They say that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. And so, after spending most of 2023 dancing with his gun on Instagram Live, Ja Morant played just nine games last season, his year tanked first by a 25-game suspension and then a dislocated shoulder.
In Morant’s absence, the Memphis Grizzlies essentially punted last season: a slow, injury-plagued start forced them to pivot away from trying to win games and toward auditioning players who might one day help them do so. As such, 33 different guys—Maozinha Pereira! Scotty Pippen Jr! Derrick Rose?—suited up for the Grizzlies last year and the team used 50 unique starting lineups, both NBA records. After consecutive 50-win seasons during the previous two seasons, the Grizzlies finished just 27-55. They were an NBA team in name only; the only tangible difference between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Memphis Hustle was that the Hustle had cooler jerseys.
But amidst this roster churn, the Grizzlies were able to prioritize the development of their young players. In the most charitable interpretations, Memphis’s lost, loss-filled season wasn’t a failure: it was a brief sabbatical from success.
With Morant healthy and pinky-promising to be on good behavior, Memphis should return to the top half of the Western Conference playoff bracket. For all his nonsense (flashing guns, fighting children, threatening to assassinate the Indiana Pacers’ equipment managers), Morant is so special that he’s worth the fuss. Despite some noticeable rust from sitting out the first 25 games, he still averaged 25.1 points and 8.1 assists per game last season.
Barring Stephen Curry, no other guard rearranges the topography of the floor more significantly than Morant. But where Curry’s shooting stretches defenses out towards the three-point line, Morant compacts defenses by being a dominant interior scorer. Curry’s shooting forces defenses to cover more ground; Morant’s slashing prevents them from covering all of it. In each of his last two healthy seasons, he scored more points at the rim per 100 possessions than any guard or wing.
Since Morant is too fast to be contained by his initial defender, he represents a permanent numbers advantage for the Grizzlies—he can remove his on-ball defender from the equation simply by blowing past them. Guarding him is a five-man job, requiring cascading layers of help defense. To stop him, bigs must be prepared to help at the rim, which means that wings must sink down to help the helper, which means that guards have to scramble to open shooters to help the helper’s helper.
Unsurprisingly, the Grizzlies are at their best when they have their best player. During their nine games with Morant last season, the Grizzlies scored 114.2 points per 100 possessions. As for the 73 that Morant missed, the Grizzlies’ 107.32 offensive rating represented one of the worst offenses in recent memory.
By virtue of being an unstoppable slasher, Morant plays with the same propulsive momentum as much bigger forwards like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Zion Williamson—he doesn’t have to bog himself down in hesi tween mumbo jumbo because he can just run and dunk.
Accordingly, Morant lends the offense a unique shape by allowing the Grizzlies to be more creative in how they deploy their big men. Jaren and GG Jackson can find their bliss as one-on-one scorers, Santi Aldama can space the floor and Zach Edey can terrorize local villagers and livestock because Morant assumes some of their traditional scoring responsibilities.
At times, though, Morant has struggled to translate his regular season production to the postseason. In the playoffs, defenses have zeroed in on Morant’s (and Memphis’) iffy shooting, sardining as many bodies between Morant and the rim as possible. Against Minnesota in 2022, Morant shot just 38.6 percent, clearly bothered by the secondary rim protection of Minnesota’s wings. Similarly, the Lakers held him to just 42.5 percent shooting in 2023 as Morant challenged Anthony Davis at the rim the same way that a pigeon challenges a window.
But now, when Morant returns to the court, he’ll do so with the best and most versatile roster of his career. For the first time, Memphis has the right assemblage of size and skill to adjust to any postseason wrinkle. Bane and Jaren Jackson are a pair of 20 point per game scorers who will punish defenses that load up to stop Morant; Jackson and Marcus Smart give Memphis a pair of Defensive Player of the Year winners to compensate for Morant’s carefree approach to defense. Beyond the topline stars, GG Jackson, Vince Williams, Aldama and Jake LaRavia form an enviable collection of young, feisty forwards. There’s a good chance that Edey is literally too big to fail.
In this sense, Memphis used Morant’s absence to build a roster that would maximize his presence. While they’re still not quite an elite team, the difference between them and the Thunder is smaller than you might suspect; the only reason to doubt a Ja Morant-led team is that they’re led by Ja Morant. Come June, there could be a parade inside his city, but only if he can march in line.
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