Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Skull of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette; Vincent Van Gogh; 1885-86

Ja Morant, freshly off his 25-game suspension, will miss the rest of the season due to a torn labrum. He will have ended up playing nine games this year for the Grizzlies, with Memphis going 6-3 in those matches. They are 7-20 without him.

This is bad, for the Grizzlies and the broader NBA. Ja is one of the most exciting players in the world, as evidenced by his jaw-dropping performance (including a game-winner) in his first game back. He managed to squeeze in a highlight involving Victor Wembanyama during his brief spell on the court, and gave Memphis real, legitimate hope of working their way up to the play-in.

Morant also happens to be one of the higher-rated young American players in the league, and there’s a sense that the NBA needs a few of them to really pop — in a way that there’s some evidence Morant had — in the broader audience consciousness to help boost the NBA’s relevance with kids. Anthony Edwards, who has had some shaky moments in the spotlight, is the great hope here. I’m not sure I totally buy that the next stars of the league need to be American, but Morant (and draftmate Zion Williamson) hold a good deal of importance in that conversation.

In any case, here are three silver linings for Memphis given this otherwise awful news.

1. The Grizzlies will get a high draft pick out of this.

The obvious bright side is that Memphis is now poised to land a top-10 pick, assuming the rest of the season goes as the first 25 games went (the Grizzlies were 6-19). There are three teams that will certainly remain worse than Memphis (the Pistons, Spurs and Wizards) and two that likely will depending on health (the Hornets and Blazers). That puts Memphis around the sixth worst team in the NBA. Utah is theoretically in conversation with the Grizzlies at that spot, but the Jazz are out here destroying the Bucks, so … I don’t know. Injuries on other shaky teams could drop someone, as well. (We’re monitoring the Tyrese Haliburton hamstring injury.)

In any case, it’s difficult to see the Grizzlies finishing with a record better than 10 teams at this point. So they should add a top-10 pick to this roster heading forward, and possibly a top-5 pick. That’s a nice boon in the middle of a team’s window.

2. The Grizzlies won’t make any rash win-now trades yet.

Given that the Grizzlies (until this season) have been really good since the Bubble, it’s easy to forget that the team is really young. They were the Thunder before the Thunder. Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. are 24. Desmond Bane is 25. That’s three All-Star caliber players 26 or younger next season, all of them locked into long-term contracts. That’s a great personnel set-up.

The Grizzlies also have all of their own first-round picks going forward. The fact that Memphis is no longer concerned with making a run to the play-in means that they can hold their powder dry in any moves for another wing, a reserve guard or a center to cover JJJ’s weaknesses. The absence of desperation can let the team-building plan move more naturally.

3. The Grizzlies won’t rush back any injured players.

Brandon Clarke was a player who could have come back late this season to help boost the Grizzlies’ play-in and playoff odds, but now there’s no need: Memphis should adjust his timeline to have him ready for Team Canada’s Olympic foray (where he can rejoin old pal Dillon Brooks), which will help prepare him for the next NBA season.

Similarly, if any Grizzlies get banged up between now and April, Taylor Jenkins and the crew can take their time and not risk aggravating anything. This is one of the subtle nuances of tanking. Players with 1-week injuries end up sitting for two. It’d be interesting to know if that type of extended recovery extends careers or has no real impact.

The Zero Sum

The Morant injury has upsides for other teams, of course. Particularly, the teams fighting for a play-in spot might breathe a sigh of relief here. This is one less team to worry about.

By my count, there are now 11 teams interesting in making the Western Conference playoffs, with 10 of them desperate to do so. Interestingly, one of those desperate teams — the Golden State Warriors, who don’t control their own first-round pick — is No. 12 in the conference right now. Above them sits the aforementioned Utah Jazz at No. 11, who rather nakedly opted against chasing a play-in spot last season after a strong first half. One can only assume that, on the cusp of finishing a perfectly average first half this season, the Jazz are still not interested in tinkering on the edges of the play-in race and will opt out again. But this is just a working assumption based on recent history. They may just very well finish above the Warriors.

The other team that I think won’t opt out of the race but that wouldn’t land in some crisis if they finished No. 11 is the Houston Rockets, who actually sit No. 9 at 18-17, ahead of not just the Warriors but also the Lakers (No. 10, 18-19). The Rockets, like the Lakers, Warriors and Suns (19-18, No. 8), will benefit from the Grizzlies’ tragedy. There’s one less team in the mix for the limited spots available.

I Got One More (Headlock) In Me

Draymond Green is back with the Warriors, with his suspension having been lifted by the league after 12 games. He will reportedly play within the next week. On Monday, he released a long-awaited podcast episode talking about his suspension. I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but the big news that he wanted to share is that Adam Silver saved him from retiring.

This tidbit was reported by ESPN before the episode went live. The company that produces Green’s podcast also released a bunch of news about him signing a new media contract with them and all that. Good for them and everyone involved. A return of independent sports media would be great.

Anyways, I am deeply skeptical that Green would actually have gone through with retiring, having just signed a lucrative multi-year deal with the Warriors and given how much he says he respects Stephen Curry. Rare is the player that walks away with money on the table, juice in the veins and something to prove. Draymond has all of the above. You wonder how Rudy Gobert’s neck, Domantas Sabonis’ chest and Jusuf Nurkic’s face feel about Silver convincing Green to stick around, though. You wonder if there are some players in the NBA who would throw a parade of ol’ Natural Motion rode off into the sunset.

I’m looking forward to seeing how thoroughly embraced Green is by the Warriors’ roster when he’s back on the court.

Scores

Thunder 136, Wizards 128 — 84 points combined for OKC’s new big three. This level of offense against a defense of the Wizards’ caliber is just sort of unfair.

Celtics 131, Pacers 133 — No Jayson Tatum in this one, and Haliburton left early. Even with those two factoids in place: Boston giving up 133 to the Pacers is an abomination. Benn Mathurin was blazing hot (26 points in 29 minutes, five threes) and Indiana shot exactly 50% outside the paint for 71 points on 52 shots (68% eFG on jumpers, basically).

Messy, controversial end to the game with some reviews. The Celtics might have gotten jobbed here. On the other hand, if Jrue Holiday simply doesn’t let T.J. McConnell blow by him in the final minute. And I’m also curious as to why Jaylen Brown is shooting with 3 seconds left on the clock of a tie game?

Bulls 119, Hornets 112 (OT) — Undefeated with Zach LaVine coming off the bench! YOU’RE the problem.

Free Terry Rozier.

Rockets 113, Heat 120 — Jimmy Butler is up to 12 games missed. Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro are good enough to beat fringe playoff teams without him. But Jimmy’s late run to the All-NBA team is in real jeopardy with the new games minimum.

Jazz 132, Bucks 116 — After the Bucks lost to the Rockets the other night, Giannis Antetokounmpo (who had 48 in that game, mind you) called out the entire team in rather unintentionally humorous fashion.

"We have to be better. We have to play better, we have to defend better, we have to trust one another better, we have to be coached better," Antetokounmpo said. "Every single thing, everybody has to be better. It starts from the equipment manager -- he has to wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better, the leaders of the team have to be more vocal, we have to make more shots, we have to defend better, we have to have a better strategy, we have to be better. We have four months to get better, so we'll see."

The Bucks trailed the Jazz 77-46 at home at halftime on Monday.

Giannis after this game:

"I think we have great fans, but around the league, if you don't play hard and don't give everything for the team, there are times where you might get booed... S**t, I'd boo myself tonight too."

Suns 111, Clippers 138 — Just when it felt like Phoenix was getting it together, and they got Bradley Beal back … they get beaten by the Grizzlies without Ja Morant and then get shellacked by the Clippers.

Be excellent to each other.