2026-27 projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 31.0 | .455 | .790 | 1.2 | 21.8 | 3.7 | 7.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 3.2 |
Correction 2026-07-18: base GP lowered from 60 to 50. A 60-game base was a three-fold jump off a 20-game season with no clearance event to justify it. Morant's last 2025-26 appearance was January 21; Memphis ruled him out for the season on March 24 with a left-elbow UCL sprain treated with PRP, and reporting at his Portland introduction noted he had been limited to roughly 70 games across the previous two seasons. The cut stops at 50 rather than lower because the elbow prognosis is favourable and non-surgical, and because Portland's need for lead-guard minutes is real — but a crowded Lillard/Henderson/Sharpe/Holiday backcourt gives the club every reason to sit him on back-to-backs. ESPN
Role and evidence
Portland acquired Morant for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray on June 29. The official trade report says he averaged 19.5 points and 8.1 assists over 20 games in 2025-26 and had appeared in only 79 games across the prior three seasons because of injuries and suspensions. NBA/AP, updated 2026-06-30
His last season ended after a left-elbow UCL sprain; he shot .410 from the field and .235 from three, with 3.6 turnovers. FantasyData, accessed 2026-07-18. The base case grants him 31 starting point-guard minutes but shares initiation with Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija.
Fantasy value
- 9-cat: picks 55-75, best in punt-TO or punt-3 builds.
- Points: top 40-55 if healthy because rim scoring and assists translate cleanly.
- Dynasty: Hashtag ranks him No. 80, capturing the large gap between age-26 talent and reliability. Hashtag Basketball, updated 2026-07-02
Range
- Ceiling: 24/4/8 over 68 games, approaching top-30 points value if the elbow is fully sound.
- Floor: fewer than 45 games, sub-.430 shooting and a reduced role if defense/discipline problems recur.
- Swing variables: elbow clearance, league/team conduct, Lillard's workload, and whether Portland staggers its stars.
Related: Portland Trail Blazers · Damian Lillard · Scoot Henderson
Career record
Pre-NBA: Murray State, 2017-18 and 2018-19. Unranked by ESPN, 247Sports, and Rivals out of Crestwood High School in South Carolina, with South Carolina his only major offer; a Murray State assistant found him at a camp in July 2016. He averaged 12.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists as a freshman, then 24.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 10.0 assists as a sophomore — the first player in Division I history to average 20 points and 10 assists in a season. That year brought consensus first-team All-American, Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, the Bob Cousy Award, the Lute Olson Award, and the national assists title. Draft: 2019, first round, second overall by Memphis; no draft-night trade.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | 20 | MEM | 67 | 31.0 | 17.8 | 3.9 | 7.3 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.9 | .477 | .776 | 3.3 |
| 2020-21 | 21 | MEM | 63 | 32.6 | 19.1 | 4.0 | 7.4 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.2 | .449 | .728 | 3.2 |
| 2021-22 | 22 | MEM | 57 | 33.1 | 27.4 | 5.7 | 6.7 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.5 | .493 | .761 | 3.4 |
| 2022-23 | 23 | MEM | 61 | 31.9 | 26.2 | 5.9 | 8.1 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | .466 | .748 | 3.4 |
| 2023-24 | 24 | MEM | 9 | 35.3 | 25.1 | 5.6 | 8.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 1.6 | .471 | .813 | 3.0 |
| 2024-25 | 25 | MEM | 50 | 30.4 | 23.2 | 4.1 | 7.3 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.8 | .454 | .824 | 3.7 |
| 2025-26 | 26 | MEM | 20 | 28.5 | 19.5 | 3.3 | 8.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | .410 | .897 | 3.6 |
| Career | 327 | 31.7 | 22.4 | 4.6 | 7.4 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | .466 | .773 | 3.4 |
Honors: Rookie of the Year and All-Rookie first team in 2020, Most Improved Player and All-NBA second team in 2022, two All-Star selections. Traded to Portland on June 29, 2026 for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.
Fantasy history: Partially verifiable. His 2021-22 season — the 27.4-point MIP year — is documented as the only top-50 eight-category finish of his career, at roughly 46th. A mid-March 2023 ESPN category-league snapshot had him PG15 and about 52nd overall, but that is an in-season cut, not a season-end rank; his true 2022-23 finish is not verified. No season-end 9-category rank could be confirmed for 2019-20, 2020-21, 2023-24, 2024-25, or 2025-26, and the last three are academic given he played 9, 50, and 20 games. The structural point matters more than any single rank: Morant has never been a category-league star even at his statistical peak, because 3.4 career turnovers and 0.3 blocks eat most of what the scoring and assists earn, and his free-throw percentage only became an asset in the two seasons he barely played. The points-league shape is materially better than the category shape — rim scoring, assists, and a high shot volume all translate cleanly to points formats, where turnovers are penalized lightly or not at all. Treat him as a points-league asset who happens to also be draftable in categories, not the reverse.
Durability: 67, 63, 57, 61, 9, 50, 20 across seven seasons. He has never played 70 games. The causes are a mix of injury and conduct, and they need to be separated. 2021-22: a tweaked right knee on March 18 cost nine games. 2022-23: an eight-game suspension on March 4 after a firearm incident in a Colorado nightclub, plus assorted absences. 2023-24: a 25-game league suspension to open the year following a second firearm incident, a return on December 19, then a right shoulder subluxation in practice and season-ending surgery on January 8, 2024 — nine games total. 2024-25: a dunk-attempt injury against the Lakers on November 6 cost about ten games, and he publicly stopped attempting dunks by December. 2025-26: a one-game team suspension for conduct detrimental to the team early, then a right calf strain that cost over a month, then a left elbow UCL sprain against Atlanta on January 21 that never resolved — he was shut down on March 24 with 11 games left and advised to take a PRP injection to help the ligament heal. Two of the seven lost seasons are discipline, five are injury, and the injuries are not concentrated in one body part.
Trajectory: The peak is four years behind him and the shape of the decline is legible. From 2021-22 to 2025-26 his scoring fell 27.4 to 19.5 and his field-goal percentage fell .493 to .410 while his minutes only dropped from 33.1 to 28.5 — that is efficiency loss, not workload loss, and it is what happens when a guard whose whole offensive identity was rim pressure stops attacking the rim. His own December 2024 statement that he would stop dunking to protect himself is the single most informative line in his file, because the athleticism was the skill. The compensating development is real but thin: assists returned to a career-high-tying 8.1 in 2025-26 and free-throw percentage has climbed for three straight years, so he is adapting toward a distributor profile. Against that, his rebounding has collapsed from 5.9 to 3.3, his three-point volume fell back to 1.0 a game on poor accuracy, and turnovers stayed at 3.6 — he is taking on the costs of a high-usage guard without the scoring output that justified them. He turns 27 during 2026-27, which is nominally prime, but his effective age is older than his calendar age and the 79 games across his last three seasons is the number to underwrite. Portland gives him a starting job on paper while splitting initiation with Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija, so even the healthy outcome likely caps his usage below what he had in Memphis; draft the 2024-25 line as the ceiling, not the 2021-22 one.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · StatMuse season-by-season · Wikipedia · NBA.com: Morant shut down for the season · ESPN: 2022-23 category-league rankings
Open questions
- Is Morant fully cleared for contact after the UCL sprain?
- Can his three-point rate recover enough to coexist off ball with Lillard?