Trail Blazers acquire Morant, owed more than $40 million in each of the next two seasons

2026-10-04

Portland has acquired Ja Morant, owed more than $40 million in each of the next two seasons, from the Memphis Grizzlies for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

The Blazers want a co-star for Deni Avdija. Scoot Henderson has not shown the consistency to become one, Damian Lillard is returning from a torn Achilles and Shaedon Sharpe is recovering from knee surgery.

In his first 12 games last season, Morant scored 22.4 points per 36 minutes on 47.7% true shooting and struggled to get to the basket.

Last season he was paid like the 27th player in the league and produced like the 367th, per WAGE. His WAGE Score of 1 placed him in the Sunk Cost tier.

He played 20 of the Grizzlies' 82 games, so about $29.8M of his salary went to games he missed.

The season before, he was paid like the 30th player and produced like the 131st. To match his salary in Portland, his production has to climb back toward the top 30.