The Memphis Grizzlies’ new era took a sharp turn on June 29, when the team landed Jerami Grant and Kris Murray in the deal that sent away two-time All-Star Ja Morant.
Murray arrives as a young piece still carving out his place in the league, but Grant is the name that changes the picture. He comes to Memphis with 12 years of NBA experience, a track record that includes playoff teams, and the kind of background that should make a rebuild feel familiar rather than foreign. At 32, he is already the second-oldest player on the roster, and by the time the season starts, he could be the oldest.
The Grizzlies are also getting a scorer. Grant spent the past four seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers and averaged 18.8 points across 221 appearances.
For a Memphis team looking for more offense, that production matters. The question now is whether he can become a steady scoring source for a roster built around younger players.
Sean Highkin, who covered Grant during his four years in Portland, doesn’t expect the forward to have much trouble settling in.
“He’s a guy who has a wide variety of different interests,” Highkin told The Commercial Appeal. “He’s the kind of guy that no matter where he is, he’s going to find something to get into.”
The biggest basketball question is where Grant fits. He logged most of his minutes at power forward with the Blazers, though he played more small forward earlier in his career.
Memphis doesn’t offer a clean answer. Cam Boozer is expected to hold down the power forward spot for the foreseeable future, while Jaylen Wells, GG Jackson, Karim Lopez and Cedric Coward are all in the mix for two starting wing jobs.
That setup could make small forward the easier route to minutes for Grant, especially if Boozer is going to be on the floor often. Highkin, though, sees him more clearly as a four.
“I think he’s pretty firmly a four at this point," Highkin said. "As guys get older, they trend up a position.
That’s usually how this stuff goes. If you want to play some bigger lineups, you could play him at the three, but I think the four is his natural position.”
Durability is another part of the conversation, at least on paper. Grant played between 47 and 63 games in each of his four seasons in Portland, and he hasn’t reached 70 games since 2019-20. But Highkin said those numbers don’t tell the full story, pointing to the Blazers’ developmental direction during that stretch.
After appearing in 56 games through February in the 2022-23 season, Grant played only seven more. In the next two seasons, he appeared in four games in March 2024 and two in March 2025. Portland was more competitive in 2026, when Grant played 12 games in March - almost as many as he had in the previous three seasons combined.
Grant has had smaller injuries in recent years, but Highkin doesn’t see a long-term red flag.
“I don’t think any of that is anything to be worried about long term,” Highkin said. “I think a lot of that was more about them having certain goals for the season and playing the younger guys would help accomplish those goals.”
There’s also the shooting. Grant wasn’t considered much of a threat from deep early in his career, but that changed as he matured.
He hit 39% of his 3-pointers during his Portland stint and owns a 36.7% mark from beyond the arc for his career. For Memphis, that kind of spacing can open up lineup options.
Highkin thinks the Grizzlies may be getting the best version of Grant in that area.
“He’s become a very good 3-point shooter over the last few years,” Highkin said. “The shot is something that he has put a lot of work into. That’s something he’s definitely going to be able to bring.”
In Other News...
Ty Jerome Gives Grizzlies A Tough Decision They May Not Avoid
Ty Jerome arrived in Memphis with real value attached, coming off a third-place finish in Sixth Man of the Year voting and a three-year, $27.6 million deal that gave the Grizzlies a proven scorer and playmaker off the bench. When healthy, he has fit the profile of a guard who can keep an offense organized and productive without needing the ball to dominate every possession, which is exactly the kind of efficiency Memphis can use as it tries to build out its rotation.
The problem is the same one that has followed Jerome for stretches of his career: availability. A calf injury limited his first season in Memphis, and when a players production looks that good in a small sample, it only sharpens the question of how the Grizzlies should value him going forward. If they are pushing to win now, he looks like a useful piece. If the teams direction shifts, he also starts to look like the kind of asset that could bring back something meaningful. [Read more 🡒]