Nets bench key players as trade deadline looms, sparking speculation about their futures and potential dealings with a Morant-less Grizzlies squad.
The Brooklyn Nets' incoming faceoff against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon comes at an interesting time for both franchises as the Feb. 5 trade deadline quickly approaches.
Both Brooklyn and Memphis' star players have been involved in plenty of trade rumor mill gossip over the past few days, and the Nets' injury report for the contest might further fuel rumors regarding the immediate futures of Michael Porter Jr. and a few other contributors.
According to a recent post on X by The New York Post's Brian Lewis, the Nets included Porter Jr. and others on the injury report at a convenient time, considering their opponent and the recent rumblings surrounding Morant's trade market.
Porter Jr. will sit out against the Grizzlies to rest, while 3-and-D wing Ziaire Williams and stifling two-way rookie Drake Powell will miss the game due to an illness and a left knee issue, respectively. ex-Miami Heat wing Haywood Highsmith also remains out to continue recovering from a knee injury of his own.
Interestingly enough, speculation has begun to circulate in the aftermath of Brooklyn's release of this report because of the trade implications that it might bring, especially since Memphis also decided to hold Morant out of the contest as well, as pointed out by ClutchPoints' NBA insider Brett Siegel on X.
"No Michael Porter Jr. for the Nets tomorrow against the Grizzlies, and no Ja Morant for Memphis," Siegel shared Saturday night.
Though there haven't been many serious conversations reported between the two franchises on the subject of a Porter Jr.-Morant swap or anything of the sort, the convenient timing of both players' announced absences have been noted by fans and media members alike.
In a modern NBA where coincidences will always be looked into, the reports beg the question of whether the organizations front offices have been in contact in recent days or weeks.
The idea of bringing a talent who once rose to a 'superstar' tag in Morant would certainly bring plenty of excitement to Brooklyn, but a Porter Jr. deal doesn't make plenty of sense in the grand scheme of things.
Brooklyn's focus should be on developing their younger, more pronounced talents like Egor Dëmin, Drake Powell, Nolan Traoré and Danny Wolf, and throwing one or multiple of those talents away in a transaction to land one of the NBA's least valuable stars on the trade market would be counterintuitive, to say the least.
If anything, the Nets sending either or both of Williams and/or Highsmith to a contender for some form of draft capital seems much more likely.
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