BREAKING: Grizzlies Lose Ja Morant PLUS Kawhi Leonard Looks ROUGH

BREAKING: Grizzlies Lose Ja Morant PLUS Kawhi Leonard Looks ROUGH

We’ve got breaking news. The Grizzlies lose John Morant. The start of the season potentially in jeopardy. When it rains, it pours in Memphis. Plus, Kawhi Leonard is looking rough. The aspiration scandal may be getting to him. I’m Trevor Le. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Make sure you subscribe right here to the channel. Turn on those notifications as well. Said it before 70% of you, you’re not subscribed. Fix it. Hit that subscribe button. Let’s go. Buckle up for what should be a big NBA season. Uh to Michael Cole out of Memphis reporting per Grizzlies team spokesperson John Morant suffered a sprained left ankle in practice yesterday and is considered week to week. Now a sprained left ankle week to week by itself is that a huge deal? No. But if you’ve seen what’s going on in Memphis, oh my goodness. Jiren Jackson Jr. already dealing with an offseason foot injury. Zack Edy with an ankle procedure. He’s going to be out for the start of the season. Brandon Clark with a knee issue as well. The Memphis Grizzlies are dropping like flies. You’ve got all four of those players with who are already considered to be out for opening night or at least now in question. We’re talking about a week to week on an equal. We’re at the point in the NBA calendar where week to week is going to put the regular season potentially in jeopardy. Now hopefully Jaw is back and in action. He is one of the most talented young players in the NBA. He is at one or was at one point considered I mean look at that the breathtaking athleticism. At one point the NBA was looking at him thinking this guy could be one of the the new faces of the league. But he’s right there with Zion Williamson with Ben Simmons as guys who just haven’t lived up to the billing. Haven’t reached that superstar level the way the NBA hoped that they would. And again, he can be one of the most thrilling and most exciting young players in the league, but availability is becoming a very real issue for him. Now, maybe it is it’s this breakneck style that he plays with. Maybe it is the breathtaking athleticism that he’s become known for. I mean, look at that. The guy is lightning quick, flies through the air with reckless abandon, throws down some of the most ridiculously powerful dunks for an undersized player. He he is this this new version of like a Steve Francis in today’s NBA the way he attacks the rim. And it’s unfortunate that he continues to deal with these injuries. We look at the last few years of Josh’s career. In fact, the last two years combined, John Moran has played in 59 games due to injuries and suspensions. He has never played in more than 67 games in an NBA season, and that was in his rookie year. Now, to qualify for any awards, you need to appear in 65 games. Again, he has surpassed that mark once in his six-year NBA career. Availability becoming a real issue for John Morant. For the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference, where it is unforgiving, starting off slow due to so many players being out and injured could be a big big problem. They wound up probably better than a playin team last year, but finished in the playin. changed out their coach with just a few games remaining in the NBA season. That was a major topic of conversation. They fired Taylor Jenkins with about nine games left, bringing in Thomas Elo, I always mispronounced his name, but Iselo, sorry, coach. Um, and so they bring him in. It’s a new era in Memphis, but you’re already starting off with what the last era was known for. It was a few years ago when they had more than 30 players played for their team over the course of the I mean there’s only 15 on an NBA roster and more than 30 players played for their team appeared in an NBA game for them because they had so many players getting injured. They have not been able to stay healthy. They have not been able to stay out of trouble and this Grizzlies side just has not been able to get to where they want to go. So that begs the question, what happens now with the Memphis Grizzlies if they get off to another slow start with so many players, so many key players out of action? What happens then? You look at John Morant. You look at the salary, he is extension eligible right now. I’m not extending John Morant right now. If I’m the Memphis Grizzlies, no way. He’s got two more years under contract. I’ve question if you’re the Memphis Grizzlies and right now the Atlanta Hawks. I’m not saying they would do this cuz I wouldn’t if I was Atlanta. But the Atlanta Hawks have Trey Young on an expiring contract. If you’re Memphis, you would swap John Morant for Trey Young on an expiring in an instant, wouldn’t you? Just because of availability. John Mor on top of that, I don’t even know if you can win with John Morant in today’s NBA. And it’s terrible to say that. Do you have a better shot at winning with a defensively deficient Trey Young than a John Morant who can’t stay healthy? and he’s a 32% I’m rounding up to get there career three-point shooter. You can sag off of him behind the line and he’s got an availability issue. It’s unfortunate that this is where we’re at that we can have these real conversations about John Moran and now we’ve got an ankle injury. Now we’ve got maybe he’s going to be out for the start of the the regular season here for Memphis. Not the way you want to start the year in an unforgiving Western Conference for the Grizzlies. Hopefully, fingers crossed, jaw heals up and is good to go for opening night, but this was not the kind of news you wanted to get out of Memphis. All right, Kawhi Leonard, uh-oh, looking a bit fatigued already. We’re going to take a look at that next. Sleeper is the number one fantasy sports app. It pays to know sports. Pick more or less on top players. Your first pick is on us, so start winning now. Play in Texas, Georgia, Minnesota, and 27 more states. Pick anytime across all sports, pregame or live. Over 10 million players are already on Sleeper. Make your picks count. Score up to 1,000 times your cash. Join today. Get up to $100 credit using Coke bulletin. Call your shot on Sleeper. Download now. All right, take a look at this. This is Kawhi Leonard via Law Murray. Latest media availability. All right, I’m not that worried about what he thinks about John. I think John Collins is going to be a nice addition to the to the Clippers. But a lot of people looking at this clip and going, “Huh, Kawhai looks different.” Kawhi looks different. Kawhai looks a little worn out, a little fatigued. Look at the comments. Look at the comments. He’s an aspiration to us all. Look at the comments. Dude’s face never changes, but something looks different this time. How are the Clippers able to get such a deep roster at below market value contracts? He looks tired and run down. He does. He does. Kawawaii had all these comments had the comments on media day about, oh, it’s not going to, you know, the the whole aspiration scandal, whatever. That’s not going to that’s not going to be a distraction. Everything’s going to be fine. That’s not going to be a distraction. How could it not be? How could it not be? Now, we don’t know. Look, is that why Kawaii looks tired right here? Looks worn out. We don’t know. Maybe he was up late scrolling Instagram last night. I don’t know. Maybe that’s all it was. Maybe he just had a little insomnia. Just couldn’t sleep. Maybe he’s a little under the weather. We don’t know the answer. We can’t jump to conclusions and say, “Oh, this is because of that.” But people taking notice. Hey, Kawhai looks a little run down and we haven’t even started the season yet. I don’t buy what he said about it not being a distraction. How could it not be a distraction when you’re under investigation by the NBA for doing something that Adam Silver has called a cardinal sin for circumventing the salary cap? Now, is that all on Kawawaii? No, of course not. There was other people involved if there was wrongdoing. And Kawhai says there was no wrongdoing. I think the general NBA public doesn’t believe him. But Kawhi said there’s no wrongdoing. So now you’ve got the Clippers going into this season where they are at least accused of having committed this cardinal sin, salary cap circumvention. I’ve said it before, the NBA needs to drop the hammer. Muolnir comes flying down from the heavens here. If they are found guilty of doing these things and there’s questions out there about whether or not Adam Silver will even look that hard, might he find some things and look the other way? I think generally the NBA likes Steve Bmer. I think generally the NBA thinks a guy with his personality, a guy with his passion, and most importantly, a guy with his pockets is good for the NBA. But what’s not good is having a way to funnel money to players outside of the confines of the NBA salary cap because that will be destructive of parody around the NBA if there becomes that pathway. And that’s why the NBA I’ve said it before, the NBA must if they find the Clippers guilty in this situation, they must bring the fury because what you cannot do is embolden other owners with deep pockets. You cannot show them the path to paying players under the table. You can’t do that. A slap on the wrist, other owners around the NBA would say, “Huh, that seems well worth it. I’ll take that slap on the wrist. No problem. That’s what you can’t have. That is what you cannot have.” So, if the NBA does find the Clippers guilty in this situation, again, they must rain fire down upon the Clippers organization. They must make sure that they set the example here. But Kauaii saying this is not going to be a distraction when this is this big of a deal when we’re talking about what happened with the Joe Smith situation. We’re talking about contracts being voided. We’re talking about fines. We’re talking about suspensions for owners. We’re talking about everything else that could be involved. And I still think that Kawhai’s contract being voided wouldn’t necessarily be a punishment for the Clippers given their cap situation right now. So the NBA would need to get more creative, would need to lock money onto the Clippers books. Maybe it’s the money that Kawhai was paid. Again, if they’re found guilty here, maybe it’s the money Kawhai was paid winds up getting locked onto the Clippers go books, gets added to their salary cap, something like that. They’ll have to get creative in some way. But is it plausible to think this isn’t going to affect the Clippers or Kawaii in some kind of way? As much as he may want to say, “Oh, this is old news. This is old news. This this happened a long time ago. This is old news.” No, you guys are just getting all fired up about it. This is old news. I I can’t imagine given the NBA looking into all of your financial details, especially given how careful you were about hiding things, right? KL2 Aspire. Nobody’s going to figure that out. Nobody’s going to make that connection, right? I can see where there’d be a little little bit more stress on um on Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers. Give me your thoughts. Kawhi Leonard look a little worn out. What does that mean? What could that mean for the Clippers this season under the weight of this investigation? And John Morant ankle issue already. The Grizzlies, how big a trouble are they in in the Western Conference if they start the year? No J, no Triple J, no Edy, no Brandon Clark. What happens to Memphis? Give me your thoughts in the comments section down below. Thank you again everybody for joining us here on the Basketball Bulletin. We’ll be back later today. I have some other things that I need to get into. Till then, see you and stay safe.

In this video Trevor Lane takes a look at the unfortunate news out of Memphis for the short-handed Grizzlies plus Kawhi Leonard looks like he has seen better days….

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