Kendrick Perkins believes the trade market just sent Ja Morant a brutal message: “Nobody wants you”
February 7, 2026
The Purgatory of Ja Morant: How an NBA Superstar’s Value Fell to Zero
“They can’t trade you. They can’t trade you. Nobody wants you,” thundered ESPN analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins on live television, putting a stark, brutal point on one of the most stunning developments of the 2026 NBA trade deadline.
Kendrick Perkins says we have a real problem with American athletes
“We just watch the Hawks trade Trae Young for basically nothing. Now you got Memphis wanting to trade Ja Morant. Just 3 years ago we was talking about Ja being the face of the fu*king league. The Europeans are… pic.twitter.com/7gzUXGnWlC
The player he was talking about wasn’t a fading veteran. He was Ja Morant, a 26-year-old former Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star, once hailed as a future face of the league.
The buzzer sounded on the NBA trade deadline, and the two most speculated-about players Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant stayed put. For Giannis, it was a strategic pause; teams like the Knicks, Warriors, and Timberwolves are expected to revive their high-stakes bidding war in the summer.
Instead, executives whispered a damning phrase: “negative value”. This means potential trade partners weren’t just unwilling to give up assets for Morant; they insisted the Grizzlies would have to pay them with additional draft picks just to take his massive contract off their hands.
The Meteoric Rise and the Sudden Fall
Ja Morant’s arrival was a lightning bolt. Selected second overall in the 2019 draft, he immediately won Rookie of the Year and quickly evolved into a human highlight reel. By his third season (2021-22).
This 2025-26 season has been a continuation of the same troubling story. Morant has played in only 20 of Memphis’s 49 games, currently sidelined with an elbow injury.
A Franchise’s Pivot and a Player’s Purgatory
The Grizzlies’ actions speak louder than any rumor. In a clear signal of a full-scale rebuild, they have already traded away their other foundational pieces, shipping Desmond Bane to Orlando last summer and Jaren Jackson Jr. to Utah just before the deadline.
General Manager Zach Kleiman’s post-deadline comments were telling. While stating Morant “continues to be on this team going forward,” he framed the decision as one of “organizational direction”.
What Comes Next? The Summer of Reckoning
The consensus among league insiders is that the Grizzlies will aggressively revisit trading Morant this summer. The offseason provides a larger pool of potential trade partners and more flexibility for teams to structure deals.
However, the fundamental challenges remain. Memphis will have to decide if they are willing to attach the precious draft capital they just acquired to incentivize a team to take Morant.
A few teams, like the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat, have been sporadically linked to Morant as potential fits, but their interest has been tepid at best. The market, for now, is frozen.
Conclusion: A Stark Warning and a Crossroads
Kendrick Perkins’s harsh commentary, while dramatic, underscores a painful truth the league has now formalized. Talent alone is not enough.
The trade deadline didn’t just send a message; it sounded an alarm. Whether it serves as a wake-up call or a requiem is a story only Ja Morant can write.
