Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman is setting the record straight about trade rumors surrounding franchise superstar Ja Morant. Essentially, if your favorite team is hoping to trade for the All-Star guard, the Grizzlies are not answering the phone call.
Trade speculation about Morant first surfaced when The Ringer’s Howard Beck, in a conversation on the “Real Ones” podcast about other star players who could potentially be traded, said he was told to “keep an eye on Ja [Morant].”
That would be a reckless thing for the Grizzlies to do, especially as Morant has led Memphis to the No. 2 seed in the West after missing most of last season due to suspensions and injuries. But after the Luka Doncic trade, it feels like anything is on the table going forward.
Kleiman, though, is getting out in front of those rumors and doing his best to squash them entirely.
“I can’t blame other ‘executives’ for fantasizing about us trading Ja,’ Kleiman said via Daily Memphian’s Drew Hill. “But it’s just that — fantasy. We are not trading Ja. Continue to underestimate Ja, this team and this city, and we will let our performance on the floor speak for itself. I’m not going to give this nonsense further oxygen and look forward to getting back to basketball.”
The fact that Kleiman even needs to address these rumors speaks to the current state of the NBA after the Doncic trade sent shockwaves around the league. It was an unprecedented move, and it is worth wondering if it will result in other franchises making bold decisions with their own teams.
But as more reports surface about the Doncic trade, it feels like a one-off scenario that involved a front office and owner growing tired of Doncic not being in peak shape at all times despite carrying them to the Finals last summer while leading the league in scoring. Morant has given the Grizzlies some headaches, but there has been no indication that there is a disconnect between Morant and Memphis’ front office.
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From the outside, that was true of Doncic in Dallas up to the moment he was traded. However, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and new owner Patrick Dumont weren’t the ones who drafted Doncic. That was a different regime, one that built the roster around Doncic’s strengths. But since former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban fired Donnie Nelson and brought in Harrison and then sold his majority stake to Dumont and Miriam Adelson, there was a shift in how the Mavericks viewed Doncic.
For the Grizzlies, Kleiman’s first roster move after becoming general manager in April 2019 was selecting Morant with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft. He’s been Kleiman’s guy since the beginning, and everything Memphis has done since then has been about ensuring Morant has the right pieces around him to lead this team to a championship.
Kleiman might’ve felt the rumors were “nonsense,” but after one team just jettisoned their future Hall of Fame guard in a shortsighted move, the Memphis fanbase probably appreciates the transparency at a time when you can never be too sure what star in the NBA is going to get traded next.
