{"id":547001,"date":"2026-01-19T16:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/547001\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:18:24","slug":"latest-on-ja-morant-hoops-rumors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/547001\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Ja Morant | Hoops Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a six-game absence due to a right calf injury,\u00a0Ja Morant<\/a> returned to action<\/a> on Sunday and delivered one of his best performances of the season in the Grizzlies\u2018 126-109 victory over the Magic in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"According to Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/a>, Morant became the first player in franchise history to record 20 points and 10 assists in the first half of a game. He ultimately finished with 24 points and 13 assists in just 28 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

Given the public trade rumors<\/a> swirling around Morant, the performance left some wondering how the game could impact his perceived trade value around the league, but the guard made a point after the game to emphasize his desire to stay in Memphis, Marc Stein writes for The Stein Line<\/a> (Substack link).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very loyal guy,\u201d Morant said. \u201cI got a (Grizzlies) logo on my back, so that should tell you exactly where I want to be,\u201d he added, referencing a tattoo of the Grizzlies bear on his back.<\/p>\n

As Stein writes, Memphis has been willing to listen to offers on Morant due to the fact that impressive outings like Sunday\u2019s have been rarer in recent years. Morant hasn\u2019t played seven consecutive games since the 2022\/23 season, and the injuries have seemingly taken a toll on his game. He is getting to the rim at the lowest rate of his career, while simultaneously having his worst shooting season as a pro.<\/p>\n

However, Stein also notes that the team seems to have had a real bonding experience during this in-season trip abroad, saying that Morant was \u201cat the heart of all the good vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a final update on Morant, Stein reports that the Heat, whose interest in the two-time All-Star had been previously reported<\/a> as \u201ctepid,\u201d aren\u2019t interested in making a trade that would eat into the assets they could offer in a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> deal. Miami believes itself to be a real threat to land the Bucks star if he asks for a trade and doesn\u2019t want to compromise its position on that front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a six-game absence due to a right calf injury,\u00a0Ja Morant returned to action on Sunday and delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,123,294,178,293,177,4070,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-547001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","10":"tag-grizzlies","11":"tag-ja-morant","12":"tag-memphis","13":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","14":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115922673430905757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547001","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=547001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}