The Memphis Grizzlies have agreed to trade two-time All-Star point guard Ja Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant, Kris Murray and $1 million in cash, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. The deal, finalized Sunday night, caps Memphis’s full dismantling of the core that carried the franchise to back-to-back playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023.
Deal Terms
- Trail Blazers receive: Ja Morant (2 years, ~$87M remaining)
- Grizzlies receive: Jerami Grant, Kris Murray, $1M cash
A rebuild finalized, one trade at a time
Morant is the last piece to go. Memphis had already moved Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. after being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 first round. Last week, the Grizzlies selected Cameron Boozer third overall in the draft. The direction is clear: start over, with youth as the foundation.
Grant, 32, fills a specific gap. He gives Memphis a veteran with playoff experience – someone capable of holding the locker room together while Boozer and the next wave find their footing. Murray, 25, becomes a restricted free agent next summer, a low-cost flier on a wing who showed flashes in Portland. Neither is a franchise piece. But both fit a team prioritizing culture over wins for the next two seasons.
What Morant changes in Portland
The Blazers went 1-4 against the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2026 playoffs. They have Deni Avdija – a genuine All-Star who averaged 24.2 points per game this season – and a backcourt that is already complicated. Damian Lillard signed a three-year deal in July 2025, then spent the entire 2025-26 campaign recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Jrue Holiday, 36, is still under contract. Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe are waiting for their moments. Donovan Clingan anchors the middle.
Morant, 26, cuts through all of it. He has two years and roughly $87 million left on his maximum extension and can sign a three-year, $178 million deal this summer. When he is locked in – and the 2022-23 season, the 26.2 points and 8.1 assists per game, the sequence of impossible finishes, remains the measuring stick – Portland’s ceiling jumps several tiers.
The risk is the one Memphis just got tired of carrying. Three suspensions. Only 79 games played over three seasons since his last All-Star appearance. Portland is betting those chapters are behind him. That bet cost the Grizzlies their two most useful building blocks – one established, one promising – and a check. It’s a lot. The Blazers clearly believe it’s worth it.
