Four years ago, a 22-year-old Ja Morant averaged 21.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 8.7 assists in the second playoff series of his career, where Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in six first-round games in 2022.
The Grizzlies were a young, scrappy team with an exciting nucleus built around Morant, who looked like a rising top-end star in the NBA. Anthony Edwards, one year younger than Morant, was in the same tier. He averaged 25 points in that playoff series, the first of his career. Coming out of that six-game battle, Edwards and Morant were bound to be an exciting head-to-head matchup filling national television airwaves for many years.
But that rivalry never materialized. Four years removed from Morant looking like a franchise cornerstone, the Grizzlies — in the midst of a rebuild — have been searching for trade partners to offload him since the trade deadline.
The Timberwolves — with a glaring need for another point guard — are a potential destination. With the Wolves, maybe Morant can still rediscover the dynamic point guard he was in 2022. But bringing him to Minneapolis is a curious case of an imperfect fit, financial stipulations, and the ever-concerning unknown.
But maybe — just maybe — trading for Morant is Minnesota’s smartest move.
After Memphis sent the Wolves home in 2022, the Grizzlies lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors. Morant only played in the first three games due to a right knee injury. Still, he put up 34 points in Game 1, 47 in Game 2, and 34 in Game 3. Morant blossomed as an electric downhill threat with great passing ability and a sneaky knack for grabbing rebounds, who rose in the postseason.
Memphis extended Morant that summer to a five-year, $197.2 million designated rookie maximum deal, and the South Carolina native seemed in line to become a top-end, captivating, high-flying point guard in this league.
However, over the last three years, Morant has played only 82 games due to various injuries and three league suspensions for misconduct. The Grizzlies have a 100-146 record since 2023, have only made the playoffs once as the 8-seed, and have traded former long-term fixtures Jarren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, and Dillon Brooks.
Morant, now 26, is the next in line to be moved.
The Timberwolves know they need to add another primary ball handler next to Edwards this season. Minnesota would benefit from Morant’s on-ball creation and comfort level working out of pick-and-rolls. Especially late in games, Morant would help relieve the pressure on Edwards and produce catch-and-shoot three-point attempts for Edwards, which would be crucial in an ecosystem that pairs Edwards with another ball-dominant guard.
Morant is a natural point guard. He’s a floor general and can break down a defense with his speed. There are not many of those players on the market this summer, and the Wolves do need all of those tools this year, especially because Donte DiVincenzo will miss most of the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
However, the Wolves also need as much floor spacing as possible next to Edwards. While Morant — much like Julius Randle — can create three-point attempts for others, he’s not a reliable three-point shooter himself. Morant is a career 31.1% three-point shooter. Over the last three years, he has shot 29% from deep on 5.3 attempts per game.
The Wolves would likely part ways with Randle if they were to acquire Morant. And certainly, replacing Randle, who shot 31.5% from deep this season, with another non-shooter is concerning. Doing so may impose the same limitations on Minnesota’s starting lineup and Edwards as this season.
Or maybe Morant — despite his lack of shooting — will fit better with the Wolves because he’s more of a natural point guard than Randle and can act as such in the biggest games against the toughest defense, which Randle could not.
Regardless, that’s a burden of asterisks and concerns to pair with a player who is making $42 million next season and has played in 82 games combined over the last three years with a team that wants to win right now.
But because of all of that, Morant is probably the most affordable star-level talent the Wolves could obtain this summer. Perhaps that is enough incentive for Tim Connelly to pull the trigger (no pun intended) and bring in Morant, flaws and all, to be Minnesota’s next starting point guard.
Big names, such as Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard, have been brought up in Wolves trade rumors on social media. The team has reportedly expressed interest in Antetokounmpo as they search for ways to compete for a championship now. At the same time, the Wolves appear to want to hold onto as much youth as possible. The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported June 12 that Jaden McDaniels and Joan Beringer are on Minnesota’s untouchables list.
Amick also reported that, in exchange for Giannis, the Milwaukee Bucks want a package from the Wolves that includes McDaniels and Naz Reid. We don’t know what the Dallas Mavericks’ or the LA Clippers’ asking price is for Irving or Leonard, or even whether either of them is available to be traded. But if they do get moved, that would probably indicate that the Mavs and Clippers are shifting hard toward a rebuild.
In that case, the Mavericks and Clippers would probably want young yet proven talent who could be a major part of a rebuild. Someone like McDaniels or Reid. High-value picks would also have to be involved.
But at this point, after the Grizzlies failed to find a suitor for Morant four months ago, the market for the two-time All-Star is probably much lower than what the Mavs or Clippers would want for Irving and Leonard.
I think a package for Morant could look similar to what the Atlanta Hawks received from the Washington Wizards for Trae Young at the deadline. Washington sent CJ McCollum, Corey Kispert, and no draft picks to the Hawks for Young, who is a four-time All-Star and led Atlanta to a Conference Finals appearance in 2021.
McCollum, 34, was still a productive scorer when Washington traded him, but not a long-term building block in Atlanta. Kispert is younger (27) and a solid three-point shooter, but he will probably always be a role player. Atlanta got so little for Young, despite his success, because of his lucrative contract ($48.7 million this season, $6.5 million more than Morant), small frame (6-foot-2, the same height as Morant), and defensive shortcomings.
According to Spotrac, a straight-up Randle-for-Morant swap would work financially, though it would mean Memphis taking on $8.8 million more in salary. Therefore, the Grizzlies would probably want something more in that trade, perhaps from a third team. But I don’t think that player — even if they came from Minnesota — would be anything close to the talent of McDaniels, Reid, or even Beringer.
Morant is not a perfect fit for the Wolves. But because he is more of a natural point guard than Randle, Morant probably fits better than Randle did on the Wolves. Thus, swapping Randle for Morant — while it isn’t the picture-perfect blockbuster trade — could actually improve the Wolves.
Maybe not significantly by itself, but enough to fix some of their flaws and add a high-end scoring talent while keeping their long-term core intact and perhaps making moves elsewhere (like trading Rudy Gobert, for example) without desperately committing to a win-now older core.
If Connelly feels the same, maybe that will be enough for him to take on Morant — his off-court baggage, his one-way talent, his inability to shoot, all of it — this summer. Even if Morant won’t reclaim the player the Wolves saw in the playoffs in 2022, and even if he is a flawed fit with the team, Morant may actually be the most sensible big-name player for Minnesota to acquire.
