Ja Morant has once again made himself the biggest storyline in the NBA for all the wrong reasons. The Memphis Grizzlies suspended their star guard for one game over the weekend after an incredibly languid performance against the Lakers reportedly led to a clash with coaches and a dismissive media session. Morant returned to the lineup on Monday night for another Grizzlies loss, and while he did play with a bit more effort — 18 points, 10 assists, five rebounds with only 31 percent shooting from the floor — he still sounded glum after the game.
Morant’s attitude in Monday’s media session was even more pathetic than the one that got him suspended. He responded “no” when asked if had joy playing basketball right now, defiantly referred to the organization as “they,” and accused reporters of trying to bait him with fair questions. The Grizzlies have lost four of their last five games, and they’re deeply missing injured rotation pieces Zach Edey, Ty Jerome, Scottie Pippen Jr, and Brandon Clarke right now. Even worse, Morant is as unreliable as ever right now — and he already has a long history of unreliability.
There’s nothing confirmed about the exact reason for the tension between Morant and the Grizzlies, but it’s been speculated that new had coach Tuomas Iisalo’s abnormal substitution patterns are one reason for it. Iisalo has the Grizzlies pushing the pace harder than they ever have in the Morant era this year, and that means he needs his players playing hard every second they’re on the floor. To do this, Iisalo is giving his players shorter shifts with the hope that it will get them to play with maximum energy. The head coach described his philosophy on subs on Monday, and it really could clue us in on the future of basketball. Listen to the clip here, with a transcription below:
Here’s the full quote:
“I would say I have a lot of understanding for the players who say this. I think a lot of players have been conditioned throughout their career to play in longer stints and to go find that rhythm, and basketball, just like every other global team invasion sport, is evolving, and the demands on the intensity are higher and higher and we are looking to also adapt to the times. A lot of planning, a lot of feel goes into planning the sub patterns. I think what’s often forgotten is what comes out — the actual sub pattern — it’s the optimized results in the short, medium and long term. That is the only goal of the sub pattern, to find a competitive advantage from it. Like it’s a good question to ask because you could say, OK, what are you maybe not getting if you’re getting intensity and pace — pace being one of our key components — especially here in the early season? You might be sacrificing some chemistry within the units because they might play shorter times together or it might be more substitutions in an NBA game that already has a lot of stops in it, so I understand the concern. We’re after the best overall result, like I said, in the short, medium and long term.”
Here’s a chart that helps contextualize Memphis’ substitution patterns — five minute shifts instead of seven or eight minutes — under Iisalo.
The Grizzlies started talking about basketball as an invasion sport before last season when they hired Iisalo as an assistant coach following a successful run with Paris Basketball that saw him named as Coach of the Year in the top French league. Part of Memphis’ stylistic shift was moving away from pick-and-rolls to an offense more based around cutting. This feature from James Herbert does a great job detailing the Grizzlies’ vision.
It was all good for the Grizzlies until the second half of last year, when the team tumbled from the No. 2 seed in the West to the play-in tournament before getting swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. Memphis’ collapse cost head coach Taylor Jenkins his job late in the year. This is now fully Iisalo’s team, but the Grizzlies’ pick-and-roll frequency has gone way up from 10.2 percent last season (dead-last in the league) to 14.7 percent this season (No. 15 in the league). More pick-and-roll obviously benefits Morant — one of the league’s most explosive downhill ball handlers. It feels like Memphis has extended an olive branch to their star guard with this playing style, but they still need Morant to buy in, and he’s not doing that right now.
Basketball is constantly evolving, and one day we may look back at Iisalo’s quote as clairvoyant. Another “global invasion sport” in hockey has always featured shorter shifts with maximum intensity. This era of basketball puts a lot more strain on the players by needing to cover more space than ever before while most teams are trying to play faster than they ever have. The days of players being able to rest a bit on defense are over: most opponents play four or five guys at a time who can shoot accurately from 25-feet out, and one defensive lapse could be three points against your team. The days of players being able to walk the ball up the floor in most situations also seem to be over. Short stints makes sense in this era of the league, and that’s just one small way the game can change going forward. Teams are always looking for a market inefficiency to gain an edge over their opponents, and something like this could work … if players like Morant buy in.
I’m not going to say the Grizzlies need to be looking to trade Morant right now, but it sure feels like it’s shaping up that way. Memphis has some outs to find out stars: Cedric Coward has been one of the league’s most impressive rookies so far, the team owns the Suns’ 2026 draft pick in a loaded class, and there’s a chance they’re getting two cracks at the lotto if this year really goes off the rails. Morant is still only 26, but it feels like other young NBA stars have passed him by. He’s making close to $40 million this season, and he’ll be paid slightly more than that the next two seasons. Is he even considered a positive asset anymore?
As the Morant situation looms, I’m more interested in the Grizzlies’ atypical approach to finding their next competitive advantage. Memphis has been a forward-thinking team since Zach Kleiman became their top executive, and this is just the latest step. Morant’s viral clips are an embarrassment for the Grizzlies right now, but their pursuit of what’s next for the future of the sport is even more compelling.
