{"id":1549543,"date":"2023-02-09T13:52:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T18:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1549543"},"modified":"2023-02-09T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T18:52:26","slug":"cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"CJ McCollum Pins Blame on Ja Morant for the Western Conference Trading Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/the-brooklyn-nets-learn-from-their-mistake-and-pull-off-a-boston-celtics-like-deal-involving-kevin-durant\/\">Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns<\/a> was the second of two blockbuster deals made ahead of Thursday's <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/nba\">NBA<\/a> trade deadline. The Los Angeles Lakers were also in the middle of an earlier one, shipping out Russell Westbrook and getting D'Angelo Russell back in a three-team deal. New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum had his own theory about why the Western Conference teams were frantically bolstering their rosters. He jokingly blamed Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ja-morant-said-no-team-worried-him-in-the-western-conference\">Ja Morant said no team worried him in the Western Conference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"CJ McCollum Pins Blame on Ja Morant for the Western Conference Trading Surge\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1250\" height=\"833\" src=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ja-Morant.jpg?w=925&#038;strip=all&#038;quality=89\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1549610\" \/><figcaption>Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies reacts during the first quarter of a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Feb. 2, 2023, in Cleveland, Ohio. | Jason Miller\/Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This will teach Morant to open his mouth. According to McCollum, Morant is the reason for the Western Conference teams beefing up their rosters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just before the NBA's Christmas Day slate, Morant sat down with Malika Andrews of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tepeJnaR8yA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESPN.<\/a> He spoke about the Grizzlies' holiday matchup with the Golden State Warriors, Memphis' first-ever Christmas appearance. Andrews asked Morant what teams he feels might be roadblocks in order for Memphis to win the franchise\u2019s first championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/despite-recent-struggles-boston-celtics-fans-should-be-ecstatic-with-what-a-confident-ja-morant-has-to-say\/\">\u201cCeltics,\u201d he said without hesitation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo one in the West?\u201d Andrews asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNah. I\u2019m fine in the West,\u201d Morant said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morant might've spoken too soon. At the time, the Grizzles and Denver Nuggets shared the best record in the Western Conference at 19-11. Although they are in second place in the West, the Grizzlies have gone 14-10 since his comment and are 4.5 games behind the Nuggets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mccollum-jokingly-blames-morant-for-the-big-trades\">McCollum jokingly blames Morant for the big trades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This all because <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JaMorant?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JaMorant<\/a> said he was good in the West \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02<\/p>&mdash; CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CJMcCollum\/status\/1623576642978291712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Suns acquired Durant late Wednesday night, sending three players and four unprotected first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets. Phoenix also received T.J. Warren. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before that, the Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Utah Jazz teamed up for a deal that sent Russell back to the Lakers, along with Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. The Jazz received Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, and a 2027 first-round pick. Minnesota brought in Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and three second-round picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in the week, the Dallas Mavericks improved by <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/kyrie-irving-contract-new-mavs-star-extra-2m-pocket-blowing-up-nets\/\">trading for disgruntled point guard Kyrie Irving.<\/a> The Western Conference has had quite the shakeup, with several teams improving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This all because @JaMorant said he was good in the West,&#8221; McCollum tweeted with three laughing emojis. McCollum posted the tweet in the early hours of Thursday morning, shortly after the Durant deal was announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant is to blame for all these NBA trades out West. Just ask CJ McCollum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":1549610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4883,4872],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CJ McCollum Pins Blame on Ja Morant for the Western Conference Trading Surge - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NBA trade action continued to heat up, especially in the Western Conference. New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum blamed Ja Morant for that.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CJ McCollum Pins Blame on Ja Morant for the Western Conference Trading Surge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NBA trade action continued to heat up, especially in the Western Conference. New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum blamed Ja Morant for that.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-09T18:52:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-09T18:52:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ja-Morant.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"833\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NostraThomas123\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/\",\"name\":\"CJ McCollum Pins Blame on Ja Morant for the Western Conference Trading Surge - Sports7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/cj-mccollum-pins-blame-on-ja-morant-for-the-western-conference-trading-surge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Ja-Morant.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-09T18:52:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-09T18:52:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/#\/schema\/person\/ee02cb7d233260b2c9a2e6c26895e6d5\"},\"description\":\"NBA trade action continued to heat up, especially in the Western Conference. 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