Ja Morant‘s skepticism about the unique strategy favored by head coach Tuomas Iisalo was behind the locker room confrontation that led to a one-game suspension last week, Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes in a piece co-authored by Tim Bontemps.
Iisalo, who took over the team late last season when Taylor Jenkins was fired, had success in Europe by playing his lineups three to four minutes at a time and then making mass substitutions to keep everyone fresh and competing at a high energy level. That’s unusual in the NBA, where the bulk of minutes typically go to the best players, and sources tell Windhorst that Morant remains “skeptical” of the approach. Through eight games, he’s posting the lowest shooting percentages of his career at 38.3% from the floor and 14% from three-point range.
“His system is based on having an elite guard who has the ability to get his feet into the paint, and then all his strategy evolves from that. Morant should be a very good fit for it, (Iisalo) was surely excited about that when he got that job,” a European executive told Windhorst. “He is running his system there. But it is not creating the advantages that are expected yet.”
Even with the awkward fit, an immediate trade seems unlikely. Several sources around the league tell Bontemps that Morant is still viewed as a “borderline top-10” point guard, but there aren’t many teams that are looking for a starter at that position. Morant’s off-court issues and the Grizzlies‘ recent downturn haven’t lessened his popularity with Memphis fans, Bontemps notes, and he has stated several times that he enjoys playing in the city.
“He sells shoes, he sells tickets, and he wants to play in Memphis when no one wants to,” a Western Conference assistant coach told Bontemps. “So it makes for a really, really difficult situation.”
ESPN’s findings are consistent with a report this week from Marc Stein, who hears that the team is in no hurry to pursue a Morant trade. The Timberwolves and Kings are rumored to be among the teams keeping an eye on the situation to see if that changes.
If the Grizzlies opt to trade Morant at some point this season, sources around the league are wondering if they might consider parting with Jaren Jackson Jr. as well, Bontemps adds. The team made a huge commitment to Jackson over the summer, maneuvering its roster to renegotiate and extend his contract, resulting in a new five-year deal worth $240MM.
That contract makes him more attractive to small-market teams, Bontemps points out, because they would have the security of knowing he’s signed through 2030. Bontemps compares it to the conditions that prompted Cleveland to deal for Donovan Mitchell and Minnesota to acquire Rudy Gobert.
Jackson has some holes in his game — his low rebounding numbers make it difficult to play him at center and he remains foul prone, averaging 4.4 per game this season — but his ability to space the floor and protect the rim would create a significant trade market if he ever becomes available.
“He’s a perfect complementary guy,” an Eastern Conference scout said, “and he can play just about anywhere.”
Parting with Morant and Jackson would signal a complete rebuild in Memphis, but Bontemps states that this might be the best time to do it with a loaded draft class looming in 2026. The Grizzlies already have two potential lottery picks and could add more draft capital by moving their two stars, giving them a fresh wave of young talent to add to Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells and Cedric Coward.
Grizz swiftly traded Dillon but won’t trade Ja. Interesting.
I believe Dillon was a free agent, and they chose to let him walk.
They chose not to make him an offer.
Can’t trade Ja for a sack of pucks. It’s a much more complicated set of circumstances
Morant’s behavior aside, this mass substitution thing has been tried before and I don’t think it works. You need your best guys to be able to get in a rhythm. This isn’t hockey changing lines.
Steve Kerr has literally ruined Curry’s prime by using this idiotic method. It doesn’t “keep guys fresh” it makes hot rotations who are destroying the other team go ice cold and they lose the game. GSW has blown dozens upon dozens of games after being up 15+ in this exact manner. Kill this idiotic tactic with fire. It does not work. Players will still get injured anyway. KD was right here.
You being facetious or just clueless again!? Kerr became the head coach of the Warriors in May 2014, and Curry won his first championship in June 2015.
@Johnnybgood are you seriously saying something done in 2015 should be reason to give a guy a forever job? “Riding Curry greatness” isnt a skill, its an obvious thing. Curry should have had like 7 MVPs if he had a coach who allowed him play more and to play him at PG more. We lost an even better version of Curry due to Kerr’s idiotic conservative coaching. Kerr is literally Mr “I love losing, 15-50 was my fave season ever”.
This is what I mean when I say people who don’t care about the topic and are just arguing the opposite of whatever I say, are the most useless reply guys on here.
4 rings baby. And when has Kerr ever played Steph in 3 min stints? SMH Davey just that Kerr HaterAid popping up again. I dont always love the units he puts out, but this roster has been far from ideal for a long time, so he is working with what he has.
He isn’t working with what he has, he plays 2way players over the main roster. He is playing guys off the street instead of draft picks. Zero reason to play Payton, Podz or Spencer now that Richard has arrived as a potential star in this leaguer.
Kerr was a negative in every ring. Mark Jackson would have 7 rings right now. Kerr has always been a Curry-rider and nothing else.
Explain how other HC’s get fired the next season after winning a title, but Kerr’s last 3 years, where he has emphasized small ball over everything, are not a fire-able offense? When you have Curry in his prime? Nah. He been a bad HC in this league since he allowed and set up Poole for the Draymond punch. A truly clueless HC in 2025. His time is long gone. GSW should have never lost that game to the Kings last week.
You would rather he plays Gui or GPII when he needs a ball handler over Spencer? You hate Kerr great, f***ing get over it. He will be Currys coach till Curry isnt playing, so this is who will be here for a while. Dude is probably the safest coach in the league, and is wildly widely respected by virtually everyone in the league. He would get hired in 1 day by like 27 teams in the league.
Kerr has managed a roster with the NBAs highest paid player making 40% of the cap because of his raises outpacing the cap increases most of the last 7 years. You always get your 8% raises even if it puts you over the super max. So if Curry wants a better roster around him, Steph can take less money to make it possible.
What do you expect from a team with stars in their 30s out earning almost every other top trio. His roster has been very flawed since ’19, yet he still coached a team with the oldest star to ever be “the guy” on a title team to victory.
Mark Jackson is hot garbage. That dude didnt get another job because he wasnt good, and was a wierdo ultra religious freak. Jackson couldnt win 1 ring with a title team, and never ran small ball or movement. Your smoked thinking he would have won any rings, or gotten KD to come, or been able to handle coaching all those alpha stars at once.
’16 was the players fault, injuries were the fault in ’19/20. ’21 they could have made a run if not for some Bron, eye fake foul BS killing them in the play in. They win ’22, and havent had close to the roster or health luck since.
What was the biggest problem the last 3 seasons Kerr, or the roster, especially with Wiggins being a high paid key player that was playing half seasons or less?
You never answered my question.
“He would get hired in 1 day by like 27 teams in the league.”
Lmao. Nope. Ask KD if this is true.
“wierdo ultra religious freak.”
Ummmm….and Steph isn’t? Has nothing to do with anything.
Kerr had his m0ment in the 2010s in figuring out Draymond could play PG/C at the same time, while Steph played off-ball. That worked. But other things also could have worked. Kerr has done nothing conventional and has so much failure tolerated by the org and its so odd to watch you bend over backwards to defend him when GSW could have easily won the last 3 years had he simply stopped playing 2way players unless its a blowout.
Vs the Kings, all Kerr had to do was play Podz-Richard-Moody-Kuminga-Post until the lead was 30+, and then you mess around. Kerr sends the rotation for “rest” when they are in the middle of deciding the game and they lose every time now. Its infuriating. You get served with the formula to win and then say “Nahh im gunna go small, GP2, get in there and give me a -15”
Yes outside Spo and a couple others every single other team in the league would jump to hire Steve especially ones with a bunch of Stars or in a big media market.
KD doesnt join this team if not for the sales pitch, and the fact the team Kerr coached to over 130 wins in the two seasons prior.
Dude MJ was pushing his ultra christian nonsense on the broadcasts, and it was a super well known fact that he was ultra religious with team prayer meetings and stuff. You wanna go to church fine, I dont think its good for a business to bring that into work on that kind of level. Curry being a bit pushy and overly religious is one of the only things I dont like about him.
He is literally the most successful coach of the last 10 years. And is one of the inner circle top 10 coaches of all time according to everyone in the game. You hate him we get it. It doesnt make sense for you to hate someone you dont know personally this much, unless his names Brooks. Stop fixating on Kerr its what makes so many of your takes sooooo bad.
Curry has a ton of input talking through roster choices and setting the direction of this team, and the system they play. If your mad a Kerr about this stuff why arent you mad at Curry? If Steph wanted it different it would be different. You seem to fail to grasp that Kerr is the face of lots of decisions that either arent his alone, or are made by someone else. You dont think Kerr has gotten his way with the front office every time do you? And when they have tried to get away with changing things that the FO has pushed it generally hasnt worked and Kerr has been left to clean up the mess.
Would it have been good for Kuminga to play more min the last 4 years? Sure for Kuminga. I watched every game those seasons, and those GSW teams didnt have the margin of error to do that, and try to win another title. I think I would have made the same decisions when Kuminga wasnt contributing to winning, and the team couldnt afford to lose any games ever since ’22.
When it comes to substitutions they have far more data, and people with far more basketball IQ than you making these choices for reasons we arent privy too. Also are you shocked a short handed team playing young players ran out of gas in the 4th Q of a back to back?
So, in your opinion, Kerr deserves a lifetime job?
“Explain how other HC’s get fired the next season after winning a title, but Kerr’s last 3 years, where he has emphasized small ball over everything, are not a fire-able offense? When you have Curry in his prime? Nah. He been a bad HC in this league since he allowed and set up Poole for the Draymond punch. A truly clueless HC in 2025. His time is long gone. GSW should have never lost that game to the Kings last week.”
Still havent talked about this point.
Because they lose the locker room.
Does any other head coach handle the punch better? They managed to play a whole season together after the punch where there was no more drama with Poole or Draymond internally after that point. The team got together and played a good year. They would have made the WCF for a second year in a row if not for the refs just sandbagging them with BS foul calls for Schroder and Bron.
CURRY WANTS SMALL BALL DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its not all Kerr you dolt. If Curry didnt want to play this way they wouldnt play this way. You also have the delicate balance of getting the most out of this aging team while actually having the team able to play healthy when the important games start.
NO HC IN THE NBA COULD STOP DRAY FROM PUNCHING SOMEONE HE WANTS TO PUNCH… Do you really think Dray wouldnt have washed out of the league almost a decade ago without Kerr?
You make these bad arguments where you blame everything on Kerr when a lot of the stuff your mad about wasnt entirely Kerr or wasnt him at all, and you arent aware of anything MDj is doing, or what kind of s*** Poole was talking to get himself hit. I guarantee Jordan was running his mouth in an insane way, since thats who he was. Dray still shouldnt have hit him.
OOOOhh they lost a game on the second night of a back to back while resting there 3 best players. Im so shocked that doesnt happen ever. I didnt love some of the lineups against MIL/IND and they should have won those, but Curry was apparently playing sick, and was a huge negative in both games.
Kerr told Poole to get in Dray’s face and to say anything to make him mad, and he did. That is Kerr’s fault.
My whole point here is not “the loss” itself, its the way how GSW goes up by 15+ in almost all losses. Then out come the scrubs, then we lose. Why do the scrubs have to come out? Why does Kerr play his main guys less playing time than all other teams? Why does Spencer need 17 minutes when you have Podz and Richard who could literally split the PG role 24/24 each?
Im not trying to argue about Kerr’s career before 2019, but since 2023, he has been Very Terrible and many other coaches could easily do better. Doug Christie for one, has Kerr’s number entirely. He knows how to beat him, therefore he likely can coach his own team better than him.
Its so weird that you think an NBA coach deserves a lifetime appointment. Even if Curry is behind it, that is an insane thing to do. Other teams fire their HCs for like, any reason. GSW lets Kerr fail with great rosters that could easily go all the way.
Kerr didnt tell him to cross a line saying something so personal your teamate swings at you. I have always blamed Dray like 60% for this and Poole 40% because he obviously says something right before it happens.
Moody played 39 min, Kuminga/Podz/Richards all well over 30 min. So what are you talking about? Kerr didnt run the starters 48min shocking. If anything the biggest thing leading to losses this season is that Horford has been dreadful in 2 of the 3 losses, and has not found his shooting rhythm at all.
Kerr has had a seriously sub standard roster for the entire period your talking. Meanwhile the entire rest of the league has gotten younger and much much better. The biggest gripe you could have with Kerr is leaving non shooters too much in an era when even non shooters can knock down wide open dare shots.
I dont think there is another coach available thats better than Kerr. I think his accomplishments with the organization, and the fact everyone thinks he is a very very stand up dude buy him a lot of room. I also think that if Curry doesnt want to be coached by anyone but Kerr thats the end of it, because without Curry were still an irrelevant bottom dweller.
Kerr has had a roster (especially since the Jimmy trade) that should make the Finals. You are wrong when you claim the roster is bad. This is also the roster that Kerr wants, so either he stinks at coaching NBA players in 2025 (likely) or you are blaming the players that are put together on this too-many undersized guard roster. Which one is it? You pick neither.
Look, you still havent answered my question but at least you are talking ball. I respectfully disagree with your pro-Kerr arguments here. If it wasn’t for Kerr Steph would have 7 rings right now. That is a fact whether you like it or not. Kerr stinks especially bad since 2023, this is also fact. Defending playing Pat Spencer 19 minutes is a L for you. You will never defend 2025 small ball to me and provide a viable argument. Its an idiotic tactic and we have no rings since 2023 because of it. Go Dubs!
> this mass substitution thing has been tried
> before and I don’t think it works.
Agreed. And the better players on any NBA team will not like it, guaranteed.
Looks like this substitution pattern is a huge success so far in US. Imagine if Mike Brown tried this in New York, Sorry Jalen, you are only going to play 28 minutes in 7 four minute shifts, what would be the fan and national media response to that! As many issues as Ja has had, I can’t fault him for not being on board with this. Memphis going to have to decide on keeping the coach and embarking on a full rebuild or quickly ending the experiment and trying to salvage the season.
KD literally blocked a trade to GSW because he knew Kerr was only going to play him 30-32 MPG.
Every GSW loss where they had been leading by 15+ has been due to this exact tactic. It’s infuriating. I am more on Ja Morant’s side now more than ever before. Establishing a rhythm is massive in this league and you can’t do that off the court.
If Kerr played like, any player, 40+ mins, the Warriors would win 70 a year. He lost vs the Kings because he refused to run the rookie Richard for the entire game when he was on fire the entire game. Why sit guys who are on fire for guys who are ice cold? Worst tactic of all time.
He blocked the trade because the roster that would have been left after the trade was bad. KD said as much on Drays podcast when he mentioned that it wasnt about any beef with anyone. He even mentioned that he might be down to return if it was in a way where the roster wasnt destroyed in the future. He said the main thing he considered was that if a team traded for him, and then was left with a hollowed out roster after giving up assets and 55M in matching.
KD realized the downside of the stars only get traded no FA version of the NBA. If you make the big trade it often backfires like it did in PHX, because you give up 5 picks Cam/Mikal.
Imo it’s a type of substitution pattern that should be used selectively, like on a B2B, 3 in 4, etc. Use it when guys are tired, or perhaps with vet starters on the older side. But I don’t think it’s something I’d want to use every game.
That being said, Ja has to perform better too. There’s no excuse for quitting on your team or underperforming to the degree he has. If you’re upset with the head coach, say what you gotta say or leak whatever you have to, but don’t bring it into the game.
I agree with this, Ja can silence critics by playing well or at least hustling, but its hard when you suddenly only get 4 mins to play at a time, instead of 6-12.
Brooks and Bane are gone. That’s two pieces of that really good team that won 50+ games. But the real difference is the attitude of Morant. Hes stuck between two worlds. And needs to focus on basketball right now and rebuild himself as a defender and goos teammate
Good point, but NBA basketball is about establishing rhythm and this idiotic tactic blocks that from happening. Its replacing red hot players with ice cold ones…why? Sorry for the aggressive reply but this topic has infuriated me for the last 5 years.
The roster is different. The other difference is Ja is far less athletic than he was. He has had declining rim %, and is a bad defender/3pt shooter so he really needs his offense to be good.
They say NBA players pretty much peak athletically as they enter the league. They “improve” because they learn the mental side of the game the basketball IQ goes up. Most players improve till they hit the bigger aging cliffs in their 30s. Ja may be the exception where the athletic declines come earlier, and are more detrimental to his value.
The bottom line is Ja isnt close to the player he was 3 years ago when they were good, and I doubt he ever gets back there.
“The other difference is Ja is far less athletic than he was.”
This is not a true statement. At all. Show your work.
NBA players peak athletically all the way up to their late 20s.
Declining rim % for 4 straight seasons for a player thats best ability is breaking the paint for kick outs, and scoring in traffic at the rim. When that goes he becomes a 31% 3pt shooting lead guard thats a defensive black hole.
On top of that hes on a max. And thats not even touching stuff like beating down a high school student at his house, threating players and staff from other teams with a laser sight that was clearly attached to a real gun with what we know now, and then doing it all over again on IG live. The dude is a giant problem in the locker room and off court. He isnt nearly good enough to put up with all the maturity headaches, and he is old enough now that he probably wont grow up.
You sound like you have a personal bias against him for his off-court stuff. He lacks maturity off court for sure, but on court is all I am talking about here.
He’s 26, mentally he’s 18. Probably because he became a rich person at 18. But this one incident isn’t on him, he has a legit beef here.
I think his performance has been going down precipitously the last 3 years on the rare occasions he has been able to play.
Do I think he is a jackass that tried to claim Poole broke his knee? Yes. Do I think he has always talked way more s*** than he could back up? Yes. Do I think its a b**** move to beat down a high school kid at your house in front of all your friends? Hell Yeah. Do I think its ever ok to threaten Pacers players and team members with a gun? Hell no.
How many times is this dude going to show you he is a self absorbed piece of s*** before you believe it?
Ok but that’s all off-court stuff, I don’t really let that bother me like you do. I stick to on-court performance.
Coach is more likely to be the first to go.
So who is gone first? Coach or Ja? Will Ja play down to his abilities to get the coach fired? Lots of questions…
When the coach is insisting on running a janky system, the coach. Like does Iisalo really think no other teams look at EU or thought about trying this. This is a college coach trying to make his janky offense work in the NBA where the games are longer, players are faster, and overall skill level is way way above the EU league.
Its not even like dude was brought in as a experienced coach to run his system. He just fell into the job when they fired the guy above him in season.
“His system is based on having an elite guard who has the ability to get his feet into the paint, and then all his strategy evolves from that.”
Janky?
Seems to have worked out ok for OKC.
OKC is not running this euro league system where players play in 3 min stints, dont get into rhythm, and your constantly doing hockey side swaps. He isnt playing his best players enough. He isnt playing his best players together enough.
The strategy isnt drive and kick, its this weird EU run the players 100% for 3 min and then switch. He may be running drive and kick once he has players on the floor, but thats not important to his substitution strategy that no other NBA team does. Shae plays a lot, and plays mostly 4-5 stints per game where none are below 6 min. Outside getting stars a little cheater rest with a quick 1 min substitution before a timeout or something players play long chunks at once especially the stars.
Ja has barely played with JJJ, and they really dont have another good healthy C at the moment for Ja to run P&R with.
i have not watched the Grizzlies to say why they are doing well under their new coach. I have watched the mavs enough to know why Thompson is doing so bad this year. Mavs play iso ball every trip down. instead of passing to the open man its one on one offense. kaly doesn’t fit teh system since he is a plant and shoot the ball shooter. Mavs play a drive to the basket offense.
I love Klay, but I think with the injuries he might just be washed now. He could still probably be a useful bench vet in small stints as a 2nd unit shooter.
I like how people are saying “Klay shot 39% from 3 last year, that’s not washed” lol that is fine if its 2016 Klay. But Klay is now Seth Curry, all 3/no D guy.
I wasn’t referring to the rotation I was referring to the “janky” offensive system.
Coach gotta go. Especially if his methods are not working and are preventing slumping players (Ja) from getting into a rhythm.
Another coach gets fired because of Ja? Where does it end? Between the injuries, the drama, and the lack of playoff results at some point the failures have to fall squarely on the player (or the front office, if that’s one’s preference). Either way, a more major shakeup would seem to be in order.
Oooooo a Ja Morant post! Let’s talk about Steph Curry and Steve Kerr!!!
So give your input into it without mentioning warriors?
My input on Ja? I have lol. What has changed in the last week? Am I missing something?
Its more like Davey is going to find a way to make everything about Kerr and how bad he is even things with nothing to do with GSW. Look at how we always get on this topic. Davey sees a post about a coach and has to sidetrack it projecting his Kerr hate on any bad coaching situation.
What I expected to read: Latest on Ja Morant -Hooprumors
What I got to read: Steve Kerr is a bad coach and Curry is the GOAT. -Davey J
Latest on Ja: still a moron.
Some team is going to get a bargain basement steal. I feel bad for the grizzlies.
Zion for Ja is going to be a really interesting deal…
Fools to trade Jaren. First he isn’t a center imo. He can play C. But is most effective as a 4. Isn’t that why you drafted Edey ????? To say he is foul prone is lying. Anything to make your take believable thats espn.
In 416 career gms he’s fouled out 22 times. The real reason is cause they have him playing out of position at C. His reb can be better. Yet he has avg 28.7 mins for his career. I want my max players at 32-34 mins. In comparison Morant has avg 32 mins over his career.
Memphis is a small market for NBA. You already have Jackson in a small market.-
You move Morant after you get his value up. You build around what you have already. All you need is a pass first PG. Grizz can get good value for Morant. And just retool .