{"id":585266,"date":"2026-02-06T01:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585266\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T01:36:45","slug":"reason-why-miami-heat-passed-on-ja-morant-revealed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585266\/","title":{"rendered":"Reason why Miami Heat passed on Ja Morant revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reason why Miami Heat passed on Ja Morant revealed<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Miami Heat<\/a> were one of the top teams mentioned for Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> guard Ja Morant, who the Grizzlies were looking to trade at the deadline.<\/p>\n

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But the Heat opted to not trade for Morant and were the only Eastern Conference team to not make a move at the deadline.<\/p>\n

Miami Herald reporter Barry Jackson detailed<\/a> the Heat’s pursuit of Morant on Thursday. He said the Heat had some interest in Morant but weren’t compelled enough to acquire him.<\/p>\n

More:Nets’ Cam Thomas decision reflects trend around the NBA<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Heat had enough interest in Memphis guard Ja Morant to make an initial call to the Grizzlies weeks ago,” Jackson said. “But they didn\u2019t have enough interest to try to trade for him.”<\/p>\n

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Jackson believes Miami had concerns about Morant’s expensive contract, injury history and off-court issues.<\/p>\n

“The Heat discussed Morant internally but decided not to pursue a trade because of myriad factors, including his contract and history of injuries,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Morant hasn’t played more than 67 games in a season in his career. He’s played just 79 games over the past three seasons and is sidelined for the next few weeks with an elbow injury.<\/p>\n

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He’s been suspended three different times in his career, including a one-game absence earlier this season for calling out the Grizzlies’ coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Morant would’ve been the type of big swing that the Heat have fancied in the past. Miami had strong interest in Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he remained with the Bucks past the deadline.<\/p>\n

The Heat will push for the playoffs without making any major roster changes. Miami (27-25) is seventh in the East, a half-game ahead of the Orlando Magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reason why Miami Heat passed on Ja Morant revealed originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[27394,7,959,123,144,178,177,295,189,13526,3881,121,6,76,181,1176],"class_list":["post-585266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-barry-jackson","tag-basketball","tag-cam-thomas","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-heat","tag-ja-morant","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-herald","tag-miamiheat","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic","tag-the-grizzlies","tag-the-heat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116021136878109157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585266","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=585266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}