The perception of Memphis Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant around the NBA is pretty low, which could be bad news for the Grizzlies when it comes to trying to trade the mercurial Morant.
One Eastern Conference executive succinctly summed up the issues surrounding Morant at this point in his career.
"The combination of pain in the ass, injury prone, not that good anymore and big contract is a bad one," the executive said of Morant, via ESPN. The executive also added that he wouldn’t want Morant on his team regardless of contract value.
Morant has played in only 12 games so far this season after playing in a total of just 59 games over the previous two seasons, leading to lingering questions about his health in addition to his declining production – Morant’s points per game average has dropped each of the past five seasons.
"Ja has been going down, down, down," a Western Conference general manager said of the Grizzlies guard. "I don't know how much of that is due to motivation. You've got to be able to look under the hood. I'm just not sure about his health.”
At one point in time, Morant was considered the face of the Grizzlies, and potentially one of the future faces of the NBA, but that has all seemingly evaporated as a result of repeated off-court behavioral issues and plateauing production on the court.
So, where does that leave the Grizzlies? They can either try to trade Morant for pennies on the dollar, or they can keep him around and hope that his attitude and performance improve. Honestly, neither sounds like an ideal scenario.
But, the Grizzlies are pretty much stuck otherwise. Morant still has two years and over $86 million remaining on his current contract, and a deal of that size won’t be easy to move, especially for a player with availability and attitude issues.
Perhaps if Morant comes back from his current calf strain and plays well, the perception of him around the league will change and his value will rise, but that's a big if. For now, there's no easy answer for Memphis when it comes to the star guard.