Ja Morant suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain in the Portland Trail Blazers' loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, ESPN's Shams Charania reports. He'll now miss at least the next four weeks, putting Morant out until around December.
This is a brutal blow to both Morant and Portland given how well he played to start the season. Morant averaged 15.8 points, 5.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals in 25.8 minutes, immediately benefiting from the change of scenery.
Ja Morant injury is a brutal blow after Blazers' hot start
Unfortunately, it's one of the risks Blazers general manager Joe Cronin willingly took on when making this surprising blockbuster trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. Morant has totaled just 79 games played over the last three seasons. And even when he is available, he is no longer at that same level of explosiveness.
Despite unfortunate yet unsurprising injuries such as these, Morant is still a worthwhile addition to this roster. Even without that same level of elite athleticism, he was finding ways to impact winning early on with his basketball IQ, unselfishness, ball-handling, playmaking, and a reliable floater.
At one point, Portland was 3-0 with the most efficient offense in the league. Morant's arrival was a huge reason why. Even knowing he's not playing all 82 games, the talent difference alone between Morant and the Jerami Grant/Kris Murray trade package makes this a drastic upgrade for Portland.
Blazers have the guard depth to survive Ja Morant injury
The injury certainly stings given how well Morant and the Blazers were playing. But the silver lining is that the Blazers have one of the deepest backcourts in the league. Players like Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, and Scoot Henderson are more than capable of filling the void.
That's part of the reason the Morant trade was so controversial at first, because Portland already had a strong backcourt without him. But as we've already seen, this team's ceiling is on a whole other level with Morant in the mix. They become a much more dangerous offense, which is going to give teams matchup problems in the postseason. As long as he's playing at this level in the playoffs, they're going to be a tough out for any team out west.
In the meantime, Portland has more than enough guards to keep this team afloat in the Western Conference playoff race for the next month while Morant gets healthy.
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