🏀 Latest NBA intel on futures of Ja, Zion, Trae

07.11.2025, 16:28 espn.com

Even before Ja Morant's postgame comments last week that led to a one-game suspension, followed by the star guard passing on the chance to defuse tension between himself and the Memphis Grizzlies coaching staff, plenty of eyes were watching how their season would play out.

Last spring, after a shocking late-season coaching upheaval and a first-round sweep by the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman was blunt in his assessment.

"I don't think we can look back at this series and say 'Oh, we're close!' he said. "No, we're not."

Then came this summer, when Memphis sent Desmond Bane -- a pillar of the franchise alongside Morant and big man Jaren Jackson Jr. -- to the Orlando Magic for a haul of draft picks, backing up Kleiman's words with significant action. The Grizzlies handed Jackson a five-year, $240 million contract extension -- and didn't tack on any additional seasons to the three years and roughly $126 million owed to Morant.

Those moves left Morant and the Grizzlies in a version of NBA limbo entering this season, even before the team's current situation. But Morant is just one of several franchise stars facing uncertain futures in the first few weeks of 2025-26.

Here is a look at each of them, what league insiders are saying about their individual futures and where their teams are headed -- with, or potentially without, those standouts moving forward.

Jump to player intel:Ja Morant | Zion Williamson | Trae YoungLaMelo Ball | Giannis Antetokounmpo

2025-26: 22.0 PPG (38.3 FG%), 7.3 APG, 30.0 MPGContract: Year 3 of five-year, $197 million deal

Windhorst: Naturally sparking all kinds of trade speculation, Morant's one-game suspension was the leading conversation piece when speaking with league executives. But any such talk is also low-hanging fruit. The Grizzlies are highly incentivized to make this situation work and that seems to be what they are still trying to accomplish amid a 3-6 start.

"I gotta say, that was a ballsy move by the coach," a Western Conference general manager said about Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo's willingness to confront Morant. "When you're a rookie coach and you're into it with a star, you don't have many options. He chose a fight, and the organization backed him up [with the suspension]."

Iisalo, who is Finnish and spent his career playing and coaching overseas before last season, has a different viewpoint on game strategy than most of his NBA peers. One of the most obvious is his method of playing lineups in three- to four-minute shifts and then mass substituting to encourage continuous high-energy play.

Iisalo won championships in Germany and France playing this way, winning the attention of several NBA teams that wanted to hire him, and he believes strongly that it creates leveraging opportunities. The players on those teams didn't always love the concept at first, Iisalo has admitted. But he repeatedly demonstrated an ability to win them over with the tactics. For example, playing with more defensive ball and screen pressure than the opponents combined with more overall pace on offense started working.

Morant, whose shooting percentages are at career-worst levels, seems to still be in the skeptical camp. That is believed to be a core issue in the player and coach's locker room back-and-forth that preceded Sunday's suspension.

"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, who knows Iisalo's game plans well, told ESPN. "He is running his system there. But it is not creating the advantages that are expected yet."

Bontemps: All the drama that's played out over the past few years and the decline in Morant's play from the showstopping heights of the first couple of seasons of his career, the easy thing to do is to say, "Well, just find the best trade you can make and move on."

In talking with various sources around the league, Morant is still viewed as a borderline top-10 player at the position -- and that's before factoring in the previous off-court issues -- but there aren't many teams around the league in need of a starting point guard.

Morant also remains very popular in Memphis, a market players aren't exactly flocking to, and one in which Morant has repeatedly said he wants to remain.

"He sells shoes, he sells tickets, and he wants to play in Memphis when no one wants to," a Western Conference assistant coach said. "So it makes for a really, really difficult situation."

Windhorst: This is not the first time a college or European coach has arrived with the belief they can disrupt the NBA game. And it's not the first time the stars have been a hard sell.

"I've never seen drastic change like that work, going back to Paul Westhead trying to bring his Loyola Marymount system to Denver [in 1990]," a veteran executive said. "I don't mean to oversimplify it, but the best teams play their best players the most minutes."

Iisalo fundamentally rejects traditional thinking such as this.

"Basketball, just like every team sport, is evolving. The demands on intensity are higher and higher. We are looking to also adapt to the times," Iisalo said this week. "The only goal of the sub pattern is to find a competitive advantage from it."

He doesn't have to sell other teams on it -- he has to sell Morant on it. If he doesn't, working together will likely remain tough.

Bontemps: The other question sources around the league are asking is whether the Grizzlies, at some point this season, would entertain moving on from Jackson, as well, if they choose to end their partnership with Morant.

While there's a clear consensus that there wouldn't be much of a market for Morant, Jackson -- a floor-spacing, rim-protecting big -- would certainly appeal to plenty of clubs, especially given he's now under contract through 2030, and thus even small-market teams could pursue him and know he would be sticking around.

That is the same formula that led the Cleveland Cavaliers to swing on Donovan Mitchell and the Minnesota Timberwolves to acquire Rudy Gobert. The two All-Stars had plenty of time left on their deals at the time of their respective trades from the Utah Jazz.

"He's a perfect complementary guy," an Eastern Conference scout said of Jackson's game, "and he can play just about anywhere."

Saturday, Nov. 8Suns at Clippers, 10:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 12Magic at Knicks, 7 p.m.Lakers at Thunder, 9:30 p.m.

All times Eastern

But the 6-foot-10 Jackson has averaged more than six rebounds just once in his career, making it difficult to play him full-time at center and blunting his value. He also has always been a foul-prone player, averaging 4.4 this season.

That said, as a legitimate 3-point shooter who has averaged just under 2 blocks for his career, Jackson has the skill set every team is hoping to find in a big.

"He fills a rare archetype," the scout said.

We have seen several recent high-level players who fit a certain sweet spot as a complimentary star -- Bane, Gobert and Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks, for example -- be traded for a haul of draft picks. And, if Memphis were able to make such a move, it would walk into a loaded 2026 NBA draft with what currently would be two lottery picks. (And potentially more, depending on the outcome of these trades).

Kleiman has already accumulated an interesting crop of young talent on this roster, including Cedric Coward, the No. 11 pick in this year's draft; Zach Edey, the No. 9 selection last year; and Jaylen Wells, a second-rounder last year who finished third in Rookie of the Year voting.

2025-26: 22.8 PPG (48.7 FG%), 6.8 RPG, 31.4 MPGContract: Year 3 of five-year, $197 million deal

Bontemps: Before the New Orleans Pelicans picked up wins on back-to-back nights against a pair of banged-up teams (Charlotte Hornets and Dallas Mavericks) earlier this week, there wasn't a more depressing situation in the league in the early going.

Every loss would set off another series of reminders around the league that the Pelicans had not only traded their pick in next year's draft in June to the Atlanta Hawks -- a selection that could easily wind up near the top of the lottery -- but that the Pelicans also dealt the Indiana Pacers back their 2026 top-four protected first-round pick a few days before Tyrese Haliburton tore an Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. (The Pacers are 1-7 and are in a three-way tie with the Brooklyn Nets and the Washington Wizards for the worst record in the NBA).

Williamson, meanwhile, is again sidelined with a hamstring injury, further complicating the situation facing new president of basketball operations Joe Dumars.

"I'm glad he's in shape," a Western Conference scout said of Williamson, "but I think he needs to go. I think a change of scenery would make sense for everybody."

Windhorst: The intel that exists on Williamson within the league, fairly or not, is not great. There have been numerous coaches, support staff and teammates that have cycled through New Orleans over the past seven years, which includes all the injuries and a one-game suspension in January for being late to a team flight.

Stated simply, even with his unusual non-guaranteed contract over the next two years that offers the franchise protection, Williamson's trade value isn't super high.

"To be honest, their move might be a win-now trade, not a Zion trade," a rival executive said. "His trade value isn't there and they are facing some pressure to win."

The first order of business for Dumars when he got the job over the summer was to commit to Williamson, closing any speculation about the Pelicans changing direction. Dumars followed that up in the fall with praise about Williamson's offseason work as the Hall of Famer bought into the belief that the former No. 1 pick had turned a corner.

It wasn't the first October where th