By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Ja Morant is out for the season.
After playing nine games when the NBA lifted his suspension due to a series of off-court misconduct, the athletic floor general will miss a longer time after the Memphis Grizzlies announced that he tore his labrum in his right shoulder last January 9, 2024.
Morant will then undergo a season-ending surgery to repair the subluxation in his right shoulder and will be fully healed by the start of the next NBA season.
The controversial franchise player made headlines when he returned from a 25-game suspension last December and immediately made an impact when he led the Grizzlies to a huge win.
Without Morant, the banged-up Grizzlies struggled to keep up with the other teams and finished with a disappointing record of seven wins and 20 losses.
As soon as Morant came back, Memphis had some hope of making a last push for the playoffs after they ended up with a 6-3 win-loss record.
In all the nine games that Morant played, he averaged an All-Star stat-line of 25.1 points, 8.1 assists, and 5.9 rebounds per matchup.
Currently, the Grizzlies are sitting at the 13th spot of the Western Conference with a record of 13-23, one of their worst season starts in the past three years.
Without the services of Morant for the remainder of the NBA season, the Grizzlies will have to bank on the trio of Desmond Bane, Jarren Jackson Jr., and Marcus Smart.
Memphis will have to gain some magical lift if they want to make a crucial push for the post-season. They are still behind four wins from the 12th-ranked Golden State Warriors team and are six wins behind the eighth-seeded Phoenix Suns.
