Grizzlies trade for Zion Williamson in ludicrous B/R blockbuster proposal

Though he may have been the second overall selection, in a way there’s an argument to be made that the Memphis Grizzlies came away with the steal of the 2019 NBA Draft by snatching up Ja Morant.

Since entering the league and whilst playing the most important position in basketball, the point guard has far and away established himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars, and his accolades of Rookie of the Year, Most Improved Player, two All-Star selections, and, in 2021-22, an All-NBA selection certainly seem to strengthen such a notion.

However, Morant has also had a few questionable run-ins with off-the-court issues throughout his professional tenure, including a recent one that will have him serving out a suspension for the first 25 games of the upcoming campaign which, in the eyes of Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley, puts him in the conversation as being the “worst contract” currently on the Grizzlies’ payroll.

During a recent exercise discussing how each NBA team could trade away such commodities via trade, the seasoned writer went about and constructed a wild exchange involving the New Orleans Pelicans that would see the top-selected talent from Morant’s respective draft head out to Grind City.

Grizzlies swap Ja Morant for Zion Williamson in wild Bleacher Report trade

Though Buckley paraphrased by acknowledging that the concept of offloading Morant at this point in time, even with his “availability issues” as he put it, may be farfetched, he believes the idea of swapping the guard’s services out for the arguably higher-upside talent of Zion Williamson could be an offer too good for the Grizzlies to refuse.

"“While Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane have authored their own ascensions, the 2019 No. 2 overall pick is the face of the franchise in Memphis. Arguably, he has ascended to superstardom already. And if he can stay on the court, he could maintain his elite status for the better part of a decade,” Buckley wrote.“But if a Morant mega-deal ever went down, this incoming package feels about right from a value perspective. Williamson, 23, has even greater availability issues, but his ceiling might stretch even higher than the Grizzlies star’s. That potential, plus the two future firsts, might be too much for Memphis to pass up.”"

Without question, Williamson is a phenomenal talent who, when active, has proven himself to be one of to marquee players in the game today, and his career averages of 25.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists on 60.5 percent shooting from the field without question back up this stance.

Unfortunately for him– and, basketball fans –, like Morant, the 23-year-old big man has struggled to stay on the floor during his four-year career though, in his case, due to a myriad of health-related issues.

Be it from his foot injury that held him out for the entirety of the 2021-22 season to, most recently, a nagging hamstring injury that cut his 2022-23 comeback campaign three months short, Williamson has played in 114 out of a potential total of 308 regular season games.

Since signing his lofty five-year, $194 million extension last offseason, the All-Star has played in a mere 29 games.

Say what you will about Morant’s number of absences with the Grizzlies, but at least his were caused by unfortunate decision-making rather than unfortunate health scares which, often, is a much easier problem to fix.

With this alone, coupled with the fact that the point guard already seems to be on track toward G.O.A.T status with the franchise, one could automatically see a scenario in which Memphis would be extremely hesitant to even consider the idea of swapping these two talents.

Add on the fact that both the Pelicans and Grizzlies play in the same division and it seems to become even less of a possibility, for, on the very off chance they do trade Morant, they’d almost certainly aim to ship him out somewhere they wouldn’t have to square off against him on a regular basis.

In New Orleans, the club would be slated to play against him four times a season, and that’s not even counting possible playoff matchups.

So while the whole point of Buckley’s article was to construct “realistic trade packages” for every team’s least desirable contract, even in the case that Morant was seen as such by Zach Kleiman and company, this particular trade in no way seems to fit the aforementioned description.

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