{"id":826346,"date":"2026-09-02T14:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826346\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:12:01","slug":"ja-morant-gets-traded-to-blazers-by-grizzlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/826346\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant gets traded to Blazers by Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ja Morant<\/a> is headed to Portland, after the Trail Blazers and Memphis completed a trade Monday night that sees the Grizzlies starting anew and gives the two-time All-Star a chance to revive his career.<\/p>\n

Portland sent forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to the Grizzlies<\/a> as part of the deal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big swing by the Trail Blazers and could suggest Portland \u2014 with new owner Tom Dundon, whose Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup \u2014 might not be done making moves. Morant adds to a logjam at point guard right now for Portland, with Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard and Scoot Henderson also on the current roster.<\/p>\n

Morant has averaged 22.4 points for his career but has played only 79 games over the last three seasons because of injuries and suspensions \u2014 including a 25-game banishment<\/a> after he was seen on a livestream holding a gun while he was in the passenger seat of a vehicle. That came not long after an eight-game suspension for flashing a gun<\/a> in a Denver-area nightclub, also captured on social media.<\/p>\n

The suspensions, combined, cost Morant \u2014 who was Rookie of the Year<\/a> after being the No. 2 selection in the 2019 draft, as well as the league\u2019s Most Improved Player<\/a> in 2021-22 when he appeared to be on a path toward superstardom \u2014 about $9 million in lost salary. He said in April 2025 that he\u2019s made his peace with being a lightning rod for constant criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of used to it,\u201d Morant said at that time. \u201cI was pretty much a villain for two years now. Every little thing, if somebody can say something negative about me, it\u2019s going to be out there. So, yeah. I don\u2019t care no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant averaged 18.6 points last season for Portland and will be joining his sixth team by going to Memphis. Murray averaged 5.8 points this past season for the Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

Morant\u2019s MIP-award year in 2021-22 saw Memphis win 56 games, tying a franchise record. That team was built around a young core four of Morant, Dillon Brooks, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane.<\/p>\n

And now, they\u2019re all gone. Brooks played only one more season with the Grizzlies after that and has changed teams twice since, Bane went to Orlando last summer<\/a> and Jackson was traded to Utah<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ja Morant is headed to Portland, after the Trail Blazers and Memphis completed a trade Monday night that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,125,497,1195,294,6684,5673,2038,7212,293,177,4070,6,446,6912,2470,687,17593,471,4425,66,575,689,483,39242],"class_list":["post-826346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-damian-lillard","tag-desmond-bane","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-grizzlies","tag-jaren-jackson","tag-jerami-grant","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-kris-murray","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-or-state-wire","tag-oregon","tag-portland","tag-portland-pilots","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-scoot-henderson","tag-sports","tag-temetrius-morant","tag-tennessee","tag-tn-state-wire","tag-tom-dundon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117201858933328347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826346","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=826346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}