Memphis Grizzlies still feeling impact of Ja Morant video, Brandon Clarke injury in Denver

The two announcements came 17 minutes apart early in the afternoon of March 4, 2023. Neither was good news for the Memphis Grizzlies.

After a March 3 loss to the Denver Nuggets, Ja Morant’s name and face were all over social media in the early morning hours. The star point guard appeared to be brandishing a gun in an Instagram Live video from his account. The Grizzlies announced that Morant would be away from the team for at least two games.

In the game itself, which was in Denver, Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke had to be helped off the floor. Santi Aldama remembered seeing a similar play just a day earlier in a college basketball game where a player suffered a torn Achilles. The Grizzlies confirmed the injury the next day.

“It was tough,” Aldama told The Commercial Appeal. “As soon as he grabbed his ankle, I was like, all right. I felt the shivers, kind of.”

“It was a lot thrown at us at once,” he added. “It was really tough. That made us stronger as a group. It was not easy and it hasn’t been easy since.”

A year later, the Grizzlies’ roster has been revamped. Six of the 15 players who saw minutes in that game against the Nuggets are no longer with Memphis. None of the five starters on that day have played in the past two Grizzlies games.

Morant, the team’s biggest star, hasn’t had continuity on the court since. After he returned from what was eventually a nine-game suspension, the point guard led the Grizzlies to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, where they were beaten in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was later suspended again — this time for 25 games — for another gun-brandishing incident in May, and now Morant is out for the season after having shoulder surgery.

“Ja was focused on his thing, and us on holding it down,” Aldama said.

The coincidence of the season-shifting moments happening in Denver can't be ignored. Memphis was ousted in the first round, while the Nuggets went on to win the NBA championship. They remain one of the top title contenders this season, while the Grizzlies have faded into the top-five lottery pick conversation.

Up until that day in March, the Grizzlies were a team built on continuity. Contract extensions and one of the NBA’s youngest rosters had many pundits believing Memphis had one of the brightest futures in the NBA.

The Grizzlies are still capable of having a long and successful run the next few years, but many of the players who were believed to be key pieces are gone. Dillon Brooks was the longest-tenured Grizzlies player, but he ended up going to the Houston Rockets. Xavier Tillman Sr., David Roddy and Steven Adams (who already was out for the season with a knee injury) have been traded. More moves are likely to come this offseason.

If there’s a positive to take from what was a dark day in Grizzlies franchise history, the players now have a better understanding of the business side after losing multiple players who were expected to play roles in bringing a championship.

“Emotionally, you feel for every single one of your teammates,” Jaren Jackson Jr. said. “Those are my boys in every aspect, but it’s still a professional setting, so you’re going to come in and do what you have to.”

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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies still recovering from Ja Morant gun video in Denver