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Earlier this week, Ja Morant avoided an injury scare during the Memphis Grizzlies' preseason opener vs the Dallas Mavericks on the road. Although Morant did suffer an ankle sprain during the contest, it is reportedly not expected to be something that will affect his availability for the regular season.
Morant and the Grizzlies profile as perhaps an under the radar contender in the Western Conference heading into the 2024-25 campaign, as the team suffered essentially a lost season due to an overwhelming amount of injuries last year, including to Morant himself.
Recently, the NBA released some of the results from its annual general manager survey, and one of the questions asked was which player is poised for a breakout campaign in 2024-25. Morant's name, for reasons unknown, somehow made the list despite the fact that he has already established himself as a star in the league, and Morant himself took to X, formerly Twitter, to respond to NBA TV's report of the poll.
“respectfully .. why i’m on here?” wondered Morant, alongside a face palm emoji.
Winning the number one slot with 13 percent of the vote was Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder, while Morant was tied with Evan Mobely of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs for second place.
Can the Grizzlies return to relevance?
Perhaps there's been no team in modern NBA history that went from irrelevance, to marquee attention, and then back to being under the radar than the Memphis Grizzlies, who have endured all three of those stages of beings since the turn of the decade.
While just a year or two ago, Morant was arguably the most exciting young star in the league and the Grizzlies its most entertaining young team, those thrones have now been taken over by squads like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder.
However, Morant remains just 25 years of age and has arguably the deepest roster of his career intact this year, with veterans like Marcus Smart (who was brought in a year ago but missed much of last season due to injury) in the fold to help provide a stabilizing presence.
While Memphis isn't expected to be a championship contender by most, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that they could raise some eyebrows in 2024-25.
The Grizzlies' season is set to get underway on October 23 on the road vs the Utah Jazz.
