Anthony Davis, Kristaps Porzingis, Coby White, Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Nikola Vucevic didn’t survive the NBA trade deadline. Somehow, both Ja Morant and Giannis Antetokounmpo did. All signs pointed, for both parties, to a trade. Their long tenures with their teams were expected to end for different reasons. Neither did.
Ja Morant survives NBA deadline
The Memphis Grizzlies reportedly had interest in Ja Morant, but no teams were willing to make an offer. This isn’t totally shocking. Morant has had off-court issues, and he comes with a significant price tag. Similar to Trae Young, the return would’ve been quite depleted.
Still, it is a surprise to see him remain with Memphis through the deadline. They traded their best player, Jaren Jackson Jr., for a haul including three first-round picks and last year’s number 18 overall pick. They were clearly tearing it down.
It was the ideal time to move on from Morant. The era of him and Jackson Jr. is obviously over, and the Grizzlies know they’re not built to contend. Morant may not have a ton of value, but he’s a good player. They could’ve gotten something if they’d perhaps been a little more aggressive in finding suitors.
Of course, this only means that Morant is going to be one of the biggest trade candidates this summer. He is highly unlikely to remain with the Grizzlies for the duration of his contract. He is a free agent after the 2027-2028 season, and it’s all but assured that he will play elsewhere before then.
Morant may have survived the deadline, but he is still on the chopping block. The trade of Jackson Jr. signifies where Memphis is clearly heading, and that likely does not include bringing Morant with them.
It will be challenging to move a player without elite production who has almost $90 million across two years remaining on an outsized contract. Like the Atlanta Hawks, they may just have to take what they can get for the veteran star point guard no one seems to truly want.
Giannis Antetokounmpo survives
The fact that Giannis Antetokounmpo is still with the Milwaukee Bucks isn’t terribly surprising, but it is disappointing. It seems that almost every year, we do this song and dance about Antetokounmpo’s future, and nothing ever happens.
This year, it seemed like something finally would happen. The Bucks star was reportedly open to moving on, and the team was listening to offers. There were, according to all the talk, a few teams that were definitely ready to make big offers.
The challenge is getting the right value for a two-time MVP and one of the five best basketball players in the entire NBA. The Bucks don’t want to lose him for a middling return, but other teams may be hesitant to fork over their entire draft pick horde and some young players.
Understandably, an Antetokounmpo trade is difficult to envision. However, when all the reporting makes it seem like it’s finally going to happen, it comes off as a disappointment. Deep down, everyone probably knew this trade wasn’t going to happen. The NBA world has just been teased by it for so long that it needs to happen already.
The Bucks said they wanted to keep him through the deadline, and that suggests they may trade him in the summer. But if an opportunity passed with everyone involved reportedly fine with a trade and it didn’t happen, it just doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to happen.
Maybe Antetokounmpo isn’t as unhappy as the reports make it sound. Maybe the Bucks are really hesitant to commit to losing the best player in franchise history. Whatever the reason, this time was not actually different.
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