Ja Morant’s injury means next season came way too fast for Memphis Grizzlies | Giannotto

Next season for the Memphis Grizzlies began with a 9 p.m. news dump that even punctured through the mass of people watching college football’s national championship game within NRG Stadium’s upper deck.

That is the power of Ja Morant.

He has shined so brightly on the NBA stage, and self-combusted so dramatically, that the crowd of Michigan fans around me Monday night momentarily forgot their nerves and anticipation to discuss the latest setback for the Memphis Grizzlies’ star.

They were invested in this polarizing narrative Morant constructed around himself, in ways that would have seemed unimaginable when the NBA first arrived in Memphis almost 25 years ago. We all are, from the league office to Nike to the fans who live and die with every Grizzlies’ game. But to hear it play out with a bunch of strangers in Houston wearing maize and blue, to see Morant briefly command the spotlight in a setting with no allegiances to him, was striking.

That is also why this is all so painful. For Morant, of course. But even more so for Memphis.

Morant is not going to play basketball again this season, you’ve surely heard by now. The Grizzlies announced he suffered a labral tear in his right shoulder that stemmed from a workout Saturday and will undergo season-ending surgery. He was gone for 25 games, and now he’s gone again.

“Tired of back soon,” Morant wrote on Instagram.

Exhausted is probably the better word. Last season ended with a thud. This season, for all intents and purposes, ended faster than anybody imagined.

So a team that a year ago thought it was on a championship trajectory, that lost its way right as Morant did and just seemed to be turning the corner again with Morant back, has been thrown right back into a state of uncertainty. The lost season everybody feared is here because Morant won’t be anymore. Until next season, at least.

Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins and his players are all going to say otherwise. They have to for the sake of the paying customers at FedExForum who will already have to do without the basketball wizardry and wonder Morant orchestrates on the court.

Who are we to put it past Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marcus Smart to make a run to the play-in tournament, however unlikely that feels given the team’s 6-19 record during Morant’s 25-game suspension?

But it won’t matter nearly as much when Morant can’t be out there with them.

That’s the real shame in all of this.

Want to know if Jenkins is the right coach to lead this team through the playoffs?

Want to know if Smart is the right fit for this roster?

Want to know how the Grizzlies’ front office should retool this supporting cast?

A thoughtful examination is a whole lot harder today now that Morant will have played so little this season.

Frankly, it might be better if the losses mount like they did at the start of this season. A better draft pick is a better asset for these Grizzlies to use heading into the offseason. That is, sadly, how Morant’s injury will transform this campaign — tanking for the sake of tinkering.

GIANNOTTO Ja Morant paid a heavy price. His FedExForum return proved Memphis did, too

Hopefully, it will feel like an unexpected and unfortunate gap year. The Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets recently went through such a detour when major injuries derailed their postseason plans, but they recovered to win the past two NBA championships.

But it also means the Grizzlies have one less season with Morant, Bane and Jackson all together. It means, as of now, there are only two seasons left in which all three are under contract. It means there could be plenty of time to bounce back, or not nearly enough. It means, over the course of 540-plus days or so, Morant will have played all of nine NBA games.

It means we’re all worse off because, whether he fascinates or frustrates you, a basketball player in Memphis has never resonated with everyone like Morant. And now, we can’t see him again until next season.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Ja Morant injury: Memphis Grizzlies’ uncertain outlook for next season