The Deep 3 Podcast - We Graded Every Ja Morant Trade Destination In The NBA | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Grading the fit with NBA teams that could trade for Ja Morant! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's talk about a new story that has been brewing all season and has finally been seemingly confirmed. John Morant will be traded per Shamsharania just in. For the first time, the Memphis Grizzlies are entertaining offers to potentially move two-time All-Star John Morant ahead of the February 5th deadline. Let the bidding war commence. Who wants them? Damn.

No. What did y'all say the other day? Spooky times are upon us. Yep, yep. So, again, we've been talking about it all year that really from the first week at the season. John Moran has not been playing well and all of the off the court stuff, all of the team chemistry stuff, all the budding heads with the coaches with the weird vibes in the city since he got suspended a couple years ago after his controversies. This is felt like it's in the air like we're heading down this path. And I guess before this week they were like, now we can make it work.

Now it's official. They're going to at least entertain offers. And to me what that sounds like is we're going to hope and pray that somebody wants them. Because I don't know if it's a guarantee given what we saw Tray Young get traded for. I don't know if there's really going to be a good offer for him. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Who has more value right now, like, Tray or J? Probably, probably Jod, just because he's younger.

Yeah, I think Jhael you can sell yourself on a bounce back because the jump shot could just correct itself and maybe, like, he can get back to a level that he doesn't have the reputation of being quite the defensive cone as Trey. I don't know, I think he has lower worse value than Trey because he just naturally would be injured more off the court stuff and also he's realistically speaking, he's never had a jump shot, jump shot outside of one singular year.

I don't think you're right. So you should be right. I think Trey Young has more of a stink on him for whatever reason. People hate him more. He's also tiny. Like there's no world you can look at Trey Young and say he can be a good defender because he's minuscule. Sure. Whereas Jha, you can say like he's had big playoff moments and like I can just maybe

you could sell yourself more on he can fit in a winning team whether it'd be right or wrong, probably wrong. But I bet there's maybe a team that would give him like a swap or something for him. Yeah. I would fucking hope so, man. I, Sean says, in this report, you know, and it was a Trey Young thing, there was never any good teams that were hunting for him. The only team linked to him was the Wizards.

Sean says, multiple teams are pursuing Morant and trade talks, and rival executives believe the Grizzies would prioritize draft picks and young players in return. Now, I don't know how many teams it actually is in terms of multiple teams. We did get a report that the Kings want him, that they're pursuing him, which is quite funny. And we got a report that the Bucks want him that they're pursuing him, which is also quite funny. These bottom fear teams are saying, can we buy low? and we got a expansion on the report from Mark Stein that he says the Kings are only interested if the Grizzies will take DeMar de Morrowson,

Devin Carter, and some level of draft capital. It's not bad. It's not a bad like swap at all. I don't know what the level of draft capital would look like. Maybe it's like a couple seconds or whatever, but... A couple seconds. Yeah. A couple seconds and DeMarda Rosen for my franchise player. I'm not doing it.

But we're in the new reality. the new Trey Young, post-Tray Young reality where these max contract players that are your franchise players don't quite have the privilege of having value just because they've once been all-stars, you know? We're in this world where if you're not worth it for that price tag, if you can't be a two-way player that elevates my team in meaningful ways, I'm not giving up tremendous assets for you. Even rostering you with that contract is an asset of itself. You might have to pay me to take them.

That's kind of the conversation we're in now. So I'm going to, we're going to talk through some of the possible trade destinations. We're going to grade each one of teams that might make sense. But before we do that, is there any thoughts you have about the best? band did finally be ripped off by the Grizzlies. I think it's like... Go ahead. I think it's the right thing to do to entertain the conversation.

I will say that if you... Since we're coming off the heels of the Tray Young thing, I can't be the same as Trayon. Like, I just, I can't do it. I cannot trade my franchise player for a salary dump and some second round picks. Why? PR. It's bad? PR and I'd rather, I'd rather try and make a... work with you than to get like basically nothing in in return and I'd rather I'd rather see how much

we can we can retool around you we've already invested so much I don't want to go down this path of basically getting nothing and I know what you're saying you know why I think you're saying that because this is the report that if they're going down this path of getting rid of him and just full number up and they bend it off like treyon sham says Memphis is considering multiple paths forward amid the emergence of several promising young players, including building around 23 defensive player of the year, Jaron Jackson Jr.

That sounds unappealing as hell to build around Jaron Jackson Jr. Someone quoted this and was like, can you imagine with Jaron Jackson Jr. offense in the playoffs? And I said, playoffs? Why are you talking about playoffs? That sounds like a perennial play in team at best. That is not an appealing route.

Maybe Zach E.D. and Coward are going to be like their next up-and-coming stars and be their best players, I guess. The other path still doesn't feel great, though. I don't think you can really sell yourselves on this being exciting at all. Like, at least the Hawks and be like, we're our cap space and flexibility and, like, Jalen Johnson. They're like, they have a way to market themselves to their fans as this being an interesting era.

I think if the Grizzlies dump job, they have no way of doing that. Yeah, I agree. And I think whatever the outlook is for the Memphis Grizzies, their fans are cooked regardless of the fact. Like, they have nothing, going back to what you said, they have absolutely nothing to look forward to. and even if you want to keep jaw, brother, like, it's not, it's, it's better brand of basketballs of late. Like, I think two weeks or whatever, he dropped 40 points on.

I forget who we did that on with just something like that. But pro, like, he hasn't been good. He hasn't been inspired in me. And whether it's like his mood, I think it's mood or whatever. And then on top of that, too, he actually just is legitimately not good anymore compared to what he once was. And with all the flaws that's happening, like, there's just no way real, there's no real way out. of this. I just looked it up. Over the course of the year, he took 77 threes. Can you guess how many threes he hit? 70s 13. Hmm, close 16. Damn. That's abysmal. He's a bital. He's a

abysmal. That's abysmal. So at this point, if the Kings offer you someone like DeMardo Rosen who has two years left in his contract after the next year, he's a free agent, you're off the books for $25 more million. You got Devin Carter, who's somewhat of a young player. Okay. So, and see, and that's the overall point where he has,

he has this year and then two more years after this year. We don't have to trade him right now in this moment. Obviously, like it does, it does feel like that and I have been saying for a while, like you should probably trade him and you should probably try, which is,

which is why I like the fact that they're actually having those conversations. But if you have those conversations, then you come back and this is the ultimate package, then I would say, No. Then I would keep him and we would move forward. And if you are so hell bent on something has to change, we have to do anything. Twenty-23 defensive player of the year, Jane Jackson Jr. You are the first one too. I think he both could trade it honestly. If they're going to rent the band it off, I think they rip it all the way off and like get as many peck as

as they can. Will they trade it all three of their mid-stars and like really rebuild? That's what I would do. Conversation for another day though. Right now, let's talk about the other end. Obviously he's not going to be fetched a lot of value, right? So if he can be gotten for expiring contracts, maybe a couple second round pigs, very, like, filler type of deals. I'm going to name some NBA teams that either need a point guard or have been linked to him in the past, or it would just stand a reason that they could be a team that wants him. Let's grade it, A through F, how much you like to fit for the other team. Okay.

Minnesota Timberwolves, obviously they need a point guard. Do you think John Morant should be that point guard next to Anthony Edwards? F, no. Hell no. I think it would be cool. Like, the media love it. They'll be cute off the court. On the court, though.

Okay, so I think for Jod, this would be an A plus, I think there's ever a place where he can be fixed where he can lean into being a past first point guard, not have the burden of being a high level score and have a team that complements him. Playing next to Anthony Edwards is the go-to score is kind of the perfect idea for him. So if you want to tell me you want to buy low and really believe you can fix him, I'll give it like a C-plus. I don't think it's impossible. It would be fun to see Jha and in transition that that would be crazy. Now, in this deal, I'm assuming we're keeping Gobert, right? Yeah. Okay.

having gobert and job moran is like that's tough offensively that's very that's very hard hard to work with i think they can save job as if there's if jah can be saved they can probably do it but i did see somebody on twitter say there's a 10% chance this takes the temporal rules to the finals and a 90% chance it sends hanshey edwards to another team in two years and that's a good way of looking at it so i guess i'll go yeah yeah yeah i agree too much they have too much at this point

to lose by trading for john moran yeah i agree but if your jaw this is what you want This is like, I can't imagine there being any more better possible suitors for this. Yeah, be next to a two guard who can defend, shoot on and off wall, be able to space the floor for you. You guys have a good report and transition, like you said. He will be the go-to score. You don't have to take these difficult mid-range jumpers all the time because your team need you to create in the half court. You just got to be a playmaker setting people up. Like, you can go be fast Ricky Rubio with some flair.

Yeah, you got Rudy Gober who can set good screens for you as well. Dive into the paint as much as you want. If you're dull, like you're begging from Memphis to take you. or for Minnesota to take you. I'm going to go up to B minus. I think if it could work anywhere, I think it could be there. Yeah.

B minus for Jha, you want this, but for Minnesota's too much risk. But would you want to lose Nause Reed for that? Yeah, he can go. Yeah, he can go. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, it's cool. Okay. Miami Heats. This, any time that I think about Jha to, to the Miami Heat, I just think of like an episode of Scared Straight.

Get off! Yeah. We just have supposed to like. Just like yelling at his face. Yeah. Just like just yelling in his face at 5 a end telling him to wake up. And you know what? And that's it.

I can't think of a single star in this world that would respond worse to that than Jummer. Yeah. So I'm, I'm going to say, I'm going to say F because I do think that for the, for the heat, it's in 100% is not a, a culture fit. And I don't think that anybody would benefit from that. Do you think maybe he could like, do you think he needs that? And he could be open to becoming a culture fit? Listen, I don't know.

It's worth a same. like that and like I'm not his father you know like I'm not gonna sit up here and be like yeah john needs tough love like I don't I don't know him like that I'm not gonna do that but like if it could work then maybe but you got to ask tea about that yeah I guess the point that you split up norm and hero who are a little duplicative you bring in a pass first guy like if you're a pass first I'm saying he become I'm assuming he becomes fast first yeah if you're Miami why not you have nothing to lose once again your your guard is being led by Norman and Tyler Hero.

They're leading to nowhere. Don't know. What his name was Norman? What do you mean? You had Norman and Batmonte over here. Yeah, like you're going nowhere, so you can go nowhere in a cooler way. Why not? Okay.

I'll go D. Plus they run that offense that he hated last year, so they'd have to, like, get him to buy back into that when he already bought out of it. Oh, yeah. The offense. He'd hate it there. They'd be mean to him, and they'd make him not run picking rolls again. F. Oh, man.

So, Joe Camp, they'll make him cut off his dreads. Sacramento Kings They would make him cut off his dreads, man You would fucking Cry They're gonna punish their kids They cut their hair They're holding a half of a dread

You were not gonna demand No war screams Sacramento Kings A team linked to John Morant right now I actually think A for them. Why? They have absolutely nothing.

Listen, the Botte's a bonus assessment screens for John Grant. Yeah. He hit him on some cuts. That would be crazy to see. Crazy gross. Yeah. I just think like for them,

you have this point guard thing. Like, yeah, we got shrewd over here. We got Russ. We got Dennis. You know, like it's such a weird and nasty point guard. room that for the kings, especially after trading Dier and after trading Tyrese, to get a pseudo young star back into the building and give yourself some type of hope, I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world.

Yeah, when you're a bad team like this, buying low on a distress asset, it's kind of what you got to do. Yeah, exactly. Going back to what I said earlier, if they have no, like, positive outlooks for their team, this could be one of the, you got to like flip it like a Rubik's cube. This could be possible. This could be positive for you. You squint, you put your hand up this way, put your hand up this way, close your left

eye, close your right eye. It can make sense. Yeah, exactly. Like maybe turn around, get dizzy for like 15, 20 seconds. It'll make sense. Yeah, because I keep thinking about like overall with the job conversation, whatever team, I'm thinking about it in the way of like the Kyrie trade where Kyrie went for like, you know, filler or whatever.

And then like a first one picking a couple seconds, that seems so far away. And it's like, is the trade going to be more Kyrie or is it going to be more Tray Young. More trade. More Tray Young. If it's more Tray Young, we're good. And I do think that at this point, if the Grizzlies are so hell bent on trading job and the package does end up being Demarderose and Devin Carter or in two first-on-picks,

anybody in the league can call it Memphis and look at them and be like, you're a lick. I'm handing you this trade. You're going to take it regardless. Toronto Raptors. Another team that could buy low on a star. They just did with Brandon Ingram. They could do it again, complete their mid-three. I think for the sake of Scottie Barnes, I would not want to do this because you already

like struggle with shooting. I'd rather have a man you're quick on my team. What if you can get off the quickly and the POTL contract and you attach a young player, that's interesting. Okay, that right there might be worth a salary dump. You can trade quickly, Pertil, and Grady Dick. We're just sending everybody bad out the door. Yeah.

And you just have to hope that they like that for some reason because they believe in Grady Dick. Again, we're trying to fleece. We're trying to please. That would make sense. But again, like, Joss shooting is such an issue. It's such an issue that it's so hard to work around. It's specifically hard for someone like Scotty Barnes to work on.

That duo, like that trio of Scotty, Ingram, and Jod will be disgusting. Damn, I said you can get off. R. J.

Barrett, too? Oh, my God. I just told you can get off some of the worst contracts in the league and you still don't want to do it. He's that much of a distress accident. Because you might be giving me another bad contracts. I certainly would be.

But it's a three for one in bad contracts. It's a bad contract regardless of that I'm a big one too. Yeah, no, I'd rather not. But he makes 10, like 10 million more than quickly. Like he's, he's in like the 40s, 45. Yeah, so it's like, it's really just a consolidation, bad, bad contract. You want to credit you and you're consolidating your debt. Yeah, exactly.

That's what exactly is. We're going to be quick and loan consolidating our debt. They're letting us think we're fixing our lives or really, we're just putting different fonts on it. Just scatmen folks. Yeah, no. I'm good. Yeah, I think Raptors fans probably could convince themselves that they can fix him. I'll go see at best.

So, no, Tina, if you tell me they can fix them, okay, I'm not thrilled about it. I'll go, I'll go D-minus because I do think, and even going back to the heat, again, like, I don't know if he, like, needs to love, whatever, but I do think that if you are going to bring in Jamerat, I would like for you, for your team either historically or right now to have good infrastructure. And the Raptors, and, like, the Raptors don't feel like a team that, you know, like, a team that can embrace him right now. I love how you took me saying does he need that

heat culture as tough love? I was never saying he needs tough love. That's the only tough love is hilarious who had to frame it. I mean like, does he need a very culture team that plays a certain way and has clue to find roles? And you were like, no way doesn't he get yelled at it? He will get yelled at it.

Pat Riley is going to yell at him. I don't know if Pat Riley's doing a lot of yelling these days. He will yell to the day he died. Maybe fair. He's just screeching. No more yelling. He's just raspy. Milwaukee books

Should they buy low Is there one opportunity To try to save the Yannis era For Milwaukee, why not? A. You... A! Yeah, because he's worth

John Morant is worth little to nothing. You get off of probably who. Coos maybe. Kuzma and Portis. Yeah, you can do that. So I'm saying A.

Plus some assets. Like, Kuzam Portis, do nothing for you in your future. John Morant, right now he might not do too much but you could at least sell yourself on the hope of him doing something. I think Yonis is good enough

to make it work despite some lack of fit issues and at least they have a stretch five so they've held a spacing for two slashes. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If you keep Rollins and have Rollins and Jha this is a small backcourt but Rollins can defend. Yeah, it's not terrible. It can do something. A Jha and Yonah's team would be so funny. You know, like in the middle

of games when they bring out the trampoline crew that's what it would feel like. These two guys, just ha! Just going crazy. We got those 16-year-old white boy doing backflips on a trampoline. That's what the bunch is. would feel like if they got job. I'll give it a B.

Actually, I'll give it a C plus. I can't give anybody B for a John Marant trade this moment. But just because they're so desperate and like Yonis is going to make it work and you have that spacing, maybe it could work a little bit.

But either way, they'd still be going nowhere fast. And I think it's like a slight Yonis insurance too. And like, yo, like the whole car crash, sorry,

like I can't give you your whole entire deductible, but I can give you something. That's a good point. If Yonis requests to trade this summer, if it finally happens, you get a bunch of stuff for him. Now you got John a bunch of stuff to help it get a little better over time.

It's something. That's why I'm like, I give this an A for the Milwaukee Bucks. Because now next, that means the summer we'll have John Morant and Jalen Johnson to build around long term. That would make so much sense. Slow down.

He's not going nowhere. He's home. Now really messed up. That's crazy that you couldn't like attach trade. We have a top five defense right now, man. And what? The last four days? Exactly.

I forgot out of. With the two games? Probably one. Three. Luke Nards back. Luke and Horns back. I'm better basketball. Luke and Horns back.

Phoenix, do you want to see John Moran and Devin Booker together? Two years ago that'd been sick. Am I on board with this? If Dylan Brooks is there? Reunited Dylan Brooks? Yeah. When he was nice to Dylan Brooks, he was him.

Actually, I do like it for that. Do they have no contracts made that happen? Let me check real quick. Jalen Garun would have to be gone. And I know he makes a bag. So, yeah, I think I would do that. For sure. Yeah, we can do that.

I, Jalen Green has to go. Maybe Roy Seonield has to go to for money issues or whatever. But I would do that. I love that because on the court, John don't, Devin Booker don't have to be a point guard no more. You can ask him to play his regular role. He can finally get his dupal percentage way back up where it should be.

Dylan Brooks is there so you know, like he's the ultimate kumbaya type player who will bring everyone together set even more of the standard when it comes to the culture. I love this. This might be the best option. I'm going to be plus here. Okay. You think Jordan Ock can get him in that system?

it could work. Also, what a match. It should be a move. Like, he's addicted. Yeah. And honestly, he wouldn't be too bad though. If it is just salary filler, if it is like right now, we're really good without Jalen Green, it's just swapping John Morant.

Yeah. Okay. And for the Memphis Grizzies, too, like, you could do worse than Jalen Green. That's not bad. I don't know if I'll go that far, but could do worse, man. Devin Carter and Mardar Rosen, you could do worse than Jail and Green. Three years of Jalen Green, 36 million. I don't love it.

Sign me up, man. Okay, sign him up. Don't find me up. Trailblazers, they need a point got real bad. You want to see? Give up on the Skoo Henderson experiment for John Morant. They need to stay still. Don't do anything.

Do they? You are under watch. I've said it multiple times. I don't think the Blazers should be involved in any transactions of any kind for the rest of the NBA year. The Fed's are still looking closely? John Moran should have nothing to do with that team. Anybody, any stars just steer far away from the troubleage at this moment? No.

Stay, stay where you are. Lay low. Clippers. If they blow it all up, do they get John Morant to try to be the star of their next little era of in-between basketball with no picks? You kind of have to do it. Yeah. I think so. Why not?

Yeah. You kind of have to do it. I don't know what's do. You kind of have to get John Moran. What would they give up for John? You kind of have to do it. No, you don't. Somebody put a gun to Steve Ballmer's head.

He was like, you have to trade for this dude. What if that's the punishment from the NBA? What? It's a mandatory Jamerat will play for the Clippers now. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. I don't even know what the chair would look like. It wouldn't be the worst thing possible.

It would not be the worst thing. Well, this is only in the circumstance where they trade hard and trade Kauai and blew all up, which doesn't seem what they're going to be doing. If that was the case, and let's say, like, I don't know, two weeks from now, the Clippers just continue to, they go back to slumping insanely for the, like, how they did earlier in the year, then sure, why not?

Jaws young, you have no picks. You have to give the fans a reason to come out similar to what Jod did in Memphis. Yeah, try to cultivate some level of culture, I guess, where you can just be fully him with no expectations. Just go be you, bray. Why not? I'll go C plus because I don't want to trade for, unless I'm like the Kings or something,

I wouldn't want to trade for Jai without too, too much around him where I have to start from like ground zero. And if I don't have the necessary picks and assets to go out and replenish my whole team, and I don't have my own pick until the end of the decade. And now I have John Morant for the next five years, no picks to go build an actual team around them. Like we're, that would be playing like OG 1990s Clippers basketball where it's just,

we're just out here. We're rolling the ball out. See, if you said like mid-2000s, I'm like, yeah. Why not? Let's get those good days or deep. Yeah. Can't even say decent. Let's get those days back. Yes, those days, exactly.