{"id":546865,"date":"2026-01-19T14:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546865\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:51:25","slug":"ja-morant-insists-he-wants-to-stay-with-grizzlies-as-trade-rumors-swirl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546865\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant insists he wants to stay with Grizzlies as trade rumors swirl"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ja Morant was leaving London, he told the media he didn\u2019t want to leave Memphis.<\/p>\n

The high-flying floor general dropped 20 points and 10 assists with no turnovers in the first half of the Memphis Grizzlies\u2019 126-109 win over the Orlando Magic during Sunday\u2019s NBA London Games.<\/p>\n

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Morant \u2014 who finished with 24 points, 13 assists and 3-of-4 made 3-pointers \u2014 insisted that he does not want to be traded amid rumors that his departure from the Grizzlies could be pending<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ja<\/p>\n

Ja Morant (12) returned in a big way, putting up 24 points and 13 assists in a 126-109 win over the Orlando Magic. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in here who knows me, knows I\u2019m a very loyal guy,\u201d said Morant, per Drew Hill of The Daily Memphian. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI got a logo on my back, and that should tell you where I want to be,\u201d Morant added, referring to his back tattoo of the Grizzlies\u2019 logo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morant, who made his return to the lineup after a six-game absence, discussed being back on the court following the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being able to play basketball is very therapeutic for me,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cI know what I\u2019m capable of and I was able to show that tonight and see the love from people I\u2019m meeting for the first time. It was big time. Just walking off and representing Memphis is what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ja<\/p>\n

Ja Morant missed six consecutive games before his return. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Morant has been the subject of trade rumors <\/a>in recent weeks, with potential ties to the Bucks, Heat, Pelicans and Toronto Raptors, among others.<\/p>\n

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In the event Morant is traded, a deal is not expected to yield a ton for the controversial star, who has missed 178 games out of a possible 391 since the start of the 2021-22 season \u2014 including playoffs.<\/p>\n

Before Sunday\u2019s outburst, Morant had been averaging 19 points and 7.6 assists per game, with career lows in field goal percentage (40.1 percent) and three-point percentage (20.8 percent).<\/p>\n

But if his latest effort is any indication, Morant seemingly hopes to string together more of these outings in the same place he\u2019s called home throughout his pro career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ja Morant was leaving London, he told the media he didn\u2019t want to leave Memphis. The high-flying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,294,178,293,177,4070,6,76,675,181,476],"class_list":{"0":"post-546865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-grizzlies","10":"tag-ja-morant","11":"tag-memphis","12":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","13":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-orlando-magic","16":"tag-pelicans","17":"tag-the-grizzlies","18":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115922330555496791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}