The new NBA schedule gives Portland Trail Blazers point guard Ja Morant a couple of dates he’ll almost certainly have circled: Feb. 6 and Feb. 8, when the Blazers head to FedEx Forum to face the Memphis Grizzlies.
Those trips will put Morant back in Memphis as a visitor for the first time in his NBA career, and the two-game set should also give him time to reconnect with people he built relationships with during his seven years with the organization.
Before that reunion on the road, Morant gets an earlier crack at his old team. Memphis visits Portland on Oct. 29, setting up an early-season meeting at Moda Center. That game will also serve as a homecoming of sorts for former Blazers Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.
After being traded, Morant made it clear there was still plenty of affection on both sides. "[The reaction from Memphis] was all love," Morant said after being traded.
"It's some that might say bad things about me. I don't look at it like it's hate or anything.
I just look at it as tough love from a family member. I have family members that do the same thing.
I love Memphis, I love the fans, I love my teammates. ... It definitely was some good years."
The timing of those games adds another wrinkle. They land right around the league’s trade deadline, when teams often look much different than they did in October. Portland could be sorting out whether it belongs in the contender conversation or the pretender lane, while Morant is still expected to remain with the Blazers for the full season.
Memphis, meanwhile, heads into the year with one of the least talented rosters and a lineup that could look very different by then as well. The Grizzlies are set to try replacing Morant with Scotty Pippen Jr. and Ty Jerome, plus second-year pro Walter Clayton Jr., whom they acquired in the trade with the Utah Jazz for Jaren Jackson Jr.
That means Morant will have plenty of time before those February matchups to keep building chemistry with Damian Lillard in Portland’s backcourt. The Blazers are banking on that partnership turning into something dangerous in the West.
For Portland, the Grizzlies games stand out as a chance to make a statement. If the Blazers are going to make real noise in a crowded Western Conference playoff race, these are the kinds of nights that can show exactly where they belong.
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Grizzlies Decision On Brandon Clarke Is Stirring A Painful Debate
Brandon Clarkes contract situation has become one of the more uncomfortable footnotes of the Grizzlies offseason. Clarke had one year left on a deal worth $12.5 million when Memphis terminated the contract in July, ending any obligation to pay the final season to his estate because the agreement was not protected for death. He had already earned his full salary for the previous season, and the remaining money comes off the books without affecting the teams salary cap.
For Memphis, the move is legal and clean from a roster-building standpoint, but it also lands in a place where business and loss are hard to separate. Whenever a team is dealing with a player who passed away, the fine print suddenly carries a heavier meaning, and the Grizzlies decision has stirred a debate that goes beyond cap accounting or contract language. [Read more 🡒]