect is wrong, but it’s not unfounded. Although Morant is currently sidelined with a calf strain, the guard should be back soon with, ideally, more passion to play than he’s ever had. With that passion, hopefully there will be performances that could never be omitted from his story, but only time will tell if that is going to happen.