Ja Morant Return Criteria Unknown, Has Had Leadership Conversations With Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies announced on Wednesday that Ja Morant would remain away from the team for at least four more games after police in Glendale, Colorado said the star point guard wouldn't be charged in connection with an Instagram video that appeared to show him brandishing a gun in a nightclub.

On Thursday, head coach Taylor Jenkins provided an update on the situation while speaking with reporters, noting that a timeline for Morant's return hasn't been firmly established:

"[The department] was not able to determine that probable cause existed for the filing of any charges," the Glendale Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday. "In this case, it should be noted that on the night in question [police] did not receive any calls for service at the nightclub regarding a weapon of any type."

Morant, meanwhile, had previously said that he was taking a hiatus from the team "to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being," while the NBA is conducting its own investigation into the matter.

It's unclear at this point if Morant will face suspension or punishment from the league.

The 23-year-old has been one of the NBA's most dynamic young talents on the court, averaging 27.1 points, 8.2 assists and six rebounds per game while shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from three in his fourth NBA season.

Morant is the face of the franchise and one of the growing faces of the NBA, period, and has a five-year, $194.3 million extension that will kick in starting with the 2023-24 season. That factor has made this situation further complicated given his stature around the league.

Days before the gun video, Molly Hensley-Clancy of the Washington Post made public police reports from August 2022 in which Morant was accused of punching a teenage boy and threatening him with a gun during a pickup basketball game and threatening a security guard at a Memphis mall on separate occasions.

"Obviously the expectations on the team, he's going to have some things that he's going to have to clear to know what the expectations are when he does returns," Jenkins told reporters.