Ja Morant
Ja Morant is the explosive Memphis Grizzlies point guard whose Rookie of the Year rise, two All-Star peaks and gun-video suspensions defined an era.
Ja Morant is the point guard who turned the Memphis Grizzlies back into appointment television. Drafted second overall in 2019, he was the rare prospect whose highlight reel undersold him: a 6-foot-2 guard with vertical explosion that drew comparisons to the league’s most athletic finishers, paired with the vision of a true floor general. Across seven seasons in Memphis he won Rookie of the Year, climbed to All-NBA, and dragged a small-market franchise into the Western Conference’s upper tier — before injuries and a pair of firearm-related suspensions turned his prime into one of the most debated availability questions in the sport. Traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer of 2026, Morant enters a new chapter with the talent never in dispute and the durability still unresolved.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 10, 1999, Dalzell, South Carolina (Wikipedia) |
| Position | Point guard |
| Teams | Memphis Grizzlies (2019–2026), Portland Trail Blazers (2026–) |
| Draft | 2019, 1st round, 2nd overall, by Memphis (Basketball-Reference) |
| Contract | Two years, roughly $87 million remaining on his rookie max extension entering 2026-27 (ESPN) |
| Number | 12 |
Murray State
The unknown. Morant arrived at Murray State as a lightly recruited guard out of South Carolina, and he left as one of the most productive players in modern college basketball. As a sophomore in 2018-19, he became the first NCAA Division I player to average at least 20 points and 10 assists in a single season, leading the nation in assists at 10 per game (Wikipedia).
The launch. That season swept the sport’s point-guard hardware — the Bob Cousy Award and the Lute Olson Award among them — and a 16-assist triple-double in the NCAA Tournament against Marquette — 17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds — cemented his status as a lottery lock (NCAA). By the time the 2019 NBA Draft arrived, the only question was whether Memphis would take him first or second; New Orleans took Zion Williamson, and the Grizzlies took Morant at No. 2 (Basketball-Reference).
Memphis Grizzlies: the rise
The arrival. Morant was the Grizzlies’ point guard from day one. He averaged 17.8 points and 7.3 assists as a rookie in 2019-20 and won the Rookie of the Year award, also earning All-Rookie First Team honors (Basketball-Reference).
The leap. His third season, 2021-22, was the breakout: 27.4 points and 6.7 assists per game, a starting berth in the All-Star Game, the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, and a spot on the All-NBA Second Team. Memphis won 56 games behind him. He set the franchise single-game scoring record with 52 points (Wikipedia) and became the face of a young, brash roster that reveled in antagonizing the league’s establishment.
The peak. He followed with 26.2 points and 8.1 assists in 2022-23 and a second straight All-Star selection — the first player in Grizzlies history named a starter twice, and in consecutive years (Basketball-Reference). On July 6, 2022, Memphis signed him to a five-year extension worth a guaranteed $193 million, with incentives that could push it toward $231 million (Wikipedia).
The suspensions
The first. On March 4, 2023, Morant appeared in an Instagram Live video displaying a firearm at a nightclub in Glendale, Colorado. The NBA suspended him eight games without pay on March 15, 2023 (Wikipedia).
The second. Two months later, a second video surfaced showing him flashing a gun on a social-media livestream. On June 16, 2023, the league suspended him 25 games to open the 2023-24 season, with commissioner Adam Silver calling the repeated conduct “alarming and disconcerting” (NBA.com). The combined penalties cost him the start of the following season and reframed the public conversation around a player who had, to that point, been marketed as the league’s next crossover star.
Injuries and attrition
The body. Availability became the recurring theme. A right shoulder subluxation required surgery in January 2024 and ended that season after just nine games (Wikipedia). He returned for 50 games in 2024-25 at 23.2 points per game, then played only 20 games in 2025-26 before the franchise moved on (Basketball-Reference). Over seven seasons his games-played totals swung wildly — 67, 63, 57, 61, 9, 50, 20 — a résumé of brilliance interrupted.
Portland Trail Blazers
The reset. On June 29, 2026, Memphis traded Morant to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, with Memphis adding $1 million in cash (NBA.com). The deal ended his seven-year Memphis tenure and completed a teardown in which the Grizzlies dealt all three of their former cornerstones — Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. — after a first-round sweep by Oklahoma City in the 2025 playoffs (ESPN). Portland acquired a two-time All-Star still on his max extension and still short of his 27th birthday.
By the numbers
| Season | Team | GP | PPG | APG | RPG | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | MEM | 67 | 17.8 | 7.3 | 3.9 | .477 |
| 2020-21 | MEM | 63 | 19.1 | 7.4 | 4.0 | .449 |
| 2021-22 | MEM | 57 | 27.4 | 6.7 | 5.7 | .493 |
| 2022-23 | MEM | 61 | 26.2 | 8.1 | 5.9 | .466 |
| 2023-24 | MEM | 9 | 25.1 | 8.1 | 5.6 | .471 |
| 2024-25 | MEM | 50 | 23.2 | 7.3 | 4.1 | .454 |
| 2025-26 | MEM | 20 | 19.5 | 8.1 | 3.3 | .410 |
Season-by-season figures per Basketball-Reference.
Career totals
Ranks
- 1st Points per game, Grizzlies career history (22.4)
- 3rd Assists, Grizzlies career history (2,428)
- 8th Points, Grizzlies career history (7,331)
Honors
- 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year
- 2022 NBA Most Improved Player
- 2× NBA All-Star (2022, 2023)
- All-NBA Second Team (2022)
- NBA All-Rookie First Team (2020)
Totals, ranks and honors per Basketball-Reference, through the 2025-26 season.
The arguments
Availability versus ceiling. The central debate around Morant is durability. Supporters point to the per-game production — a career 22.4 points and 7.4 assists (Basketball-Reference) — as evidence of a top-tier talent whenever healthy. Skeptics note the raw games-played totals: just 79 appearances across the 2023-24 and 2025-26 seasons combined, and a playing style built on absorbing contact at the rim that may not age gracefully. The reporting around the Portland trade framed the deal explicitly as a chance to “revive his career” (NBA.com), a phrasing that captures how far the availability question had traveled.
Punishment versus conduct. The 25-game suspension drew a split response. The league office characterized Morant’s repeated display of a firearm on social media as “alarming and disconcerting” and grounds for an escalated penalty (NBA.com). The National Basketball Players Association publicly called the length “excessive and inappropriate.” The two positions were never reconciled; both were on the record.
Why it matters
Ja Morant matters because he represents a specific kind of modern NBA stardom — the viral, gravity-defying guard whose individual brilliance can lift a franchise faster than any roster blueprint, and whose fragility, on the court and off, can unwind it just as quickly. In Memphis he delivered a Rookie of the Year, two All-Star starts, All-NBA recognition and the franchise’s highest career scoring average, then became the cautionary half of his own story. His Portland arrival reopens the only question that ever really applied to him: not whether the talent is real, but whether it can stay on the floor.