The tweet from ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania hit late in the evening of February 1, and it sent such shockwaves throughout the league that the reverberations are still causing turmoil almost three weeks later. The Dallas Mavericks, Charania reported, had traded 25-year-old, five-time All-Star and 2019 Rookie of the Year Luka DonÄiÄ to the Los Angeles Lakers.
In return, the Mavericks received Anthony Davis, a 13-year veteran big man with nine All-Star appearances to his credit along with five All-NBA team selections.
If a young, elite talent such as DonÄiÄ, already considered a Hall of Fame candidate after just six full seasons in the NBA, could be shipped out in such sudden and unexpected fashion, every star player in the league was out on notice.
Troubled Grizzlies Star May be Next on Trading Block
Now, another NBA correspondent, Howard Beck of The Ringer, has put a name to the next megastar who could be on the trading block â at least according to rumors heard by Beck. That star player, who won the league’s Rookie of the Year award the year after DonÄiÄ nabbed his, is now in the second season of a five-year, $197.2 million contract and was the NBA’s No. 2 overall draft pick in 2019 and currently has his team occupying the second seed in the Western Conference.
That star is 25-year-old Temetrius Jamel “Ja” Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies. While Morant’s talent and athletic ability have never been in doubt, his availability has raised serious questions. According to Bleacher Report, Morant is “reaching a point where he is expensive relative to the amount of games he plays.”
Morant appeared in 67 games during his rookie season, but due to a combination of injuries and suspensions for off-court activities, the Murray State product has not topped 63 since. Out of 445 regular season Grizzlies games the team has played during Morant’s career, he has seen the court in only 289, or 65 percent.
“You are always, always, always on the lookout for who’s the next wave of stars that are going to get dealt. Right. We just saw shock of all shocks, the Luca deal,” Beck said on Monday’s edition of The Ringer podcast Real Ones. “We saw Jimmy Butler. There’s already whispers once again about Giannis and somebody out of the blue said Keep an eye on Ja this summer.”
A History of Morant Controversy
Why Morant, according to Beck?
“Ja’s obviously had some issues. It’s everything’s been fine for a while here, so not, not to overplay stuff from a year and a half, two years ago, but at a certain point teams will pivot and there’s always for everything we know publicly, there’s always a little bit that’s, that’s going on below the surface too,” Beck continued.
At the start of the 2023-2024 NBA season, Morant was forced to sit out the first 25 games, serving a league suspension for brandishing a gun in a video posted to Instagram Live.
At that time, Morant had already served an eight-game suspension for a similar offense â publicly displaying a gun in an online video taken during a visit by the superstar to a strip club.
In 2023, according to a Washington Post report, Morant punched a 17-year-old boy in the head hard enought to leave “a large knot,” during a pickup basketball game at Morant’s home. The 17-year-old told police that Morant then went into the house and emerged brandishing a gun stuck into his waistband.
“I’m not saying (a trade is) going to happen. I’m not saying it should happen,” Beck said of the rumored Morant deal. “I’m just saying it’s one of those things I’m just kind of keeping an eye on if they were to flame out early.”
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