Ja Morant trade grades: Blazers make the weirdest star addition possible

The Portland Trail Blazers have acquired two-time All-Star Ja Morant from the Memphis Grizzlies, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. In exchange, the Grizzlies will receive forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

The Blazers' desire to add a star under new owner Tom Dundon has been well-reported, but instead of Jaylen Brown or Anthony Davis, Portland takes a basically risk-free swing on Morant and the two remaining years of his contract. The only issue: Portland has a lot of guards already.

Blazers trade grades: C

This is a totally understandable trade from a pure value standpoint. Morant has struggled to stay on the court in recent years and he comes with a ton of extra baggage related to actions off the court, but he's a legitimate All-Star talent who can still help a team when he's healthy.

In return, Portland is giving up Grant, whose contract was already dead weight. He's slated to make about $34.2 million next season — only $8 million less than Morant, with both locked up through the 2027-28 season. Same deal timeline, and Morant is more than $8 million better than Grant, even with all the extra noise.

Murray was Portland's first-round pick in 2023, which means he is an expiring contract now. The younger brother of Kings forward Keegan Murray, Kris has made very little impact for the Blazers. He was not going to play meaningful basketball in Portland next season.

So the Blazers are — objectively — a better team. Morant is still good. But he's also a huge distraction and not really a fit on the court. Damian Lillard will be returning from his Achilles injury next season. Portland also has former No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson coming off of an excellent (if brief) postseason run, as well as Jrue Holiday and Shaedon Sharpe both making north of $20 million annually.

Is Morant starting over Dame? Next to Dame? What's the plan for Scoot? These are all valid questions in need of answering. Portland didn't really lose any flexibility, as Grant's contract was about as unmovable as Morant's prior to this deal, but it's hard to feel like this is anything more than a swing and a miss.

Grizzlies trade grades: C

Again ... sure!

The Grizzlies are swapping Morant's bad contract for Grant's bad contract. This is a culture reset, more symbolic than actually helpful on the court. Memphis is loaded at the forward positions after drafting Cameron Boozer and Karim López in the first round, and it's hard to imagine Grant bumping Cedric Coward out of the starting rotation. So he just became a very expensive backup, but the Grizzlies weren't coming out of this without a significant chunk of bad salary unless the front office attached multiple first-round picks to dump Morant into Chicago or Brooklyn's cap space. This is probably the right course of action.

Grant has fallen off considerably on the defensive end in recent years and he's mostly an empty calories guy on offense. He can score, to be sure, and there are some useful skills packaged in a very trendy 6-foot-9 frame, but his limitations as a passer and overall decision-maker are a killer. The Grizzlies might just sit on his deal for a year and try to use him as an expiring trade chip next summer. Not ideal, but again, the hole was dug with the Morant contract.

Murray's path to serious minutes is even murkier in Memphis than it was in Portland. Now in the final year of his rookie contract, he's probably just stopping by the Grizzlies organization for a season-long cup of coffee. The Grizzlies develop well and could hope Murray finds another gear, but acting like he's some sort of under-the-radar steal is disingenuous.

This is a weird trade. The Grizzlies are at least the team getting rid of the Morant headache, rather than taking it on. But there is more upside to this deal for Portland, along with the additional risk. The Grizzlies are just moving salary blocks around.

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