The Grizzlies now head into an offseason with far more questions than answers, particularly after firing head coach Taylor Jenkins with only nine games left in the regular season.
The Thunder annihilated the Grizzlies in the first two games of their series, but the Grizzlies briefly looked like they’d return the favor in Game 3. They jumped out to a 27-point lead before Ja Morant suffered a hip injury on a hard fall that sidelined him for the remainder of Game 3 and all of Game 4. Without Morant, the Grizzlies allowed the Thunder to pull off the second-biggest comeback in NBA playoff history and then got swept on Saturday.
The Grizzlies battled admirably without Morant in Game 4. OKC never jumped out to more than a 12-point lead at any point, and Scotty Pippen Jr. had his second straight dynamite showing. He tied his career high with 30 points on 9-of-21 shooting and hauled in a personal-best 11 rebounds in 37 minutes.
The Grizzlies have Pippen signed for less than $3 million annually over each of the next three seasons. If he’s able to carry over his performance from Games 3 and 4 into the 2025-26 campaign, he might have one of the best-bang-for-the-buck contracts in the entire NBA. That’s the good news for the Grizzlies. The bad news is that they’re otherwise staring down two franchise-changing decisions with Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. this offseason.
JJJ’s Extension
No team will be watching the All-NBA team announcements with more bated breath than the Grizzlies.
If Jackson makes an All-NBA team this year (as expected), he’ll become eligible to sign a five-year, $345.3 million supermax extension this offseason. If he doesn’t, the Grizzlies will be far more limited in what they’re able to offer him in an extension, which could set the stage for him to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
If Jackson doesn’t make an All-NBA team this year, the Grizzlies’ max extension offer will top out at four years and roughly $146.8 million. Perhaps that’d still be enough to get him to sign on the dotted line, but he’d be eligible for a five-year, $296 million deal from the Grizzlies in free agency in 2026 or a four-year, $219.4 million contract from any other team.
Depending on which other stars sign extensions this offseason, Jackson could be one of the top options in the 2026 pool of free agents. It might be an uphill battle to convince him to eschew a shot at $200-plus million if he doesn’t make an All-NBA team this year. However, the Grizzlies might quietly be rooting for that scenario rather than the alternative.
If Jackson makes an All-NBA team and becomes eligible for a supermax extension this summer, the Grizzlies would have to decide whether to break the bank for him. They just got swept in the first round of the playoffs with him taking up roughly 18% of the salary cap this season. How would they fare any better with him taking up 35% instead?
If Jackson makes an All-NBA team, the Grizzlies will at least have more room to negotiate with him on an extension. If he doesn’t and is unwilling to sign their max extension offer, the Grizzlies might have to consider exploring his trade market rather than risk losing him for nothing as a free agent in 2026.
Time To Trade Ja?
Game 3 of the Thunder-Grizzlies series was a perfect encapsulation of Morant’s tenure in Memphis. An explosive start gave way to an injury that sucked the wind out of the Grizzlies’ sails, allowing the Thunder to pull off a historic comeback.
Morant got injured on a 2-on-1 fast break when Thunder wing Lu Dort accidentally undercut him as he was midair. He crashed down on the court and suffered a hip injury that wound up sidelining him for the rest of the series. Ironically, Morant vowed earlier this season to cut back on his high-flying ways after he suffered a hip injury and pelvic strains in a lob attempt gone wrong against Los Angeles Lakers center Christian Koloko.
“Sometimes I get knocked out the air and [a foul] don’t get called, and now I’m out longer than what I’m supposed to be,” he told reporters in early December. “Sometimes the foul might get called; I still hit the floor, but after the game you might feel that little fall. So I just pick and choose, man. Hey, two points is two points. I get it done. That’s all that matters.”
Morant has now missed at least 20 games in each of the past four seasons due to injuries and/or suspensions. The Grizzlies looked like one of the NBA’s next big things a few years ago when they went 56-26 and made it to the Western Conference semifinals, but they haven’t won a playoff series since then.
Morant’s absence in Game 3 underscored his importance to the Grizzlies as they choked away a massive 26-point halftime lead. But thanks in large part to Pippen, they stayed neck-and-neck with the Thunder in Game 4 without him. Pippen also chipped in a well-rounded 28 points, five rebounds and five assists in Game 3 while shooting 8-of-16 overall and 6-of-10 from deep.
Morant has a far higher ceiling than Pippen, but he’s also far more expensive. He’s set to earn nearly $126.5 million over the next three seasons, whereas Pippen will earn only $7.5 million. That gives the Grizzlies some dirt-cheap insurance at point guard moving forward.
The Grizzlies need to decide this offseason whether to continue building around Morant. Between Morant’s injury history and off-court troubles—he received two suspensions from the NBA in 2023 for brandishing weapons on social media—it’s at least fair to reexamine whether he’s franchise-cornerstone material. He’s an explosive athlete who’s crafty around the basket, but he’s a mediocre three-point shooter (career 31.6%) and defender. Whenever he begins to lose a step athletically, his overall efficiency could plummet.
“Does he sell tickets? Yes,” a rival general manager told ESPN about Morant. “Is he a top-25 player when healthy? Yes. Can he win multiple series as the best player? No. Not sure most years you can win even one. Plus he is always hurt.”
In mid-February, Howard Beck of The Ringer said an NBA executive told him to “keep an eye” on Morant as a possible trade candidate this offseason. At the time, Grizzlies general manager Taylor Kleiman forcefully pushed back on that in a statement to Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“I can’t blame other ‘executives’ for fantasizing about us trading Ja. But it’s just that—fantasy,” he said. “Continue to underestimate Ja, this team and this city, and we will let our performance on the floor speak for itself. I’m not going to give this nonsense further oxygen and look forward to getting back to basketball.”
After seeing his team collapse in the second half of the season—in part due to a pair of Morant injuries—will Kleiman change his mind? In a league where Luka Dončić can be unexpectedly trade in the dead of night, no one should rule out anything.
How the Grizzlies proceed with Jackson and Morant this offseason could determine whether they’ll resume their ascendance toward the top of the West or if they’re about to get stuck in NBA purgatory.