Getty The Smoking Cuban's Noah Weber advocated for the Dallas Mavericks to trade for Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant -- though only with a key caveat
Ja Morant should be on the Dallas Mavericks’ trade radar according to The Smoking Cuban’s Noah Weber — though that is only with a key caveat relating to the controversial Memphis Grizzlies star’s off-court behavior.
“The only way the Mavs should consider a trade for Morant is if Nico Harrison and company believe that Morant is going to be a changed man after this suspension,” Weber wrote. “If they think that Morant will become a leader, it could quickly become worth it.”
Weber doesn’t see the time being right at the current moment — and indefinitely sees the issues pertaining to Morant’s off-court behavior being a red flag — for the Mavericks to buy low on a player in need of image rehabilitation.
“The Dallas Mavericks should not trade for Ja Morant,” Weber prefaced before saying, “Even if they could get him for a lower price as his suspension has the potential to be one of the longest that the NBA has recently handed out. He isn’t worth the off-court baggage and wouldn’t fit Dallas’ culture.”
NBA Veteran Believes Ja Morant Must Leave Memphis
Whether landing with the Mavericks or elsewhere, Kendrick Perkins believes Morant leave Memphis for the good of his career and his life.
“If another incident like this happens, I’m ready to say right now that I think Ja Morant, it might be best for him to actually get out of Memphis and go to a different organization for his own well-being,” Perkins said on the June 2 edition of ESPN’s “First Take.”
Perkins’ ESPN colleague Stephen A. Smith took that warning to Morant a step further, fearing for the 23-year-old’s well-being.
“A lot of players I know are from the streets, period,” Smith prefaced on the June 2 edition of “The Rich Eisen Show” before saying, “And I can tell you that people within the NBA community are not just concerned about Ja Morant playing basketball. They’re concerned about whether or not he’s gonna be alive in five years.”
Adam Silver Sends Grim Message on Ja Morant’s Future
The Grizzlies, Mavericks, and the Association’s 28 other franchises may not be able to deploy Morant on the NBA hardwood anytime soon. League commissioner Adam Silver sent a grim message on Morant’s future that will wait until the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat are done facing off in the 2023 Finals.
“In terms of the timing, we’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information since I was asked about the situation,” Silver said to reporters during a June 1 press conference. “We probably could have brought it to a head now, but we made the decision — and I believe the players association agrees with us — that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of this series to announce the results of that investigation.”
Sir Charles in Charge’s Michael Saenz speculates that Morant’s suspension could be between 20-30 games.
“The difficult part of all this is the fact that Silver likely has more information than the public has, or at least that’s how he made it seem in his statement,” Saenz prefaced before saying, “If that is indeed the case, I think it’s safe to say that we could see a suspension as big as 20-30 games, perhaps bigger.”