My initial reaction to the news that the Memphis Grizzlies had finally moved on from Ja Morant, trading the former #2 overall pick to Portland, was, Ty Jerome is running the show there now.
But now, from what I’m seeing coming out of Memphis, it’s appearing that the UVA Basketball alum could be on his way out, too.
The reason: Memphis is in obvious teardown-and-rebuild mode, and Jerome, who has two years left on a team-friendly three-year deal, probably has more value as a trade piece than as a guy playing out the next two years in the franchise’s transition phase.
Jerome signed a three-year, $28 million contract last summer after a career-reclamation 2024-2025 season in Cleveland, which ended with him being a finalist for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
He missed a big chunk of his first season in Memphis with a right calf injured sustained in a preseason game, then was on a minutes restriction before being shut down as Memphis played out the string – but in his limited minutes in just 15 games, he put up career numbers: 19.7 points and 5.7 assists in 22.6 minutes per game, shooting 52.2 percent on twos and 42.0 percent on threes.
Assuming he’s healthy, he can be a value to a contender looking for somebody to run the second unit, as he did for a 64-win Cleveland team in 2024-2025.
The terms of the contract that he signed last summer could also make him expendable – Year 3 of the deal is a player option, and if Jerome were to put up anywhere near the kind of numbers that he did in his first season in Memphis, he would be a sure bet to opt out and test the free-agent market again.
If you’re Memphis, and you assume this to be the case, that’s a motivation to move on already from Jerome, get a haul including a young player or two and draft picks, and start building around the young guys.
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Chris Graham
