The second week of the NBA season is in the books, and we already have a big star looking upset with his situation. Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies are not exactly seeing eye-to-eye, with the point guard openly speaking out against his coaches and then suffering some consequences for vocalizing that. At the same time, we have teams surging, teams falling and the San Antonio Spurs off to a historic start. Is there something more to their immediate future? Let’s rewind this past weekend and start with the extended version of the NBA Stock Market — a Monday staple of our free NBA newsletter, The Bounce.
NBA stock market extended
📈 Milwaukee Bucks (4-2). The Bucks lost a tough one Saturday night to the Sacramento Kings, but it doesn’t ruin the good week they had. Giannis Antetokounmpo made his statement to the New York Knicks by taking them down and proclaiming Milwaukee is his city amid constant rumors of Giannis to New York. Then the Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors without Giannis! Ryan Rollins has emerged as an NBA player. He’s gone from being charged with shoplifting at Target while on the Washington Wizards in 2024 to playing surprisingly great point guard minutes for a Bucks team that desperately needs them.
Giannis has been a monster, and he’s back to playing Shaq-esque basketball. He’s averaging 23.2 points per game … just in the paint. He’s at 34.2 points per game overall. The Bucks are playing shockingly great offense right now. They’re pushing the pace a lot more and shooting the lights out from deep. The defense has been middle-of-the-road, but it needs to get better. I don’t know if they can keep up that balance, but it’s working early.
Things look bleak so far for Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. (Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images)
📉 New Orleans Pelicans (0-6). It’s getting really difficult to watch this Pelicans team. We knew they would be bad, despite having some intriguing talent on the roster with Zion Williamson being in the best shape of his life. The problem is that this team is not good on offense or defense. And since there aren’t special teams in basketball, being bad at both is pretty detrimental. You have to wonder how much longer Willie Green will keep his job. Aside from Dejounte Murray, this team is pretty healthy and just awful. So the excuse of last season’s unavailability is not valid here. The Pelicans haven’t had an easy schedule to start the season, but they also have three losses of 31 points or more.
It’s worth reminding everybody that the better of the first-round picks New Orleans owns (their own or Milwaukee’s) will head to the Atlanta Hawks in 2026. It is unprotected. And there are potential superstars at the top of the draft.
📈 Miami Heat’s pace (3-3). While the Heat are off to a pretty good start without Tyler Herro yet, their record isn’t what we’re focusing on here. Erik Spoelstra typically likes his teams to grind out games with a slow pace, a lot of defense and great execution. The last time the Heat were in the upper half of the NBA in pace was the 2005-06 season. They were 12th in pace that season under Stan Van Gundy and Pat Riley on their way to the title. Since then, they’ve only been higher than 20th once, when they finished 16th in the 2011-12 season. This season, they have the fastest pace in the NBA. They’re multiple possessions per game faster than the second-fastest teams (Washington), but this isn’t out of sloppiness. The Heat are 12th in turnover rate, so we’re getting a true push by them in a way we’ve never seen from a Spoelstra team.
The Heat were 29th in pace last season. They currently have the seventh-best offense and third-best defense. This very much suits Miami. Maybe the Heat saw what Indiana did the last couple of seasons and decided that was something they’d be interested in?
📉 Indiana Pacers’ health (1-5). Speaking of the Pacers, this is a miserable start. We knew Tyrese Haliburton was going to be out, but they’ve had so many injuries that they’re getting 10-day hardship exceptions for roster spots before Thanksgiving. The Pacers signed Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to one of those just to have bodies on the court. That comes after signing Mac McClung to play, not just be on a team for the dunk contest. Six of the Pacers under contract are on the injury report, and most of them are major parts of their rotation and identity.
Haliburton (out for the season with the Achilles), Bennedict Mathurin (week-to-week with a foot injury), TJ McConnell (hasn’t played yet due to a hamstring), Andrew Nembhard (day-to-day with a shoulder injury), Obi Toppin (out for three months with foot surgery) and Kam Jones (hasn’t played yet due to a back injury) are all out. No wonder this team is 1-5!
📈 Portland Trail Blazers (4-2). Even though the Blazers are missing their head coach — after Chauncey Billups was charged by the FBI over his alleged involvement in a mafia-led, illegal poker game — they are not letting that take them down. They’ve won three straight games, with victories over the LA Lakers, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets. They had to survive a late-game flurry by the Jazz to take that one and then turned around and took their first NBA Cup group-play game against the Nuggets. That happened thanks to some very good late-game execution. Their defense has fueled them so far.
Last season, they showed real signs of life in the second half of the season with great defensive spurts. After bringing in a rejuvenated Jrue Holiday this summer, the Blazers have even more leadership and performance on that end of the floor. Deni Avdija is playing excellent basketball, and it’s helped mitigate the slow start of Shaedon Sharpe and the absence of Scoot Henderson. The Blazers were hoping to be in the Play-In Tournament or better this season. After this start, it doesn’t seem so unreasonable to have that expectation or goal.
📉 Sacramento Kings (2-4). The win over the Bucks this weekend definitely helped make this week feel better than it was looking. The Kings just don’t have a lot of positives so far this season. Their offense has been mostly bad, with all of their ball-dominant players on the roster. The shooting hasn’t been terrible, but they really don’t shoot a lot of 3-pointers. Usually that can be balanced out by getting offensive rebounds or getting to the free-throw line. They don’t do that stuff either. They’re one of the worst in the league at both.
On top of that, they can’t stop anybody. They give up an outrageous number of points in the paint. And they’re one of the 10 worst teams at defensive rebounding. That seems nearly impossible with Domantas Sabonis and Russell Westbrook at their respective positions. But that’s been the start of the season for the Kings.
Big Story: Walking from Memphis?
We didn’t even make it to November before a star player became openly frustrated about his situation. And that will always get front offices and fan bases salivating at the possibility of acquiring said star. Sorry, Knicks fans and online rumor consumers, but it’s not Giannis Antetokounmpo. He seems pretty set in Milwaukee for now. The openly frustrated star is Morant.
On Friday night, the Grizzlies lost to the Lakers 117-112 to open NBA Cup group-play. Morant struggled with just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting. He was 0-0f-6 from deep. He did have seven assists and just one turnover but didn’t score in the fourth quarter, only took two shots and didn’t have an assist in more than eight minutes. When he was asked in the locker room after the game what went wrong, his response was pretty terse.
“Go ask the coaching staff.”
Ruh roh. Follow-up question: Did he feel there was anything he could have done differently?
“Go ask them. They had a whole spiel in here, so …”
Another reporter then mentioned that it didn’t look like he had his typical energy from the outset of the game.
“Go ask the coaching staff why.”
He was asked if he felt like he should play more. He logged 31 minutes in the game. Morant is averaging 28.5 minutes per game this season, and is around 31.9 for his career. His response?
“Go ask the coaching staff should I play more or not.”
A reporter then tried to get a different answer than “go ask the coaching staff” in regards to what could have gone better in the game.
“According to them, probably don’t play me, honestly. That’s basically what the message was after, so it’s cool.”
Morant clarified that he’s physically fine. No illness or injury. None of this reads well, but you can absolutely not get the correct tone when you read quotes like this. When you watch it, the energy around what Ja is saying and the vibe of this Grizzlies squad appear to be terrible.
« Demandez au coaching staff (x4). […] D’après eux, il ne faut probablement pas me faire jouer. […] C’est en gros le message qu’on m’a fait passer » 🥶
Quand ton FP envoie des grandes allusions comme celles-ci en interview d’après-match, ça pue…pic.twitter.com/DrBSyMwFwG
— 50 Nuances 🇺🇸🏀 (@50NuancesDeNBA) November 1, 2025
Welcome to Yikes City. Population: them. The Grizzlies suspended Morant for one game after these comments.
The reason this feels like more than just a frustrated moment is because of what happened last season. You may remember the Grizzlies fired their coach, Taylor Jenkins, with nine games left. A lot went into the firing, but part of it was the forced implementation of an offense from assistant Noah LaRoche and then-assistant, now head coach Tuomas Iisalo. LaRoche was fired with Jenkins, but the offense was a major point of contention. This was The Athletic’s reporting in March when Jenkins was fired:
Morant played his entire career for Jenkins and remained supportive of the coach up to the end, a league source said. Morant did not, however, like the new offense. He has played in just 43 games this season, missing this most recent stretch because of a hamstring injury while also dealing with right shoulder soreness. But when he’s been on the court, according to a league source, Morant has complained about the new scheme, which takes the ball out of his hands and removes the screens he likes to use as a ball handler to make plays.
One league source who has seen Morant work out with the Grizzlies recently said, “Some days he looks like he’s ready to play, and some days he looks like he doesn’t want to be there … because he hates the offense.”
The proof was in the pudding with the Grizzlies’ offensive system last season. Despite Morant hating it, the Grizzlies were sixth in the NBA in offense on their way to 48 wins. There were results to look to, even if he didn’t enjoy being in it. His scoring average (23.2) was his lowest in four seasons, and his assists (7.3) were his lowest in three seasons. This season, the results haven’t been positive for the 3-4 Grizzlies:
• They barely beat New Orleans and the Phoenix Suns, two bad teams.
• They got smoked by Miami and Golden State (lost control in the third quarter).
• Their offense is ranked 19th to start.
• Morant’s scoring average (20.8) is by far his lowest in five seasons, down 6.6 points per game since 2022.
• His assist average (6.7) is tied for the lowest of his career.
• He’s shooting the worst of his career with 40.6/15.6/97.1 shooting splits.
• Interestingly, though, he has the third-highest usage rate (32.7) of his career.
Morant is openly criticizing the coaching staff, the team is not off to a good start in a very competitive Western Conference, they sent Desmond Bane to Orlando this summer for financial flexibility and people were already wondering last season if Ja would want to be there long-term. This feels ripe for trade rumors. That could be way too reactionary and dramatic, but the vultures and sharks in this league are headed there with this situation.
After this season, Morant has two more years left on his contract, and he’s extension-eligible this summer. If he’s this frustrated already, should we expect him to be on the Grizzlies after the trade deadline this season? Here are the teams that need a long-term point guard:
• Orlando Magic: Tyus Jones is on a one-year deal. Jalen Suggs is their de facto PG, but he has injury issues. The problem with the Magic is they already have a lot of money tied up in Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Bane and Suggs. Two of those guys would likely have to go back in a prospective deal, because the Magic already gave the Grizzlies all of their future picks for Bane this past summer.
• Boston Celtics: Payton Pritchard isn’t really a starter on a great team (if the Celtics can build their roster back up), but you’re not going to cut costs in a gap year and acquire a massive deal like Morant’s.
• Miami: They need a big star, and we know Riley and company love to acquire big stars. Since they missed out on the Damian Lillard experience, would they give up a bunch of young guys and picks to get Morant?
• Milwaukee: This would probably make Giannis happy, but the Bucks don’t really have the assets to make a swing like that.
• Minnesota Timberwolves: A successor to Mike Conley is needed, and it’s unclear if Rob Dillingham can fill that role. The Wolves are up against the second apron moving forward, though, and grabbing Morant would be pretty difficult to pull off.
• Phoenix: Pairing Devin Booker with a top point guard has worked before. I just don’t think the Suns have the assets to pull this off.
There isn’t an easy landing spot on this list. I love the idea of seeing what it looks like to swap him and Trae Young. Regardless, things don’t look great in Memphis, and the suspension might not ease tensions.
The Week Ahead: Are the Spurs the next Thunder?
I know, I know. Calm down, right? I totally get it. I don’t mean Spurs can win the championship this season and throw themselves into the elite status level of the Thunder, the Nuggets, the Houston Rockets and the Wolves (if Anthony Edwards can get and remain healthy) at the top of the West. But they’re off to the best start in franchise history after winning their first five games (their first loss came Sunday against the Suns), and Victor Wembanyama continues to break the brains of everybody watching him. It’s not just Wemby, though. There’s a lot of young talent on this team, and Spurs have gotten a lot of development out of these young guys leading into this season.
Half their 10-man rotation is 25 years or younger, and Keldon Johnson just turned 26 last month. We normally don’t see such young teams compete consistently like this. But the Thunder became the second-youngest team in NBA history to win a championship in 2025, and the Houston Rockets were the No. 2 seed despite a very young rotation. Wembanyama starting his third season in historic fashion makes everything difficult to judge. The hot start is legitimate because this team does seem really good. They’re playing great offense and defense. And with him on the floor, they’re entirely dominant.
At the same time, exceptions to the rule (like the Thunder and Rockets) don’t necessarily mean the rule doesn’t exist for a reason. It’s worth revisiting the idea, when there is a good mix of young talent and a couple of key veterans. The thing about the Spurs is, they don’t have a lot of veterans. It’s basically Harrison Barnes, Luke Kornet, Jordan McLaughlin and Bismack Biyombo in the mix right now.
Remember, De’Aaron Fox will be added to this team relatively soon, and then you’ve got an All-NBA/All-Star level point guard joining up with the early success that’s building confidence and momentum. He’ll have to find a balance with Wembanyama, as well as Stephon Castle and rookie Dylan Harper. Both players have been fantastic to start the season, and Fox won’t want to come in and ruin that chemistry.
Wemby is already one of the five best players in the world, and I’m not certain he’s No. 5.
The Spurs will get a great test in the middle of this week when they face those Rockets with Kevin Durant. That will come after going against Luka Dončić on Monday. We’re going to continually find out how real the Spurs are and how meaningful this incredible start is. I’m just not sure anybody was prepared to consider them as a viable threat so early into this campaign, if this season at all.
