{"id":553850,"date":"2026-01-22T20:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553850\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:05:11","slug":"southwest-notes-morant-jerome-finley-flagg-sheppard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/553850\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Notes: Morant, Jerome, Finley, Flagg, Sheppard"},"content":{"rendered":"

After telling reporters<\/a> over the weekend in London that he\u2019s loyal to the Grizzlies, Ja Morant<\/a> shut down questions about the trade rumors involving him when he returned to Memphis this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry y\u2019all wasn\u2019t able to come to London, but I\u2019m done with those questions,\u201d Morant responded when asked what the team told him about the possibility of a trade (Twitter link<\/a> via Matt Infield of Action News 5).<\/p>\n

Of course, just because Morant is done talking about them, that doesn\u2019t mean those rumors will die down. Sources tell Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints<\/a> that Memphis\u2019 front office continues to engage with potential trade partners about a potential deal involving the star point guard.<\/p>\n

Still, given the fact that Morant\u2019s value is relatively low right now, the Grizzlies have pushed back against the idea that they need to move him, Siegel notes. Teams like the Heat and Kings hold some level of interest in the two-time All-Star, Siegel confirms, but only if he\u2019s available at a bargain rate and they don\u2019t have to give up assets of any real value in a deal.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from around the Southwest:<\/p>\n

Grizzlies guard Ty Jerome<\/a>, who has yet to play this season due to a right calf injury, \u201cshould be close\u201d to making his debut, tweets<\/a> Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. The team announced exactly two months ago<\/a> that Jerome was six-to-nine weeks away from returning to action. This Saturday will mark the nine-week mark since that announcement.
\nMavericks co-interim general manager Michael Finley recognizes that the trade deadline can make players \u201cuneasy,\u201d but believes he\u2019s in a good position to connect with his players and make them more comfortable because he knows what it\u2019s like to be in their shoes. \u201cLike I tell players, I\u2019ve been overlooked in the draft. I\u2019ve been traded. I\u2019ve been amnestied. I\u2019ve been waived. I\u2019ve been the first man on the bench. I\u2019ve been the 15th man on the bench,\u201d Finley told Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News<\/a> (subscription required). \u201cEverything that you\u2019ve experienced, I\u2019ve experienced, so I pretty much know what you\u2019re going through.\u201d
\nEven though it has been a disappointing season overall for the Mavericks, No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg<\/a> has been a bright spot, according to ESPN\u2019s Tim MacMahon<\/a>, who solicited feedback on the rookie forward from rival scouts, coaches, and executives. \u201cHe\u2019s better than advertised, if that\u2019s possible,\u201d one Western Conference scouting director said of Flagg.
\nAfter barely playing for the Rockets as a rookie, Reed Sheppard<\/a> has emerged as an invaluable part of the team\u2019s rotation in his second NBA season, writes Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle<\/a> (subscription required). Sheppard leads Houston with 2.5 made three-pointers per game and is knocking them down at a 40.9% clip, providing crucial floor spacing for a team that ranks 29th in the NBA in total threes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After telling reporters over the weekend in London that he\u2019s loyal to the Grizzlies, Ja Morant shut down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,225,294,178,293,177,4070,13147,6,1081,1201],"class_list":["post-553850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-grizzlies","tag-ja-morant","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-michael-finley","tag-nba","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-ty-jerome"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115940552244557713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553850","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=553850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553850\/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=553850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}