{"id":766620,"date":"2026-06-21T08:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/766620\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T08:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:33:16","slug":"pelicans-may-be-emerging-as-leading-candidate-for-ja-morant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/766620\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans may be emerging as leading candidate for Ja Morant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pelicans could be one of the teams to watch if the Grizzlies ultimately decide to move <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=hoopswire.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-06-21_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ja Morant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ezz7bXuURk&amp;t=434s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FanDuel TV\u2019s \u201cRun It Back,\u201d<\/a> Sam Amick of The Athletic suggested New Orleans may currently be the most likely landing spot among the teams linked to the former All-Star guard.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about Morant\u2019s trade market, Amick pointed to the Pelicans and Kings as teams showing interest before indicating he would \u201cprobably push it\u201d toward New Orleans as the frontrunner.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-127590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782030796_965_morant1210.jpg\" alt=\"Ja Morant, Grizzlies, NBA, Rockets\" width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  \/>Getty<\/p>\n<p>Amick also acknowledged that Minnesota has surfaced as a team to watch for Morant.<\/p>\n<p>Morant, 26, has battled injuries and off-court issues and appeared in just 20 games this past season. He also reportedly experienced tension with members of Memphis\u2019 coaching staff before his season ended in January.<\/p>\n<p>Still, when healthy, Morant has proven capable of changing the trajectory of a franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The Pelicans, meanwhile, appear to be evaluating a number of roster changes following a disappointing season that included coaching turnover and another year outside serious playoff contention.<\/p>\n<p>Should New Orleans pursue Morant, point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrade01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=hoopswire.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-06-21_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dejounte Murray<\/a> would likely emerge as a key piece in any potential trade package.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings have also been connected to Morant, while the Timberwolves, Heat and Bucks have surfaced in various reports.<\/p>\n<p>But as the offseason begins to take shape, New Orleans continues to be mentioned as one of the teams worth watching.<\/p>\n<p>Looking for the latest NBA Insider News &amp; Rumors?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Be sure to follow <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/hoopswire.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hoops Wire<\/a> on <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wirehoops\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TWITTER<\/a>\u00a0and <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hoopswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NBA News and Rumors for all 30 teams!<\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pelicans could be one of the teams to watch if the Grizzlies ultimately decide to move Ja&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,2878,178,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-766620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-ja-morant","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116787177499581319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766620","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=766620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}