{"id":283657,"date":"2025-11-10T17:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283657\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:51:08","slug":"minnesota-reportedly-contacted-memphis-to-test-waters-on-ja-morant-trade-but-no-deal-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/283657\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota reportedly contacted Memphis to test waters on Ja Morant trade, but no deal close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota needs help at point guard if they are going to take the next step and reach the NBA Finals. Ja Morant is disgruntled playing in Memphis<\/a>. That has led people to connect the dots and speculate about a Morant trade to Memphis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not pure speculation, Minnesota has contacted Memphis to \u201ctest the waters\u201d of a Morant trade, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. However, the sides are nowhere close to a deal, he added. This is something that would come together closer to the trade deadline. Here is what Krawczynski said (hat tip to SportsKeeda<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no real point guard on the roster. They\u2019re asking Anthony Edwards to do it. They\u2019re asking Julius Randle to do a lot of point forward stuff. They certainly have checked in with Memphis on Ja …<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re testing the waters a little bit. I don\u2019t get the sense that there\u2019s anything real close. I do think that, if we get to late December and the Wolves are still treading water and that point guard position still has not solidified … I do think that they could explore at least looking harder at Ja Morant.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few thoughts about any potential Morant to Minnesota deal:<\/p>\n

\u2022 This is not the first time the Timberwolves have been mentioned<\/a> as a team with interest in Morant. That said, league sources have told NBC Sports the market for Morant league-wide is not that strong, at least not as strong as Memphis would want considering the haul it will ask for in a trade.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Morant is a guy who sells tickets and sells jerseys in a small market in Memphis, trading him is a massive shift for the franchise (and would lead to questions about whether they should also trade Jaren Jackson Jr., who would have a strong market). If Memphis decides to trade Morant, it\u2019s going to want either another star player to sell tickets (could we see a your-problem-for-my-problem trade?) or a boatload of picks and young players to jump-start a rebuild. The market for that may not exist, at least not to the level Memphis hopes. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Minnesota still has the No. 4 offense in the NBA this season. Even with Mike Conley no longer being the point guard they need, the offensive end of the floor has not been the issue behind a sluggish 6-4 start. The bigger concern is that last season\u2019s top-10 defense is now in the middle of the NBA pack, and Morant is not going to fix that.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Is Morant\u2019s ball-dominant style really a great fit on a Minnesota team that needs more of a classic floor general?<\/p>\n

\u2022 If a mid-season trade happens it will be after the calendar flips to 2026 and closer to the February trade deadline. However, the most likely outcome is a trade next offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota needs help at point guard if they are going to take the next step and reach the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-283657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}