The futures of Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. at the Grizzlies have been called into question by longtime insider Brian Windhorst after the franchise traded away Desmond Bane.
After the Grizzlies sent Desmond Bane to Orlando in a massive deal, Windhorst didn’t waste time getting to what really matters.
“Yeah, let’s break this trade into two parts,” he said on SportsCenter. “Let’s focus on the Orlando side and the Grizzlies’ side. And I promise you the Grizzlies’ side is more interesting”
The Magic received Bane, in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, and four first-round picks.
But Windhorst wasn’t just looking at the math. He was focused on the motive.
“The cost of the trade was so exorbitant,” he said, “because the Magic were not only paying up for Bane, who is one of just three players to knock down 800 three-pointers at a 40% clip since entering the league in 2020-21, but also to offload the contract of veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who is owed $43 million over the next two years.
Windhorst called it what it was “a rebuild trade.” And then he dropped the line that flipped the conversation upside down.
“The next question is: What about Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.?” he said. “And I don’t know the answer to this. This is something that we’re just trying to figure out with this trade.”
“I wouldn’t be asking about Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. I wouldn’t be asking about Cole Anthony. I wouldn’t be asking about those four first round picks. I would be asking, ‘Do you intend to extend Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.?’” Windhorst said
So now we’re all asking: why did Memphis really do this?
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