Memphis Grizzlies

It has almost been one month since the NBA suspended its 2019-20 season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but Memphis Grizzles rookie No. 2 overall pick Ja Morant produced enough across 59 games to impress former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant:

You different....will soon be the face of the NBA league..watch...you play like you belong there @JaMorant

Remind of AI + Kobe = @JaMorant

— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) April 9, 2020

LOVE 💪🏽 https://t.co/xyw9HsNlmP

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) April 9, 2020

Bryant is not the first to compare Morant to Hall of Fame point guard Allen Iverson:

A little Iverson in him, maybe? Steve Kerr on what he’s seen from Ja Morant: pic.twitter.com/yet3CzB0mT

— David Cobb (@DavidWCobb) November 19, 2019

"I tell him he be fallin' like Allen Iverson," Grizzlies teammate Jaren Jackson Jr. told ESPN's Tim MacMahon in January. "He has that kind of swag to his game just like A.I. But I don't think A.I. was jumping like that."

Morant already has countless dunks (and almost-dunks) on his NBA highlight reel:

JA MORANT ALMOST SUBMITTED A LATE ENTRY FOR DUNK OF THE DECADE 😳 pic.twitter.com/rtTw6kt0Rp

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 21, 2019

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚈𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝟷𝟸 @jamorant #hustleXflow | #GrizzMo pic.twitter.com/m9KBWwTBeL

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) April 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/1247945446783418369

The 20-year-old also expressed the impact Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had on him after the 41-year-old died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26:

Ja Morant on the tragic loss of Kobe Bryant:

“Growing up, AAU, 8 years old, that’s who I watched. Lakers vs. Celtics, to watch Kobe. Shoot, I feel like every kid, when you were young if you had anything to throw in the trash you would shoot it and say ‘Kobe!’” pic.twitter.com/IL2g5UoA93

— Drew Hill (@DrewHill_DM) January 27, 2020

Morant is averaging 17.6 points on 49.1 percent shooting from the field (36.7 percent from three) and 6.9 assists this season.

The Memphis Grizzlies announced they signed big man Jontay Porter to a contract Sunday.

Porter is the younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. and has yet to take the court in the NBA because of knee injuries.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN noted Porter's agent, Mark Bartelstein, said the new contract runs through 2020-21 with a team option. According to Wojnarowski, the newly signed frontcourt presence who went undrafted in 2019 following an ACL tear will be ready for training camp next season.

"[Memphis general manager] Zach [Kleiman] and the Grizzlies were one of the teams that monitored Jontay closely, and we believe they're going to get a good young player with him," Bartelstein said.

Porter arrived at Missouri as a 5-star prospect in the class of 2017, per 247Sports' composite rankings, and earned SEC All-Freshman honors and the conference's Sixth Man of the Year award as a freshman.

He averaged 9.9 points and 6.8 rebounds a night in his first collegiate season but was never able to build on that in his second because he suffered a torn ACL and MCL.

While Porter won't be able to help the Grizzlies in their playoff push down the stretch of this season, he gives them another young player with potential. The 20-year-old joins a roster that features 20-year-old Ja Morant, 20-year-old Jaren Jackson Jr., 23-year-old Brandon Clarke and 24-year-old Dillon Brooks.

The future is bright in Memphis, and Porter could add to that if he returns to the form he demonstrated in his freshman season of college.

The Memphis Grizzlies agreed to a 10-day contract with veteran forward Anthony Tolliver, the club announced on Monday.

In an accompanying move, the Grizzlies waived Jordan Bell, per Charania.

Tolliver has made 42 combined appearances for the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings this season. He's averaging 3.3 points and shooting 30.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Bell appeared to react to his release on Twitter:

God wouldn’t bring me this far to leave me here alone!!

— Jordan Bell (@1jordanbell) March 2, 2020

The Grizzlies still have a three-game lead on the Kings and New Orleans Pelicans for the eighth seed in the Western Conference, but that advantage may not hold for much longer. Memphis dropped its first five games coming out of the All-Star break before beating the Los Angeles Lakers 105-88 on Saturday.

Tolliver gives the team another scoring option off the bench, and he'll help address one of the Grizzlies' weaknesses if the journeyman rediscovers his usual touch from beyond the arc. The 34-year-old is a career 37.3 percent three-point shooter, and Memphis is 23rd in three-point percentage (34.8).

Jordan Bell was with Grizzlies at shootaround this morning in Atlanta, but played sparingly in three weeks with the team since being acquired at trade deadline. Tolliver gives Grizz depth at the 4/3 spot as other injuries players (Jaren, Brandon, Justise) get closer to health.

— Michael Wallace (@MyMikeCheck) March 2, 2020

Bell's departure continues his rapid slide following an encouraging rookie season.

It looked like the Golden State Warriors got a steal when they traded up to select Bell 38th overall in the 2017 draft. The Oregon forward averaged 4.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in a limited role over his first year.

Man, Jordan Bell's rookie season was so promising.

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) March 2, 2020

Now, the 25-year-old is going to be on his fourth team in three seasons. The 6'8" Los Angeles native is averaging 3.2 points and 2.8 rebounds through 29 games, and he's likely to get another shot in the league.

But the potential he showed in the Bay Area will probably never materialize in the NBA.

The emergence of Zion Williamson has created some debate about the NBA's Rookie of the Year award, but early favorite Ja Morant apparently isn't concerned.

"I honestly don't care about Rookie of the Year. They can give that to who they want," Morant said Monday, per Omari Sankofa II of The Athletic.

His focus is reportedly on getting the Memphis Grizzlies to the playoffs, with the team currently holding a three-game lead over the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.

Morant was seemingly a lock for the Rookie of the Year award a month ago, carrying a team with little expectations into playoff contention with dazzling play.

The point guard continues to impress with averages of 17.7 points and 7.0 assists per game entering Monday, more than living up to his status as the No. 2 pick in the 2019 draft. With No. 1 pick Williamson missing the first three months of the year due to a knee injury, there was no one else from the rookie class even close to Morant's level.

However, Williamson has been simply incredible since returning to the court, with an average of 24.1 points 6.8 rebounds per game in 15 appearances.

Though it's a small sample size, the forward has scored at least 20 points in 11 straight games and has three 30-point games to Morant's one.

This includes a 35-point effort in Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he made his presence felt.

ZION LEAPED OVER KUZMA ⏫

(via @NBA)pic.twitter.com/vBNQysZHqR

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 2, 2020

Voters will have to decide at the end of the year whether Morant's performance over a longer period justifies keeping him over Williamson on their ballots.

Either way, the Grizzlies guard just wants to focus on team success for the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

The Los Angeles Lakers are getting a back-to-back weekend dose of the top two Rookie of the Year candidates, and suffice it to say LeBron James came away impressed with Ja Morant on Saturday.

James said Morant is "super special" after the point guard finished with 27 points and 14 assists to lead the Grizzlies to a 105-88 win over LeBron and Co. 

"The kid is super special," James told reporters. "Like I said when we just played him in L.A., Memphis got a great one. They got a great one. So, the sky's the limit for the kid."

Morant made 10 of his 16 shots, including a team-high four threes, and mixed in a number of highlight passes and one near-highlight dunk on Anthony Davis. The Murray State product attempted to dunk over Davis in the second half, soaring over the 6'10" big man but clipping him enough to draw the charge.

"I mean, if I had went for a layup, it would have been a charge, but if I go up and try to dunk, then it's 50-50," Morant said. "So my mindset is just going to finish the play at any time, no matter who's down there, and it was just one of those plays."

Morant and James exchanged jerseys after the game. LeBron finished with 19 points and 10 assists, as the Lakers struggled against their potential first-round playoff opponent.

"I didn't even know I was getting his jersey actually," James said. "I gave him mine, for sure, but I didn't know he was returning the favor. But it's pretty cool."

The Lakers are slated to play Morant's top ROY opponent, Zion Williamson, on Sunday. Williamson had 29 points and six rebounds during his first meeting against James and Co. last week. LeBron went for a season-high 40 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

"He's playing exceptional basketball," James told reporters of Williamson. "I think his game is going to get better and better, just having that experience. I think today's game is the perfect fit for his game. The high pace, the way they play, it fits his game. ... It works perfectly, and our game is so many possessions now, so much space, it's perfect for his game, so he's doing exceptionally well with that."

Morant is currently considered the Rookie of the Year frontrunner, thanks in large part to the fact he's been available all season. Williamson has played in only 14 games after suffering a meniscus tear in the preseason. 

Regardless, James clearly sees bright futures for both young stars. 

Anyone who dares to throw shade at Ja Morant, take heed: The Rookie of the Year favorite sees you, and he doesn't forget. 

After the signature performance of Morant's season, in which he went off for 27 points, 14 assists and six rebounds to help defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 105-88 on Saturday at FedExForum, the Memphis star used his postgame interview to call out a Twitter user who doubted the guard's drive. 

That was a mistake. 

"I'm thankful for this guy who tweeted and said I don't have that fire in my eye no more. That game right there was for him."@JaMorant went for 27 points and 14 assists in a win over the Lakers then dropped gems in his postgame interview. pic.twitter.com/mQlJLqAPos

— Grizzlies On FanDuel Sports Network (@FDSN_Grizzlies) March 1, 2020

"I'm thankful for this guy who tweeted and said I don't have that fire in my eye no more," Morant said on the court. "That game right there was for him."

Just to make sure there was no miscommunication, Morant grabbed his phone in the locker room and tagged the user who called him out. What makes the initial tweet even better is the fact that Morant wasn't even tagged in it. He would've had to search his name or have been shown it by someone else for it to pop up on his feed. 

https://t.co/cpEbd2L6PQ@DanielGreer appreciate you https://t.co/JD64V4Wbiv

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) March 1, 2020

The evening ended with Morant winning over his critic.

Much love my guy. You got the fire and I believe in you! 🔥

— Daniel Greer (@DanielGreer) March 1, 2020

Just another Saturday night in the NBA.     

Ja Morant has played just 48 games in the NBA so far, but the rookie second overall pick already has a veteran presence. 

The Memphis Grizzlies high-flying point guard sat down with ESPN's Rachel Nichols and didn't back down from trash talk he tossed toward 2017-18 league MVP James Harden in mid-January. 

"I just don't care, honestly," Morant told Nichols. "I feel like everybody puts their shoes and stuff on the same way I do. So, there's no reason to be afraid of anybody. I came in this league to try to prove that I can compete with the best, and that's just my mentality."

Rookie of the year favorite @JaMorant goes 1-on-1 on the Grizzlies playoff chances, plus his trash talk with Curry, Harden & Iguodala " I just don't care honestly. I feel like everybody puts their shoes & stuff on the same way I do. So there's no reason to be afraid of anybody." pic.twitter.com/Vm9dluCoSX

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) February 19, 2020

The play in question came during the first quarter of the Grizzlies' 121-110 win over the Houston Rockets on Jan. 14. Morant sunk a three when Harden opted not to guard him and had some words for him as he walked down the court:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_FQxujyMxA

Morant also addressed with Nichols the drama that overtook NBA Twitter just before the Grizzlies traded three-time NBA champion Andre Iguodala to the Miami Heat earlier this month.

Iguodala did not play for Memphis since arriving there from Golden State last summer, and Memphis guard Dillon Brooks didn't appreciate the way the 36-year-old veteran handled his Grizzlies tenure. Brooks told reporters he couldn't wait for Memphis to "find a way to trade him so we can play him and show him what Memphis is about."

Morant seconded:

🗣 https://t.co/3q56BwIxBa

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) February 4, 2020

Iguodala's former Warriors teammate Stephen Curry stood up for him as a result, which led to Curry and Morant airing things out privately in direct messages:

🤷🏽‍♂️🤫 pic.twitter.com/lmhLZP1Pqn

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) February 4, 2020

Ja Morant said he and Steph Curry exchanged friendly DM’s yesterday. He cleared the air on the Iguodala situation. Solomon Hill has a lot to say, too. Story coming soon

— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) February 5, 2020

"I just felt like we're not gonna take no kind of disrespect," Morant explained to Nichols. "Still have respect for both [Curry and Iguodala] as a person and a player—vets in this league—but I just didn't respect how [Iguodala] handled it on national television. I felt like there could have been a better way, another way." 

Morant has disrespected plenty of opponents on the court, however, with physics-defying dunks:

https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/1229171619387539457

Ja was WILD for trying this over Kevin Love 😨 https://t.co/k7W3Kam7KW

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 21, 2019

That’s a point guard making this alley-oop slam, Ja Morant is unreal👀pic.twitter.com/Vve48H0GbZ

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 1, 2020

This court-side view of @JaMorant's dunk makes it look even better 😲

(via @teamDELLE)https://t.co/o3084tdli2

— ESPN (@espn) December 12, 2019

More importantly, the Murray State product is leading Memphis toward playoff contention one year removed from finishing 33-49. The Grizzlies are 28-26 at the All-Star break. Morant is the team's leading scorer at 17.1 points per game and leading distributor with 7.1 assists per game.

The Grizzlies have not made the postseason since the 2016-17 campaign. With Morant in the fold alongside 2018 fourth overall pick Jaren Jackson Jr., though, that figures to change.

Gorgui Dieng wasn't sure what to expect. He certainly wasn't expecting this.

The Memphis Grizzlies had acquired him five days earlier. This was his first practice with the team. A seven-year vet, Dieng had been around long enough to know what a typical NBA practice looked like. You watch film, review schemes, insert plays. Most of all, you prepare for your next game, especially when it's your first against one of the teams—in this case, the Portland Trail Blazers—on your tail and trying to knock you out of the playoffs.

Which is why Dieng was surprised when he found himself standing at a make-believe home plate with his new head coach, Taylor Jenkins, about 20 feet in front of him, large plastic ball in hand. Jenkins rolled his pitch in a makeshift game of kickball. Dieng, tapping into his soccer background, wound up his right leg and whacked the ball off the glass partition separating the Grizzlies' practice court from the lobby of the FedEx Forum. Dieng's new teammates crowed and clapped. Happy, but also confused, Dieng smiled—and stood in place.

"They had to tell me where to run," he'd explain the next day. "I had never played anything like that before. I had no idea."

Soon after, Jenkins divided his players into groups of four, each taking with them a kid from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital that he had invited to practice. The teams spent the next half-hour competing in a version of "around the world." The players roared after wins. A stream of yeahhhs and ohhhhhs filled the room.

"The guys have been grinding," Jenkins told reporters once the doors to practice opened. "We thought they could use a mental break, and a little physical break."

Afternoons like these don't exactly explain how the Grizzlies—a team that was selling off almost every part one year ago, seemingly on the verge of a lengthy rebuild—have won 22 of their last 32 games and transformed into the NBA's latest darlings. How the Grizzlies did that is both more simple and complicated.

Instead, think of this story as more of a reflection of the league's latest next team, of how a group of NBA neophytes—on the floor, on the sidelines, in the front office—have found the perfect balance between silly and serious, between organized and loose. This is a team enjoying life before it gets messy and complicated, one in which anything and everything seems possible and where the future feels limitless.

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The sell-off started last February. Eleven games under .500 at the trade deadline, the Grizzlies dealt veterans Garrett Temple and JaMychal Green to the Clippers and shipped franchise icon Marc Gasol to Toronto. In April, Jason Wexler, the team's president of business operations, took over as the president of basketball operations as well. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera also fired head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, demoted longtime general manager Chris Wallace and promoted Zach Kleiman, the team's 30-year-old general counsel and assistant general manager, to executive vice president of basketball operations. 

Up until that point, Kleiman's basketball experience had been limited. A graduate of the Duke University School of Law, he had spent two years as an associate at Proskauer Rose LLP, the powerhouse New York City law firm that represents the league on various issues and counts both David Stern and Adam Silver's father as former partners. He joined the Grizzlies in June 2015, and was mostly cordoned off from basketball decisions during his first few seasons with the team—his input was generally limited to cap and CBA matters—but it didn't take long for him to impress Pera.

Even before arriving in Memphis, Kleiman had grown accustomed to being the youngest person in the room and adept at navigating the line between respectful and bold. Jon Oram, a Proskauer partner, recalls a night back in 2012 when Kleiman was one of the firm's summer interns, spending parts of his evenings making food runs for his bosses. One evening, he returned from Shake Shack and started handing out burgers. Someone asked for ketchup.

"I forgot to get it," Kleiman said.

The group, Oram recalls, sarcastically "gave it to him pretty good." I can't believe you screwed that up! There's no way we can hire you full-time now! You just destroyed your career! A few weeks later, with his internship complete and having received an offer for a full-time job from the firm, Kleiman, who'd grown close with Oram, stopped by his office.

"I wanted to thank you for everything," he told him. He then handed him a wrapped gift. Inside was a 14-ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup.

Kleiman, who has dozens of ketchup packets in his current office—leftovers from a gift sent to him by Oram after receiving his most recent promotion—brought that verve with him to his new job, along with a sharp set of negotiating skills. With the help of former Charlotte Hornets general manager Rich Cho (whom Kleiman interned for in 2012) and former NBA player Tayshaun Prince, who joined the Grizzlies an as executive in 2017, he recognized the Grizzlies' best path forward was to tear everything down.

So the group set about clearing cap space and accumulating assets. When the Warriors needed to dump Andre Iguodala's salary so they could execute the Kevin Durant-for-D'Angelo Russell sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets, the Grizz swooped and grabbed Iguodala (who it was understood would not report to the team) along with a top-four-protected 2024 first-round pick. They later flipped Iguodala at this year's trade deadline to the Miami Heat for younger and cheaper swingman Justise Winslow.

They picked up two more first-rounders from the Utah Jazz in exchange for Mike Conley, who they knew Utah was desperate to acquire. And they traded up in the draft—from No. 23 to No. 21—to land Brandon Clarke, a bouncy rookie rim-runner (averaging 12.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in only 21.8 minutes per game) who pairs perfectly with sweet-shooting center Jaren Jackson Jr., the 2018 No. 4 overall pick.

Memphis also Jedi-mind-tricked the Phoenix Suns into handing over a pair of second-round picks and promising second-year point guard De'Anthony Melton (per-36-minute averages of 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists) in exchange for taking lottery bust Josh Jackson off their hands.

To lead the group, the Grizzlies tabbed Taylor Jenkins, a then-34-year-old Mike Budenholzer assistant, to serve as head coach. A Wharton graduate, Jenkins worked his way through the Spurs' G League system before hooking up with Budenholzer in Atlanta in 2013. He moved with him to Milwaukee in 2018, where, in addition to his basic coaching duties, he was put in charge of determining things like who sat next to whom in the locker room and on team flights, key responsibilities for any Budenholzer-coached team, where chemistry and culture are weighted nearly as heavily as pick-and-roll coverages.

Jenkins, who friends describe as "super organized" (he files away every email in an effort to maintain an empty inbox), relished the role. He brought those same skills with him to Memphis, along with many of Budenholzer's tricks (such as taping five boxes to the floor above the three-point line as a tool for emphasizing offensive spacing) and schemes. But he's also felt comfortable making his own tweaks. For example, a pick-and-roll ball-handler finishes 18.2 percent of the Grizzlies' possessions, per NBA.com; that number was 12.2 last year in Milwaukee. 

But even the savviest of rebuilds require some luck. And in mid-May, while seated in a Hilton Chicago ballroom alongside representatives from every NBA team drafting in the 2019 lottery, Kleiman received exactly that. Four pingpong balls—with the numbers 5, 7, 10, and 12 etched onto them, respectively—emerged, propelling a team that had finished the previous season with the league's eighth-worst record up to the draft's second slot. Not only did the Grizzlies—who entered the night with a 6.3 percent chance of landing at No. 2—leapfrog five teams, but they did so in a year when grabbing that pick meant being gifted the opportunity to draft a prospect who may be unlike any the league has ever seen.

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Dillon Brooks, the Grizzlies' third-year shooting guard, could tell even before training camp that Ja Morant was different. It wasn't just that during informal summer runs the 6'3" and not-even 170-pound Morant, "was destroying, dunking, hitting all sorts of shots, getting to the rim at will" despite still working his way back from an arthroscopic knee procedure he underwent in June. There was more to it.

"He was just so full of flair, of energy and emotion," Brooks says. "I had never seen anything like that before."

Jonas Valanciunas, the Grizzlies' 7-foot bruiser who, at 27, is the second-oldest player on the team, recalls a different thought running through his mind during those early scrimmages: "Man, they're running fast. I gotta get my big ass moving."

It takes stars to move the needle in the NBA, and less than 50 games into his NBA career, Morant (17.6 points, 7.1 assists per game) has proven himself to be exactly that. He's the rare point guard who boasts both elite explosiveness and court vision. While his fluidity, highlight-worthy hops and temerity to trash-talk James Harden have turned him into a viral star, his ability to manipulate every level of a defense with bobs, weaves and roving eyes is what separates him from almost all of his peers. He's been the engine behind the Grizzlies' leap from the league's 27th-ranked offense last season to 18th this season (as of the All-Star break).

"It's the little things with him," says Jackson, who's emerged as the one of the league's premier stretch 5s (17.1 points per game while hitting nearly 40 percent of the 6.3 three-pointers he's attempting per game). "Sometimes it's just me getting a little look from him that no one else would notice."

The chemistry between the two dates back to July, when the new teammates, both out with injuries, formed an off-court bond. They ate together, lifted together and shot together. They sat with each other during games. They discovered that they shared a similar sense of humor. "We're gonna clown a lot," Jackson says. "That's my boy." They'll often break up each other's media scrums with silly routines, such as Jackson sliding over and asking in a high-pitched voice: "Ja Morant, can I have your autograph?"

"We know exactly what we both can do on the court," Morant says. "That little joking, that plays a part in it, too. It's the little things like that I feel like makes a great team. You be around us in our locker room, all we do is just laugh and joke, but we do know how to get serious."

That there's no ill will from Jackson—the franchise's previous crown jewel—toward Morant is a testament to both Jackson's maturity and Morant's ability to galvanize those around him. The public got a glimpse of this in early February, when Morant used Twitter to amplify Brooks' verbal swipe at Andre Iguodala, who had reportedly threatened to sit out the entire season if the Grizzlies failed to deal him before the deadline. But ask coaches and teammates past and present about Morant's ability to lead, and they'll say he does his best work behind the scenes.

Morant's high school coach, Dwayne Edwards, recalls walking into the locker room one time with his team trailing a star-studded opponent by 12 at the half. Morant was telling his teammates, "Don't worry, we're gonna be all right, we're gonna win." Edwards looked at his assistants. "We're like, 'What do you mean we're gonna be all right?!" he recalled. "We're getting killed." Morant exploded for 36 points and led Crestwood to a comeback win.

Jenkins says there are times where he'll enter the locker room at the break and find Morant leading a discussion.

"He just gets it," he says.

---

This is the honeymoon period in Memphis. Flirting with a playoff spot (at 28-26, they're in eighth place in the Western Conference and have already surpassed their preseason over/under of 25.5, making them the first NBA team to do so this season) is beyond what anyone thought possible for this team. But now is when life gets complicated, as the graveyard full of NBA teams prematurely anointed future kings can attest.

For Kleiman, the job shifts from clearing players out to betting on which players to bring in.

The Winslow deal was his first big gamble. (Morant, according to most NBA executives and scouts, was the obvious pick at No. 2.) The Grizzlies love that Winslow drilled 41.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes last season, and they have little long-term concern about his health after seeing his medical reports, despite his history of injuries. They also think his strong defense will fit snugly next to their core of Morant, Jackson, Brooks (who is averaging 15.7 points per game while shooting 38.5 percent from deep and recently signed a three-year, $35 million extension) and Clarke (the 1.46 points per possession he's averaging as a roll man put him in the 96th percentile leaguewide, according to NBA.com).

Still, Winslow's extensive history of injuries, his likely inability to play the point-forward position he excelled at in Miami (thanks to Morant's presence) and Memphis' willingness to absorb the bloated contracts of Dion Waiters and Dieng (thus blowing up its 2020 cap space) did raise some eyebrows around the league.

"We're well-aware we leveraged our cap space, we pulled ourselves out of the free-agent market," Kleiman said. "There's an opportunity cost to doing so. None of that's lost on us. ... Our sense was that there was no path that realistically had anywhere close to the odds of us adding a player that we think is going to be as strong of a fit on the court and off the court as Justise Winslow."

Jenkins' job will change, too. Right now, his players adore him. They love how one minute he'll break out The Woah during during practices and the next he'll lace into someone during a film session. "And it doesn't matter if you're a franchise piece or the last man on the bench," Brooks said. "He's going to treat you the same way." But as Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown can attest, the vibes around a team can flip quickly once expectations do. Morant, meanwhile, will have to prove that his wiry frame can absorb the rigors of an NBA schedule, and that he can handle the traps thrown at a player who routinely finds himself at the top of opposing scouting reports.

But those are all topics for a future day.

"Zach and I obviously just went to our first trade deadline and went to our first draft or first free agency," Jenkins says. "These are all early steps for us."

Right now, the Grizzlies are trying to focus on the present and relish that magical electricity that comes along with an improbable playoff chase.

The day after the team's kickball practice, a few minutes before tipoff against the Blazers, Morant approached the Grizzlies' public address announcer with a request. He was going to be wearing a headband for that night's game, and as a tribute to his new in-game accessory, he wanted to be introduced as "Headband 12." Later, midway through the second quarter, he set up Clarke for three straight dunks. He twisted his fingers into circles and raised them to his face after each one. Fans throughout the arena, including former Grizzlies shooting guard Tony Allen, who often sits courtside for games, did the same.

After the win—an impressive 111-104 performance, putting them four games ahead of the ninth place Blazers—Morant was asked about the celebration.

"Goggles and headbands," he said. "I'm trying to put everybody on board."

    

Yaron Weitzman covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. His new book, TANKING TO THE TOP: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports, will be released in March and is available for preorder here. Follow Yaron on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman.

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Michael Lee from The Athletic returns for the 3rd Annual "The Full 48" All-Star Weekend Wrap-Up to break down the weekend festivities including the dunk contest and judging, the new All-Star Game format, and the incredible tributes to Kobe Bryant. They also discuss late Commissioner David Stern and the conspicuous absence of Michael Jordan.

NBA veteran Andre Iguodala, who was traded to the Miami Heat before the trade deadline after never playing a game for the Memphis Grizzlies, told Sam Amick of The Athletic he never explicitly stated he didn't want to play for the Grizzlies.

"It was never—like I never approached anyone to say, 'Hey, this is not somewhere that I want to be, and I'm not going to show up,'" he said. "That never occurred. But that's never going to get put out there because, you know."

He added, "All I know is that I never stated that I wasn't going to play there, and I never stated that I didn't want to play with those guys. But I know that's public territory (where they reacted), and I can handle it, and that's why I never went out and said, 'You know, this person is a liar. That person's a liar.'"

Iguodala said the decision for him to sit out the entire season before the trade was a "mutual agreement" with the Grizzlies despite the public perception that Iguodala was holding out for a move to a contender and wouldn't play until that happened. 

Iguodala and Memphis mutually agreed he would not report to the Grizzlies while the team tried to find a trade partner. The 36-year-old has yet to play after being traded by Golden State to the Grizzlies last summer.

(2/2)

— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) February 4, 2020

That perception extended to some of the Grizzlies players, including Dillon Brooks and Ja Morant:

🗣 https://t.co/3q56BwIxBa

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) February 4, 2020

Those comments didn't sit well with Iguodala's former teammate with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry, who posted an image of Iggy holding a championship trophy—one of three he won with the Dubs—on his Instagram story:

It appears Steph Curry has a message for Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks... pic.twitter.com/GgPfGypmzT

— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) February 4, 2020

Iguodala took the entire situation in stride. 

"Yeah, that's my guy," Iguodala said of Curry, laughing, per Amick. "I would do the same for him. But I understand the generation that we're in, and the new millenials we're dealing with, and how social media comes into play and how someone could feed that to a young guy and (it grows)."

Iguodala, 36, has had an excellent NBA career. Along with being a three-time champion, he was the 2014-15 Finals MVP, a 2011-12 All-Star and a 2013-14 first-team All-Defensive selection. And now, he has the chance to chase another title with the Heat (34-18), currently the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Grizzlies (27-26) have been one of the most pleasant surprises of the season and have a legitimate shot at reaching the postseason. But their timeline is different than that of Iguodala. A divorce made sense, and Iguodala contends that he wasn't the only one who recognized it. 

Ja Morant is special. 

The Memphis Grizzlies rookie recorded his first triple-double of his young career Sunday, posting 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 106-99 win over the Washington Wizards. It was a historical night for Morant, who keeps making an incredibly strong case that he's the best rookie in basketball this season.

More context on Ja Morant's triple-double vs the Wizards:

2nd rookie in Grizzlies history with a triple-double, joining Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1997).

3rd most points in a triple-double in Grizzlies history.

1st rookie this season with a triple-double (27 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast). pic.twitter.com/OJxHsV66u9

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 10, 2020

Some of the plays he made en route to his triple-double were on another level.

In the process, Morant has the Grizzlies at 27-26 and three games ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers for the final seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Nobody saw that coming, but Morant continues to prove he's full of surprises.