The Memphis Grizzlies may want to trade Ja Morant after his latest outburst, but they will find it more difficult than they thought. The Golden State Warriors know this all too well, as Draymond Green's behavior has kept him on the Warriors as much as anything else.
Draymond Green is obviously a stanchion of the Warriors' dynasty, a foundational piece and one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the sport. He, along with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and Steve Kerr, defines this era of Warriors basketball.
It is also undeniable that there have been times that the Warriors considered whether trading Green made the most sense for the franchise. He has incredible strengths but also glaring weaknesses, and he forces the entire roster to conform to him. Look no further than the difficulty of fitting Jonathan Kuminga into the lineup when Green is locked in as a non-spacing, non-scoring power forward.
Yet the Warriors never did trade Green - in part because of how they value him, but in part because he made it difficult to trade him. The Warriors never got what they needed to pull the trigger because Green's own behavior pulled down his trade value.
Green's entire career has been littered by such incidents. He gets into spats on the court with opposing players. With refs. With fans. He tries to sell fouls and ends up flailing into the eyes and throats and groins of other players. He has put Rudy Gobert into a chokehold. He kicked LeBron in the groin and likely cost the Warriors a championship. On and on.
That level of losing control and going too far on the basketball court is unfortunate, but manageable. They are laid alongside his competitive fire that does set a positive culture of defense and effort for an entire roster. The Grizzlies have experience with this kind of player; they eventually moved on from Dillon Brooks in part because of how he crossed the line, but then Brooks went to the Houston Rockets and reset their defensive culture with his passion and intensity. Teams can look past that.
What they struggle to look past are incidents like when Draymond punched Jordan Poole for jawing at him. For verbally dressing down Kevin Durant on the basketball court. Those are things that move past competitive fire to culture-destroying behavior. The Warriors' organizational strength, led by Kerr and Curry, has held things together despite Green's behavior. But most other franchises are not ready to invite that onto their team.
The Grizzlies will hit a similar problem with Ja Morant
Ja Morant has had some of the league's most viral moments since entering the NBA. His athleticism and explosion led to innumerable highlight dunks and blocks, and he was a volume scorer and savvy passer as well. He may have never been a consistent defender, but his star power and offensive impact was palpable.
At the same time, he cannot seem to stay out of the headlines for non-basketball reasons as well. He has been injured again and again throughout his career. When he is healthy, he may not be playing due to a suspension from the NBA for immature and inappropriate conduct. From flashing a gun to fights, he continues to cross the line and face consequences that take him off of the court.
He crossed a new barrier this past weekend. During Friday night's NBA Cup game vs the Los Angeles Lakers, Morant and the Grizzlies were leading the Lakers at halftime. Then Morant came out and appeared to loaf through the second half, not hitting a shot and refusing to attack the rim. Memphis lost their entire lead and lost by five points.
After the game, Morant and head coach Tuomas Iisalo exchanged words in the locker room. When Morant came out to speak to the media, he told everyone to "go ask the coaching staff." The team responded by suspending him for the Grizzlies' next game against the Toronto Raptors.
A visibly annoyed Ja Morant said “Go ask the coaching staff” when asked about what went wrong for him tonight.
— Chris Herrington (@ChrisHerrington) November 1, 2025
Asked what the team could have done better, he said “according to them, probably don’t play me,” apparently alluding to something that had been said in the locker room
Ja Morant is no longer the athlete he once was. He is not a top-tier star on the court. He maintains some level of celebrity, and the average fan would rank him quite highly because of it, but he has little argument to being a Top-25 player in the NBA right now.
Now take that fact and add on the drama and the immaturity and the churlishness. It's not something any team wants to deal with. Will someone decide to bite the bullet and try to buy low on Morant? Possibly, but their offer may be so "low" the Grizzlies say no as well. His behavior presents a significant barrier to a deal getting done.
The Warriors never traded Draymond Green, in part because his own behavior reduced his trade value. Now Ja Morant is doing the same. And he is not the level of player -- in health, in impact, in leadership -- to overcome that massive anchor he is attaching to his trade value.
The odds of Ja Morant being traded are low. His immaturity is ensuring that.