It’s never been a headline in the Memphis Grizzlies trade conversation, and the saga surrounding Ja Morant has taken up oxygen and air time. But it’s worth noting that if you pay attention, you’ll find Jaren Jackson Jr.’s name popping up all over the place – smart teams are “showing interest” in him; smart analysts are pointing out that the Grizzlies most likely need JJJ, not Ja, to kick off a full rebuild on Beale Street; and rival executives are curious whether Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman will find a package he likes enough to part ways with his longest-tenured player.
On Tuesday, Kleiman found one.
It’s worth noting that the list of first-round picks the Grizzlies traded big men for did no That includes Utah’s own 2026 first-round pick. The Jazz already traded this pick to the Thunder back in 2021 as part of a deal to pass on Derrick Favors’ salary to the Thunder. The defending NBA champions will receive the Utah Jazz’s first-round pick in this year’s draft … but only if they finish outside the top eight picks in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery.
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The Jazz enter Tuesday’s game with a 15-35 record, the sixth-worst record in the NBA. The addition of Jackson — a two-time All-Star, former Defensive Player of the Year and standout who averaged 19.2 points per game — would theoretically give Utah a few more wins down the stretch, which could jeopardize the fate of that pick.
You know: in theory.
In the short term, it will be interesting to see how precisely the Jazz adhere to the league’s stricter injury reporting guidelines to avoid being slapped with a six-figure fine for roster management cheating, and lest we forget, the Jazz say they’re done tanking, sir, there’s nothing to see here. But what about the bigger picture? The Jazz are going to be very interesting very quickly.
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Veteran NBA insider Mark Stein previously reported that Utah is confident they can retain center Walker Kessler — who is currently recovering from a season-ending shoulder injury — when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. According to The Athletic’s Tony Jones, the Jazz still plan to retain him and take advantage of Jackson’s cap space by effectively moving on “pre-agency,” and they’re starting next season with an oversized forward front: 7-foot-2 Kesler at the 5, 6-foot-10 Jackson at power forward, and 7-foot-1 Lauri Markkanen (who is said to be happy with the JJJ deal) at 6-foot-11 at small forward. Inch’s Kyle Filipowski comes off the bench to suit up at any one of three positions.
Dating back to his time paired with Jonas Valanciunas, Steven Adams and Zach Eady, Jackson tends to play his best ball next to a decent big man, allowing him to come out and wreak havoc as a weakside rim protector. The Jazz’s defense has been terrible for four years. When Kessler and JJJ roam the backline, they immediately look better than this, even with young and terrible point-of-attack defenders in front of them; the combination of JJJ as a perimeter four and Kessler as a screen-and-dive lob finisher also feels very clean.
The decline in positional range shouldn’t be a problem for Markkanen either. He has experience and comfort as a big wing; in this world, it looks like the giant outfit Markkanen briefly lined up in Cleveland, only with more offensive firepower and shooting touch. (We know head coach Will Hardy loves his big-on-big passing game.)
Jaren Jackson Jr.’s tenure in Memphis ends on Tuesday. (Photo by Bradley Collier/PA via Getty Images)
(Bradley Collier-PA Photo via Getty Images)
If Jackson returns to form after an occasionally sluggish 2025-26 season, if the big man stays healthy, coupled with a dynamic downhill creator and pull-up shooter in Most Improved Player candidate Keyonte George and offensively gifted swingman Ace Bailey — starting two guards at 6-foot-9 would seem to make a lot of sense in this oversized roster structure — and future growth from the likes of Bryce Sensabaugh, Cody Williams and Isaiah Collier, and Landing a top-half lottery pick in what is considered one of the most talented drafts in years…suddenly the Jazz look less like a rebuilding loser and more like a team with realistic optimism about pushing to get back to the playoffs as soon as possible next season.
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The Grizzlies, on the other hand, have chosen to take the scenic route back to meaningful spring basketball.
Last spring, after the eventual champion Thunder swept the Grizzlies in the first round, Kleiman told us exactly what he thought of the team: “I think everybody has to accept and be willing to get to the end goal here…I don’t think we can look back on this series and this season and say, ‘Oh, we were close.'” No, we weren’t. We are not close. There is still much work to be done. I need to be open-minded on multiple fronts. “
That openness brought about the end of an era as the Grizzlies lost again on Tuesday — only Portland has missed more games due to injury this season, according to Spotrac — to fall to 19-29 and three games shy of the Western Conference’s final playoff spot. Just over nine months after sweeping the Thunder, Kleiman turned Jackson and Desmond Bane into Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (with a $21.6 million player option for next season), rookies Cedric Cowherd and Walter Clayton Jr., third-year forward Tyler Hendricks, five future first-round picks (plus a top-two protected 2029 pick swap with Orlando), and about $17.4 in exchange for old friend Kyle Anderson (2018 (plays in Memphis through 2022) and Georges Niang’s expiring contract is worth $1 million — and, with some creative trade structure, is clearly the largest trade exception in NBA history.
All told, the Grizzlies now control 12 first-round picks in the next seven NBA drafts – more than any team except Oklahoma City and Brooklyn – including the Lakers’ protected top-four pick in 2027, as well as unprotected first-round picks in 2030 from Orlando and 2031 from Phoenix. With Jackson and Bane now gone, the only guaranteed non-rookie salary on the balance sheet after next season belongs to Morant; Memphis reportedly “continues to have offers and interest in him,” and the bill may actually be settled by Thursday afternoon.
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From a cold, dispassionate, analytical standpoint, that’s what you do when you’re sure you have no chance of winning — especially if you’re a small-market team that doesn’t have a lot of history of success in free agency. You fold the cards, shuffle them, and see what comes up next.
You’ll see that Coward averaged just under 19 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 4 assists per 36 minutes in shooting efficiency as a rookie; (That’s assuming Ty Jerome, who finally gets healthy and pitches right away, waives.) The roster now leans heavily toward players 25 and under — freshmen Clayton and Hendricks, veterans Jaylen Wells, GG Jackson and Cam Spencer, and, if they can get healthy, Zach Eadie and Scottie Pippen Jr. — with a chance to earn a spot in Memphis’ upcoming games.
Over the next 48 hours, you’ll earn about $34 million below the luxury tax line and have the flexibility to act as a facilitator for other teams in trades, renting out cap space in exchange for more draft picks and/or a test drive for young players. You give yourself as many bites at the apple as possible, and you hope that the next set of picks and prospects will be at least as successful as the guys you just dumped.
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It’s worth remembering that this is a very high standard. Morant, Jackson and Bane were key pieces on a team that produced two of six 50-win seasons in franchise history and one of the Grizzlies’ only five playoff series victories. They never reached the heights they seemed destined to reach in the spring of 2022, nor the level of the Z-Bo/Gasol/Conley/Allen Grit ‘n’ Grind era teams they inherited. but they won a lot of They were fan favorites during the regular season, and the city fell in love with them—which is why they showed up at FedExForum and tuned in night after night.
That, as well as the on-court performance, is what Kleiman must replace. Excessive draft coffers aren’t going to keep asses in seats or wins on the board. The players do. With the best-laid plans of the past era reduced to ashes, Kleiman and his front office had better find some damn good plans if they want to still be running the show when the Grizzlies are ready to begin the next round.
