When will we see if Ja Morant truly figured out Thunder in 2025-26 regular season?

In the midst of the slowest two months of the calendar, the NBA dumped a bucket of content to enjoy. The league recently released its entire 2025-26 regular season schedule. All 30 teams found out when and where they'll play their opponents during the six-month campaign.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will enter the 2025-26 regular season as the popular title favorite. After they had one of the greatest seasons ever, they'll run it back with mostly the same roster. The NBA champions will sit on the throne and hope to keep their seat.

Examining the Thunder's schedule, they'll be under the national spotlight as much as anybody else. They're tied for the most national television appearances in the 2025-26 regular season at 34. All four of their playoff opponents during their championship run will get at least one game in front of the NBA world.

That includes the Memphis Grizzlies. The Thunder swept the No. 8 seed in one of the more eventful Round 1 four-game series the league has recently seen. To show how serious they were, OKC blew out Memphis by a historic amount with a 51-point Game 1 win.

A couple of games later, the Thunder mounted a franchise-best 29-point comeback over the Grizzlies to go up 3-0 and essentially end the playoff series. While the comeback stunned most, Ja Morant's hip injury clouded Memphis for the remainder of the series.

Morant missed Game 4 as the Thunder went on to sweep the Grizzlies. But his Game 3 hip injury, combined with his exit interview comments, insisting he had OKC "figured out," gave the Memphis fanbase plenty of ammo that they could've hypothetically pulled off one of the greatest upsets in playoff history.

"I had them figured out. Going out Game 3, not being able to play was frustrating because that win right there could've made this totally different," Morant said. "I feel like we'd be on the way to OKC, series tied 2-2 right now."

Maybe the Grizzlies hold onto Game 3 for a win if Morant didn't fall on his hip. Heck, that's likely the outcome. But to suggest one strong half meant they would've rattled off three more wins is a bit misleading. Anyways, that conversation is months old. No point in rewinding that what-if scenario.

The Thunder will see the Grizzlies three times in the 2025-26 regular season. They will travel to Memphis to play them on Sunday, Nov. 9, for the first meetup. After Morant told ESPN he was "good to go" during the 2025 Summer League, expect him to be ready by then.

Next time won't be until around Christmas. The Thunder will host the Grizzlies on Monday, Dec. 22. That game will be shown on Peacock. And finally, OKC travels to Memphis for the final matchup on Friday, Jan. 9.

It'll be fun to see Morant face off against the Thunder. While the stakes won't be nearly as high as a playoff series, he can get a chance to give Grizzlies fans some social media bragging rights over what could've been if he stayed healthy in their Round 1 matchup.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: When will we see if Ja Morant figured out Thunder in 2025-26 season?