Day: December 20, 2023

During his 25-game suspension to begin the 23-24 season, Ja Morant has quietly remained in the background, which sources from the Memphis Grizzlies say they’ve appreciated. Morant has been spotted at some Memphis-area high school basketball games and at a concert in late November.

“He’s a hardworking motherf—er. I know that,” Derrick Rose told ESPN. “I’m proud of him, very proud of him. Never complains. He’s there early, there after, at shootaround, practices. He’s doing everything the team wants him to do, and I’m just happy that he’s creating his own reality and his own bubble. You can just see it. You haven’t heard anything about him. And that’s a great thing.”

Kevin Helms, the Grizzlies’ head of team security, has his duties focused almost solely on shadowing Morant, team sources said.

The Grizzlies have privately expressed that they hope Morant has learned from the suspension. They also hope the time away from playing has allowed him to mature.

The Boston Celtics will reportedly be aggressive in targeting bench help. Boston is believed to be looking to add depth ahead of the February 8 trade deadline.

Earlier this week, the Celtics were linked to Isaiah Stewart of the Detroit Pistons. Boston has been rumored to be looking at adding another rotation big since the offseason.

The challenge for the Celtics is that they don’t have a lot of tradable outgoing salary. The bigger salaries all belong to rotation players, making an upgrade hard to find. Boston does have a $6.2 million TPE that could be used in a deal. Otherwise, their best matching salary involves Al Horford or Payton Pritchard (both rotation players) or piecing together several players on minimum contracts.

The Memphis Grizzlies are about to be as whole as they’ve been all season. Ja Morant’s suspension is over, and he will play on Tuesday. In addition, Marcus Smart should be back later this week too.

Smart has progressed to scrimmaging in recent days. Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said that the veteran guard should be back for Thursday’s game against the Indiana Pacers or Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Smart has missed the last 14 games for Memphis due to a severely sprained ankle. With Morant and Smart back in the lineup, Jenkins will have most of the lineup he expected to have in place this season.