Copyright Heavy.
The Memphis Grizzlies continue to have the most controversial situation in the league this season. Ja Morant expressed his unhappiness with the current situation after getting suspended by the team for one game. Memphis felt that Morant’s behavior was detrimental to the team to warrant a punishment, but they keep losing and his poor play continues more each game since the suspension. Another report adds more drama and frustration if true. Yahoo Sports reported that Morant is barely speaking to his head coach Tuomas Iisalo: “Outside of a mini briefing midway through the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach, Morant didn’t speak to Iisalo. During timeouts, Morant would be off to himself at either end of the bench, swimming in his own thoughts. There were no reassuring handshakes or taps from Iisalo whenever Morant was subbed out, the tension palpable within Fedex Forum.” The comments from Morant before his suspension saw him throwing the coaching staff under the bus. Morant kept telling the media to ask the coaches about various issues throughout the night. More passive aggressive comments confirmed Morant dislikes Iisalo’s coaching rotations and his change in playing time to give this report more credence. Morant’s Complicated Coaching Over Last Year Memphis tried to take some risks on the coaching level over the past year and change. Current Miami Heat assistant coach Noah LaRoche is getting a lot of credit for the team’s offense drastically changing for the better and scoring more points than they have in recent memory. However, LaRoche originally joined the Grizzlies as an assistant for the same reason. Last season featured LaRoche and former Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins getting fired, despite a winning record. Morant has never confirmed nor denied any involvement in that decision making. However, Jenkins and Morant had a good relationship that led to the team overachieving and winning many games whenever healthy. The belief is that the franchise didn’t like how Morant and other star players looked as the season went on, and they tried to implement new things. Memphis fired both a trusted head coach and a promising assistant coach in favor of Iisalo. The hope was that a new system would get more out of Morant, Jaren Jackson, and other top players on the roster. Morant’s Future Is Likely Elsewhere Each passing day feels more inevitable that Morant is going to be traded at some point unless this drastically turns around. Morant has told the media that he still has a good relationship with the organization, but this comes after more damning comments about not being able to play the game with joy anymore. The white elephant in the room is that NBA stars get traded once they mentally check out of their current team. Morant is adding negativity with his actions of not speaking to a head coach and giving controversial quotes. Even worse, his play is worse than ever with an average of 20 points on 38% from the field and 14% from three-point range.
