{"id":652969,"date":"2026-03-11T16:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/652969\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:47:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:47:57","slug":"espn-gives-memphis-a-ja-morant-replacement-in-new-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/652969\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN gives Memphis a Ja Morant replacement in new mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies have been in full-on tank mode<\/a> in recent weeks as the 2025-26 NBA season reaches its home stretch. Those efforts continued on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>, with the team leading for most of the game on the road before shamelessly pulling their starters early in the fourth quarter and losing the game.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies shook things up at last month’s NBA trade deadline by trading Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Utah Jazz, with many speculating that a Ja Morant<\/a> trade might be soon to follow. While Memphis wasn’t able to get anything done on that front, many still believe that the Grizzlies have shifted their focus to the post-Morant era, which continued with the latest mock draft from ESPN’s Jeremy Woo, who projected them to select<\/a> point guard Mikel Brown Jr. out of Louisville.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he’s shooting just 41% from the field this season, scouts feel comfortable with his history and that his dynamic perimeter shot-creation (34% from 3) remains a strong attribute,\u201d noted Woo on ESPN.com. \u201c\u2026Brown still projects somewhere inside the top 10, with evaluators remaining bullish on his upside as a tall (6-5) backcourt playmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woo also opined that \u201cThe Grizzlies should be in best-available mode, with\u00a0Ja Morant’s<\/a> long-term future uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies are expected by some to embrace a full-on rebuild this offseason, which has already begun with the trades of Jackson Jr. this year and Desmond Bane last offseason. A lot of Memphis’ future prospects could come down to how lucky they are when the NBA draft<\/a> lottery is decided by ping pong balls in two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Memphis Grizzlies have been in full-on tank mode in recent weeks as the 2025-26 NBA season reaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,178,177,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-652969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ja-morant","10":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116211567037891168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652969","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=652969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}