The young Memphis Grizzlies looked like an emerging powerhouse when they finished second in the Western Conference in 2022 and 2023. Three seasons later, the core of that team has all been traded away.
Ja Morant became the last star from those promising teams to leave Memphis when the Portland Trail Blazers traded Jerami Grant and Kris Murray for the All-Star guard. It’s more subtraction than addition for the Grizzlies, who are giving themselves a bittersweet reset.
Memphis Grizzlies’ teardown started one year ago
It’s not clear when Grizzlies management decided to move on from the team that won 107 regular-season games from 2021-23. It might have been when Morant got a 25-game suspension for brandishing guns on social media, or when he suffered a season-ending injury nine games after his return. But it likely happened midway through the 2024-25 season, when the team traded Marcus Smart and fired head coach Taylor Jenkins.
Last summer, the Grizzlies traded Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic. They gave Jaren Jackson, Jr. a massive contract extension, only to trade him to the Utah Jazz at midseason. The Grizzlies may have moved on from Morant earlier, but his off-court struggles, from firearms to a lawsuit for punching a teen, depressed interest in the two-time All-Star.
Morant clearly needs a fresh start away from Memphis, while his old team is clearly not trying to contend next season. Grant is likely trade bait. It’s a disappointing ending to Morant’s Grizzlies career, which saw him make two All-Star teams, win Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player, though the Grizzlies won only a single playoff series.
Grizzlies have an uncertain young core
The Grizzlies are now built around No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer and last year’s lottery pick Cedric Coward, along with 24-year-old center Zach Edey, 2023 lottery pick Taylor Hendricks and 2025 first-rounder Walter Clayton, Jr. They’ve also got promising young players in Scotty Pippen, Jr., former All-Rookie first-teamer Jaylen Wells and forward Santi Aldama, who is still only 25.
Boozer might turn out to be the best player in this year’s draft. He’ll have a great chance at reinforcements when Memphis has three first-round picks in 2027, extra first-rounders in 2030 and 2031 and a pick swap with the Magic in 2029.
Still, the appeal of having all those picks is that the Grizzlies could get a player as good as Jackson or Morant. Once they decided to break up the promising 2021-23 core, it made sense to trade all three. But it’s hard to imagine that the 2022 team, with Morant and Jackson only 22 years old, could fall apart so quickly and completely.
It’s a smart teardown for the Grizzlies and one they executed as well as could be expected. It’s simply a downer of an ending for an era of Memphis basketball that looked so, so promising.
