[Mannix] “Just like the marketplace for Trae Young dried up to the point where you could acquire him for CJ McCollum and Cory Kispert, I don’t think the market for Ja Morant is anything beyond matching salary and maybe some filler.”
I think Utah could make it work, there’s nothing there to distract him
The divorced Mormon wives will love him
I love them
You like Mormon girls?
I LOVE THEM
!!!
Yeah but only in secret /s /I hate myself
NBA Youngboy lives in Utah. That’s the single worst place for him to go.
Literally! They’ll be chilling every day 😂
Idk why Utah would do it. Keyonte is a star PG who’s currently playing at a significantly higher level than Ja. Don’t think they’d be a good match in the backcourt at all.
also wouldn’t want ja anywhere near my young players. bringing in ja is how you derail any sort of culture you’re trying to build.
Keyonte is a pretty good off ball player so that wouldn’t be a big problem. Defensively it would be a nightmare.
He’ll shoot the mormons
Didn’t he have an incident with some racist Jazz fans in 2021?
Not Sure anyone from the league wants to have the discussions about trading a guy to the place where he was knowingly racially abused a few years ago
He’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars lmao, he can IMPORT distractions 😂
Facts.
He grew up in the suburbs. He will find it even in Utah. This is a terrible trade for whoever gets him. The grizzlies like him because they are used to losing. Jas antics will ruin a winning basketball team
Check the score of the Jazz game yesterday
there are a lot of guns?
Counting or not counting gang violence?
Well Ja is also injury prone and problematic off the court, while being undersized, bad defender, and a below avg shooter on a huge contract. Good luck moving that shit..
he’s still probably easier to trade than Anthony Davis
Only because Davis is hurt right now, obviously he always is but a handful of teams were 100% ready to talk themselves into it until he went down again
If AD we’re on a cheap deal, teams would he literally throwing themselves at him. His contract is just a tough trade fit for a lot of teams.
He will get a fuck ton of FA interest though.
AD (when healthy) adds instant value wherever he goes. Can easily fit in. Provides a need that a lot of teams want (rim protection and rebounding). Has no issues off the court.
Over the last 5 full nba seasons, AD has played more games (259) than Morant has (240).
Contract aside he’s just not that good anymore. Maybe the 20th best PG in the league.
So better than any PG the Heat have
if I was them I’d rather have Davion out there than Ja. Spaces the floor. Isn’t a problem. Plays defense.
Can Ja get me a questionably efficient 20 points a game better than him? Sure, I don’t care.
I hope he ends up there that would be fascinating. Playing under Spo, playing in the same no-pnr system MEM had last year that he hated.
With Herro back we have been running more pnr. The other offense has been ass for 15+ games so it’s time to change
Herro and Ja backcourt on defense would be terrible.
No difference in our current defense lol
I thought Davion had been better than Ja this year?
He has been ok, he is a bench player tho
How about DG for herro and Ware
And no indication he’ll trend positively
Not even 20th best PG in the Western conference this season. He has negative VORP.
The real question is could he go back to playing like he used to somewhere else? If you don’t have to give up any value for him, there are teams who will hope they can fix him
Rozier, Jovic, Fontecchio
Idk why Heat would want him. “Heat Culture” only works for players who are willing to buy in, they aren’t going to magically fix his attitude which is the main issue
I’m of the same mind as you, but Evan Turner in this podcast made the point that, from a NBA player perspective, Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra telling you to change your game is a much different dynamic than “some dude from Europe” (Iisalo) saying it.
That is some incredible level of arrogance to think a known head case will listen because Pat Riley told him to, this is where all the Heat Culture jokes come from.
I can’t remember the last time Heat were able to turn a player with attitude issues into something. They tried with Whiteside and decided not worth the headache with that archetype.
Post Allstar break 2016 Dion Waiters was a PROBLEM
“Arrogance” calm down nerd its not that deep
Already forgot about Jimmy Butler?
Jimmy who’s been known as a hard worker everywhere?
And to the extent he has an attitude problem, his time with the heat didn’t exactly fix that given how it ended
Didn’t it end because he didn’t get paid?
Which he then threw a fit about and forced his way out, just like he did in Chicago, Minnesota, and Philly
Jimmy has been a winner everywhere, he’s had problems with orgs or players who didn’t match his desire to win or if he didn’t get paid. Bringing up Jimmy in these discussions is a litmus test for fans’ ball knowledge.
Still had attitude issues which was your initial argument. When he came to Miami the narrative was that he was doing a retirement tour or coming for the money but go on nerd, change your narrative so you can feel you’re the smartest NBA fan in the world
Huh? I don’t give a rats ass about what the narrative is or was on this dogshit sub lol.
Miami didn’t fix anything with Jimmy lol, they were a match made in heaven until they decided to part ways. Jimmy has been the same guy throughout his NBA tenure. Comparing a guy who is notorious for being an asshole about winning to a wannabe thug is brain dead.
I hope Heat trade for Ja, I would love to see that shit show.
Crazy talk. If you’re a believer in heat culture (which Pat Riley obvious is), then you take the bet that your culture can change the all-NBA talent. Especially if the package is scraps.
Y’all must be too young to remember Hassan Whiteside
That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while… blazers legend (?) Hassan Whiteside
OG “Heat Culture” mascot, finessed them into paying him the max and proceeded to be useless
The teams that focus on culture typically target players that fit their culture ideals, they aren’t trying to fundamentally change people.
Spurs, Celtics, Pacers are some examples.
Not even sure i would want to add Jovic
Have to do salary to match and I don’t like his long term deal even tho he is 22
Jovic a better return than Kispert tbh
Not interested in adding any young players. If you commit to taking on Ja salary you have to trade one of Hero or Powell by the end of the season
I mean, yeah, it doesn’t make sense.
It works for the Bucks then
The bucks want an efficient shooter type of guard. Not another player to clog the lane
ZACH LAVINE COME ON DOWNNN
Now we’re talking. 8th place guaranteed
That’s obviously what they prefer but I think they’re desperate enough to just take whatever they can get.
With that type of contract? Ja is not going anywhere unless he comes with a 2nd round pick or a sweetener.
The Grizzlies shot themselves in the foot (pun intended)
I don’t believe Ja has much value either which is the only reason why I think the bucks would have any interest, they’re clearly looking for a 2nd star next to Giannis but have extremely limited resources to do so, and Ja is one of the few “all-star caliber” (this year not included) guys they could afford. To be clear tho I hate the fit and not advocating for it, I just think it’s in the realm of possibilities considering their options.
Why do you think they’re desperate?
They clearly really want Giannis to stay and willing to do whatever it takes to convince him to, they waived Damian Lillards 113 million over the next 5 years just so they can give 30 mil per year to Myles Turner, and also traded a franchise legend for Kyle Kuzma, I don’t get how anyone can come to the conclusion that they are not desperate.
Dame was injured though, and Khris (although loved) was absolutely on the decline.
Please say “sike”
Kuzma and Turner?
No way is that worth lol
If all Trae was worth was two vets and no picks, I can’t see Ja having positive value.
Ja is also a defensive liability. He’s probably better on defense than Trae just because of his athleticism, but he’s still a negative. Ja is a worse shooter, by a lot. Ja is a worse playmaker. Ja does provide more rim pressure and drive gravity, but he’s still clearly worse on offense than Trae.
Add to that, Ja is a bigger injury risk with much bigger questions of off the court behavioral risks.
Who is looking at that and thinking “well, we were out on Trae, but I’ll trade assets for Ja.”
Ja is modern day Monta Ellis
I don’t remember Monta being as much of a mess and having as much baggage as Ja does. Monta wasn’t very bright, and the moped thing was dumb, but otherwise I don’t remember him having many issues like Ja has had. Monta also played 75 + games like 8 times in 12 years.
yeah Monta was reliable and wasn’t trying to be a wannabe thug
Monta Ellis have it all
Great video
Gtfo lmao. Monta was a fool sometimes but he NEVER had anywhere near the offcourt + oncourt drama nor did he pretend he was from the streets. Yeah he literally actually grew up in the streets (rare, most in the NBA esp. today are middle+upper class the Giannis and LeBrons, DeMars are actually rare) but he never tried to make that his persona like Ja tries to hard to
The sentiment is true but Ja way bigger than Monta ever was with the Nike shoe.
Will be interesting to compare what they get for Ja vs what they got for Bane.
We will get less for Ja because his contract is a doozy, but he has way higher upside.
Small guards being paid a boatload of money are so out of vogue these days
I’d take a flyer on a Trae Young and Ja Morant backcourt. Imagine what those two could do on the floor together
Give up 150 points a game?
probably 160
They’re just not gonna play the second half or what?
to the heat he go
To the coach and offense that sent him into this depressive cycle?
The adoption of this Laroche offense was a byproduct of the available personnel on the Heat roster.
If the Heat think Morant has the potential to become an All-NBA player again, they would change their scheme back to a traditional PNR-heavy offense.
Exactly, I know last night isn’t a good example but we run a lot more pnr with Herro on the court
I would hope not given that this exact scenario happened with the grizzlies and the offense became disjointed and the rating fell
When?
When Ja came back from injury complaining about the new system
Let’s be real tho, that offense isn’t working for the Heat either. I rather do a hybrid and risk Ja than what we currently are doing, especially if it costs peanuts
I feel like everybody has blanked out their memory of Ja for the last four years
A career 31% shooter as a small non defensive guard
He was awesome in 2022 when he was flying over people but that’s not even conducive for him health wise anymore
This is exactly why I’m team trade young guys early. If you notice major flaws early and the young guy is not willing to work w you to fix it then get off of them. ATL/Memphis could’ve gotten 3-4 picks for their guy a few years ago. We knew Trae couldn’t play defense years ago. We knew Ja was a head case/couldn’t shoot years ago.
that’s great in theory, not really in practice though when a couple years ago, ja was a star and trading him would’ve gotten a reaction from the fanbase similar to the shitshow after luka was traded
Coulda traded him during the gun suspension and gotten 1sts. Fans would have been like damn but makes sense
No, you couldnt.
Huh? That summer Beal went for multiple firsts, Memphis sent firsts for Marcus Smart… hell OKC and Pacers picked up a first just to let Denver move around to pick Strawther & some other early 2nd picks.
He could have easily gotten a couple if Beal did.
Yeah man. Grizzlies should have traded their first superstar ever at the first alarm sign for a couple of first round draft picks
Do you hear yourself?
Wait what alarms was Marc Gasol setting off
I have a Marc gasol jersey and trust me he doesn’t have a shoe from Nike
Be obtuse if you want
Exactly, and Luka is very lowkey i feel closer to becoming another never to win a ring stars.
And while people will find excuses for it once he retires. He’s simply not taking care of his body enough and doesn’t elevate his game to another level. This week, LeBron said something to the sounds of Luka doesn’t have to change his game he is the system. Not only do I not believe LeBron actually believes this, considering he himself has shown to be adapting to his team needs, especially in Miami, I think it was largely a diplomatic answer to a journalist question For years, his lack of defensive effort, helocentric offense, and lack of effort to keep in shape have been known.
No, I’m not Nico Harrison, but I do believe it was one of the dumbest trades in history. His reasoning for trading Luka isn’t entirely unfounded however.
36 year old Harden is more athletic than him right now, he actually gets to the paint more often (34% of shots within 10ft vs 23%). That should be setting off alarm bells. You can only make so many effort/wear-and-tear excuses for Luka when they apply to Harden just as much.
Ah yes, it’s easy to look smart in hindsight lol every move is obvious looking back
I say these things in the moment and get downvoted (not that I care). Only exception I have is if a guy looks like he is a top ten guy. But just a talented flawed guy? You can find those guys
Sure you do, everyone loves to point out all their good predictions and ignore all the bad ones. Ja was a bonafide star in the making 3 years ago…no one would’ve projected he would continue to regress since then.
Yeah this logic ignores the guys that took a few years to figure things out. None of Steph, Giannis, Jokic, or Shai made an all-star team their first 3 years in the league. They were all “talented but flawed”, Jokic for his defense, Steph for his defense and injury concerns, Giannis and Shai for their shooting. They’ve also won 7 of the last 11 chips.
The fact that you get downvoted is a good data point for why these things rarely happen. The GM that makes the move probably doesn’t survive the fan backlash.
exactly and I can’t blame the GM either. A forward looking GM will probably get fired and the next GM benefits. GMs who tread water get extensions.
Magic should move Paolo
I am not opposed to that if you could get positive value. I’m very down on guys who can’t score efficiently even if they play on a team I support. When Paolo is on it’s a beautiful thing but lately that is not often.
Is this how you feel for Paolo?
Yes. If the current trend continues. He’s not efficient and is a ball stopper. For a max player he doesn’t play well enough
The young guy is not willing to work with you to fix it
Most of the time, when fans say this, they have no idea what they are talking about. [X skill] not developing the way I want it to =/= didn’t put the work in.
i thought the issue was he shot too much on like tiktok or whatever
Ja can shoot—just not the basketball.
The Nico philosophy
The obvious difference is the contract situations, doesn’t take a genius to realize Trae’s lack of value was largely because he was an expiring.
Trae was dumped by the Hawks because they didn’t want him to pick up his PO.
Ja being owed more guaranteed money for 2 more seasons is a detriment to his value
So why haven’t the Wizards extended him yet? Trae would’ve been much more difficult to move if he was on a long term deal.
No he wouldn’t have been, they are two completely different trade scenarios.
One is trading for a dominant offensive guard to help your team long term, the other is just a financial move to allow the Hawks to clear up space. He is just a name next to a cap hold in this scenario. If you don’t understand that the Wizards didn’t trade for him to extend him, then I can’t help you.
If he had longer on his contract, it would have been a completely different market and a completely different value proposition.
“We control this guy for a couple more years!” is only a positive if the player’s contract isn’t awful. And Ja’s contract is terrible. Whoever acquires him is committed to paying over $40 million/yr to a no defense guard who’s hurt all the time and hasn’t been good in awhile. Nobody is sending Memphis any real assets for that.
Okay…maybe, maybe not. Just saying the situation is completely different. If a team trades for Ja it’s because want they see his ability and want him on their team.
The trade for Trae was just simply a salary cap move.
It’s completely different.
I don’t think it’s as different as you think. Ja has been a broken player for awhile.
And let’s say somebody like Minnesota does decide to take a flier on Ja. The fact that he’s a negative asset on that contract means that there is no bidding war for him, and therefore the Wolves would have no reason to put any real assets in the trade. Memphis will have no leverage if/when they trade him.
A bunch of players signed max-ish contracts a few years ago that have put their teams in the same position as someone who’s upside down on a home mortgage. The market has collapsed but they still owe all the money.
You’re not understanding at all, this is not a comparison of Trae and Ja…I don’t know how many times I need to explain the same thing
This should be the top comment.
CJ is solid af. A lot of teams out here need a CJ. He’s ready to drop in with any group and find a way to contribute.
Not at his current contract, though.
He’s going to take a pay cut on his next deal, but if he accepts that, and a bench role, there are a number of teams that would want him, yes.
Well, shoot
Damn even the trade market is in a K shaped economy
I almost thought Mannix was talking to Lil Yachty
Heat or Timberwolves I’m guessing
We can’t physically do it without using Randle or Gobert to match contract so it isn’t happening
Ja “only” makes 39M, so you could probably expand the trade a little and do something with Naz Reid or McDaniels as the centerpiece.
Obviously Jaden’s a no but I’m pretty sure with Naz it would have to be Naz+Divincenze+Dillingham which just isn’t worth it for Ja
Like I said, expanding the trade. That wouldn’t be a straight swap for Ja.
Wolves cannot receive more salary then they send out though so essentially it would have to be exactly that for the Wolves
It comes to a point where talents in the league are too saturated that the value of stars nowadays are low. Lol. Only ones retaining their value are real superstars.
Tre and Ja would’ve fetched at least 2 first round picks years ago.
both those players are still elite scorers/instant offense.
any team that needs a PG should consider
This sub coming to the realization that many of us have had for years, that Trae and Morant are over rated is fun to watch. I would never want either of them on my team as a GM if I was trying to win a title. Morant has nothing to offer todays’ NBA. Can’t shoot 3s and is too hurt going to the basket anymore. He’s not a good passer either. His days are fewer than many realize.
I get what he’s saying, but it’s wild to call a full nba player “filler”, or to say JUST cj mccollum like he’s not really good. Again, understand the point, but the way we talk about nba players like we’re playing 2k is wild
Trae is way better than Ja
Morant is much worse than Trae and has a longer contract so yeah they might have to pay to dump him.
What’s the difference between matching salary and filler?
This sub is so damn racist smfh
I want him on the Kings. I’m fine with just about any package that doesn’t include this year’s first, Keegan, or Maxime. I would prefer to keep Sabonis to pair with him, but we could do a straight swap with him.
Bros gonna end up on Boston
no chance.
Yeah this sucks. Grizzlies are my west team, been watching Ja on this squad since day 1. I hope the griz can get some decent return from this but yea Ja has made it pretty clear he’s done with memphis. Does not help in the negotiations. Id love to see him in Toronto, but he probably wouldn’t like it here (more strict gun control laws).
its dry for everyone except the lakers?
just realized ET sounds a lot like that guy on TikTok who loves early 20th century technology Dr. Parkinstine
all the sudden, not sending draft capital is a thing… kind of crazy
I think it’s more that teams have realized small guards aren’t worth much, especially when they are on max contracts
Yep. Bridges was worth 5 picks for his contract, not just the player