With Bane gone, should the Grizzlies move Morant?

In June of this year, the Grizzlies immediately made a big deal during the offseason: they chose to trade Bane away from the team.

The signal behind this choice is obvious, this Grizzlies may be starting to rebuild.

After Bane left the team, all the focus naturally fell on Morant. As a new-generation young guard, Morant's talent is undoubted. In addition to his explosive power, he still has star-level pick-and-roll breaking ability; but at the same time, his problems are also obvious.

The outside shooting is unstable, the defensive shortcomings are obvious, and physical confrontation is not advantageous. Injury risks are a big hidden danger. More importantly, after leading the team for many years, he is still immature, and his leadership skills on and off the field are quite worrying.

In the past two years, he only played 59 games. Even looking at his entire NBA career, he only played more than 65 games in his rookie season. The health status in other seasons is basically difficult to meet the standards of a leader, let alone hope that he can support the team system.

Especially against the Lakers this season, Morant's shortcomings were completely exposed:

Morant made 3 of 14 shots in the game, 0 of 6 three-pointers, and only scored 8 points.

In the end, the Grizzlies lost to the Lakers 112-117. After the game, when reporters asked Morant, who was sluggish in performance, whether he should be responsible for the loss of the game, he once again dumped the responsibility for the loss on the team coach.

After many seasons of failure, at this point in time, it is really difficult for fans to defend Morant; even when Jenkins was fired last season, Morant was one of the straws that broke the camel's back.

And now after losing, he still chooses to blame the coach. This attitude makes people doubt whether he is worthy of being entrusted by the team as the future ace. Even judging from the choice of trading Bane, the Grizzlies senior management's patience with Morant may have begun to countdown.

Although his shortcomings are obvious, it must be admitted that the current Morant is not completely lacking in strength, but he may no longer be suitable for the leadership role at this stage. At the moment, Morant's biggest problem is that his playing style is more suitable for being a deputy, and more suitable for being next to a mature star, responsible for breaking the game.

But the embarrassing thing is that as long as he continues to stay with the Grizzlies, Morant will always be the team's number one star until the next rookie king appears.

Since selecting Morant with the second pick in 2019, the Grizzlies have been building a lineup around him. On this route, the Grizzlies have also succeeded to a certain extent. They have won 56 wins that tied the team's record.

It's just that in the fierce competition in the Western Conference, the Grizzlies are always a long way away from the real championship echelon. After trading Bane, the Grizzlies' attitude has been very clear. It is basically difficult to have a future if they continue on this path.

Fortunately, they acquired a lot of future draft picks in the Bain trade, and young players on the team such as Coward, Jaylen Wells and others are also beginning to realize their talents; from this perspective, the Grizzlies have every opportunity to take a step forward, bet on the future in advance, and set their goal in the 2026 draft year.

Even when the lineup is spread out, Jaren Jr. is also a high-quality fighter that championship teams need. As long as the Grizzlies are willing to make a decision, they can naturally get a lot of future chips and continue to accumulate high-talent draft picks. Although the trade of Jaren Jr. has not yet begun to be discussed, breaking up with Morant before that may be the first step in starting a new era for the Grizzlies.

Before trading, the Grizzlies still need to measure Morant's trade value; looking at the season data, Morant's performance this season is actually quite poor, averaging 17.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game, shooting 35.9% from the field, and only 16.7% from the three-point range.

With such a sluggish shooting rate, it is really difficult for another team to make a bold gamble; but at the same time, Morant's talent is still on the table. He is currently in his prime age, and there are many teams willing to take over.

From the Grizzlies' point of view, their subsequent choices are simple. They will help Morant recover in the next two months, then increase the transaction value, and finally leave the market at a high price before the trade deadline and escape.

But if he is unlucky and picks up the worst script, and continues to perform sluggishly, or even suffers injuries, it may become increasingly difficult for the former star point guard to make a move.