Ja Morant linked to one new team amid latest trade report

Ja Morant may be getting an opportunity to go Hollywood.

The major development broke on Friday that the Memphis Grizzlies are open to trading their multi-time All-Star Morant for the first time. With Memphis struggling this season at 16-21, it appears that a Morant trade is very much on the table ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline.

In the wake of the news, Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints reported that a new team is worth keeping an eye on in the Morant sweepstakes — the Los Angeles Clippers. Siegel does note, though, that the Clippers currently lack the draft capital and young talent that Memphis would prioritize in any potential Morant trade.

The Clippers are having a tough year at 13-23 but could make a run at the play-in tournament after going 7-2 over their last nine games. With the Oklahoma City Thunder owning their unprotected first-round draft pick in 2026, the Clippers have all the reason in the world to try to go for broke this season.

While Siegel is correct that the Clippers are light on quality assets, they could foreseeably trade center Ivica Zubac, 28, for draft-pick compensation (with two big teams recently having been mentioned in connection to Zubac). The Clippers could then use that compensation to entice Memphis along with one of their younger players who have actually been getting some good developmental minutes this season like Kobe Sanders, 23, and Yanic Konan Niederhauser, 22.

As for the Grizzlies, they already launched a soft reset by trading away guard Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic over the offseason. As Memphis continues to flounder, the troubled and oft-injured Morant could the next one to go (with multiple other interesting suitors beyond just the Clippers already having emerged).

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