While the Miami Heat weren't able to walk away with a win in their first outing of the 2025-26 NBA season, they did collect some positives in the contest. Norman Powell looked every bit like the offseason steal we all knew he was. Davion Mitchell and Dru Smith combined for 17 assists and only two turnovers, perhaps forcing us to rethink this club's perceived playmaking problem.
What the Heat ultimately couldn't do, though, was mask their lack of a go-to star. (Well, that or grab any timely rebounds.) Maybe their next opponent, the Memphis Grizzlies, could take care of that if they ever accept they don't have the win-now talent needed to support star guard Ja Morant in his prime.
This type of trade feels plucked right out of Pat Riley's playbook for landing a distressed asset and unleashing a fortune-changing bounce-back. And with the Grizzlies already battling the injury bug, being more future-focused after the Desmond Bane blockbuster, and potentially having trouble keeping pace in the overloaded Western Conference, maybe Morant really is just a phone call away from the Heat.
Ja Morant could be the perfect player to serve as Miami's star.
If the Heat had a go-to closer, they'd have an unblemished record right now. Since they don't, they're sitting at 0-1 after failing to protect an eight-point fourth-quarter lead on Wednesday while going a disastrous 2-of-9 from the field and coughing up three turnovers over the final five minutes.
Granted, there were already worries about how Miami would handle late-game scoring duties with a hobbled Tyler Herro stuck on the sidelines. But it's not like his return will turn the Heat into a crunch-time juggernaut. He played 77 games and booked his first All-Star trip last season, and this team will still be atrocious in clutch situations (minus-16.2 net rating, third-worst in the league, per NBA.com).
That's partly because while Herro is a good player, he's not a great one. He didn't even crack the top 50 on The Ringer's recently released top 100 player rankings.
Morant resides in a different tier of stardom. At least, he's been held in that regard before. He's not seen in that light at the moment, though, as availability issues (59 games over the past two seasons combined) have warped perception about him.
They've also probably alerted Riley's opportunistic senses. Morant is a true game-changer in his best form—he has twice collected MVP votes—but he shouldn't carry a game-changing price in a trade. Those aforementioned Ringer rankings, for reference, slotted him just 34th overall.
He'd still require a hefty trade package for Memphis to part with him, and he's almost assuredly not available so early into this season. If it's obvious the Grizzlies can't contend in the West, though, then he might be the next star to hit the trade market. Remember, trade whispers were raised about him even before the Bane blockbuster shook up the basketball world.
If nothing else, the Heat should be closely monitoring his situation. Morant is all-caps AWESOME at his best—he netted 35 points on 65 percent shooting on opening night—and he plays a position of need for Miami. The Heat will get a firsthand look at him Friday night, and maybe come away with the sense that their superstar search doesn't have to be held years down the line.