Pat Riley's distressed-star senses have to be tingling. The Miami Heat president always has an eye out for potential bargains within the NBA's elite ranks, and it sure feels like Ja Morant could wind up in the bargain bin amid a disastrous start with the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Heat will surely give Morant a look. Even with Norman Powell proving he was this summer's biggest steal, Kel'el Ware reminding folks of his sky-high potential, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. throwing his hat into the Sixth Man of the Year race, Miami remains without the kind of game-changing star who could help this club gain traction in the championship race.
The unfortunate truth for the Heat, though, is that a move for Morant wouldn't scratch that itch.
Morant has fallen out of the elite tier.
It'd be one thing if the Heat merely had to worry about Morant's ongoing availability issues. Because while those are very much real—he made 59 appearances over the past two seasons combined and has yet to clear the 70-game mark—at least Miami might be able to talk itself into working around them.
For a true fortune-changer, those are sometimes the concessions you have to make. You prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and expect reality will land somewhere in between.
That's no longer the biggest worry for Morant, though.
He's playing a lot for the Grizzlies so far, having only missed one contest due to a team-imposed suspension. He just isn't playing at anywhere near a star level.
His 18.9 points are the fewest since his rookie year, and they're even less impressive than that sounds. He's taking a whopping 17.5 shots just to hit that mark. His shooting rates, as you might imagine then, are wholly atrocious: 35.2 percent overall, 16.7 percent from three.
His 8.1 assists at least match his personal-best, but they're also a bit undone by his career-high 4.0 turnovers. So, while he's making some good things happening, he's canceling out a lot of them with his mistakes.
And remember, this is a player who previously derived his All-Star abilities solely from his offensive output. He's maybe not a walking liability on defense, but he definitely isn't an asset. And he'll always be challenged on that end for his lack of size (6'2", 174 lbs).
So, if he isn't a high-end scorer or a difference-making passer, then how is he supposed to be special? While you never want to totally quit on a 26-year-old, it's fair to wonder whether his previous injury problems may have sapped some of his athletic advantages away. He used to seem unstoppable at the rim; now, he's just a 58.6 percent finisher within three feet, per Basketball-Reference.com.
This doesn't mean Miami has to avoid trade talks entirely, but the Heat would need to get Morant at a deep discount to make it worth their while. And even then, they'd have to temper their expectations about the player they'd be receiving, because he's not the superstar they've coveted for so long.