The Blazers won the Ja-uction ... or did they?

Portland stuns everyone by trading for Ja Morant. But why?

Good morning. It's the end of June, and you know what that means: July is just around the corner. Let's basketball.

Ja Morant is not Trae Young. That statement's not strictly a compliment or an insult. It's just a statement.

It's an important statement now because, like Young back in February, Morant has been auctioned off at steep discount. The Blazers traded Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to Memphis on Monday in exchange for Morant. No draft picks or additional prospects for the Grizzlies: just the journeyman Grant and a rotation defense-first wing in Murray.

The similarities between Morant and Young – that they were All-Star point guards and high-usage heads of state for their respective teams as they made playoff runs, that they are in the mid-to-late 20s, that they were sold for parts – end there. Part and parcel to Young's situation was that he could become a free agent in July 2026 and Atlanta didn't feel comfortable giving him the long-term contract he desired. So the Hawks traded him for C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert before all that came to a boil.

Morant is under contract for both 2026-27 and 2027-28 for a combined $87 million. While he's eligible for an extension, there was certainly no imperative for Memphis to offer one, not after the events of the last four seasons. With the Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane for picks a year ago, Jaren Jackson Jr. for picks months ago and landed No. 3 in a stacked draft with their own pick weeks ago, there was a different imperative to get Morant out and allow the roster to start (mostly) fresh. And so: it's Grant and Murray in exchange for the best individual player of the post-Grindhouse era.

This is all to say that the Hawks traded Young because they feared what it would cost to keep him in dollars. The Grizzlies traded Morant because they feared what it would cost to keep him in drama.