Perhaps Ja12 is right: Ja, Cedric Coward, & JJJ have played just 34 mins together this season

[threethehardway]

Wait...youre arguing you dont have to "try your best"?

Maybe his coach sucks but you cant really talk if you suck even worse.

Try his best...what are we, 12?

This is professional sports with adults.

Not children.

Sports isn't about "trying your best", it's about winning.

The Grizzlies are not winning because their coach is being silly and trying to "optimize" rotations. His two best players are playing less than 33 minutes while being short-handed.

Who is going to "try their best"?

Either you want to win or you don't. Ja always been a super competitive player. Jimmy Butler is a super competitive player.

If they start sulking, it's because the coach/GM has loss them, like any other employee.

Like it's funny hearing fans infantilize players like they are kids, "You gotta try your best Ja."

As if, every day, all over the world, when employees get some BS handed to them, they don't limit their effort as a way to protest.

Pro athletes just sulk on TV. And half the time they are right.

The Grizzlies coach is terrible. He has Jock Landale performing his absolute best.

[Quattro]

Wait...youre arguing you dont have to "try your best"?

Maybe his coach sucks but you cant really talk if you suck even worse.

Try his best...what are we, 12?

This is professional sports with adults.

Not children.

Sports isn't about "trying your best", it's best winning.

The Grizzlies are not winning because their coach is being silly and trying to "optimize" rotations. His two best players are playing less than 33 minutes while being short-handed.

Who is going to "try their best"?

Either you want to win or you don't. Ja always been a super competitive player. Jimmy Butler is a super competitive player.

If they start sulking, it's because the coach/GM has loss them, like any other employee.

Like it's funny hearing fans infantilize players like they are kids, "You gotta try your best Ja."

As if, every day, all over the world, when employees get some BS handed to them, they don't limit their effort as a way to protest.

Pro athletes just sulk on TV. And half the time they are right.

The Grizzlies coach is terrible. He has Jock Landale performing his absolute best.

Why do you think we drill "try your best" into kids? So they dont turn out like Ja Morant.

If he's not interested in giving 100% effort every night, I wouldn't want him on my team and I sure and **** wouldn't want to be a teammate.

[MrGoat]

How are you supposed to get into a rhythm when you're subbed in and out so quickly like that? Neither Ja or Iisalo are handling this very well and I think it's clear one of them is going to be gone before the end of the year. The Taylor Jenkins firing is looking like a disaster

[NO-KG-AI]

Ja is an idiot. When he acts, he’s almost always wrong or making something worse than it needs to be.

[BAMAFREAK]

Ja is an idiot. When he acts, he’s almost always wrong or making something worse than it needs to be.

This is the truth, but, or really and, Lisalos quick subs are one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen.
Maybe they work in Europe where the talent level is a little more evenly distributed, and the difference between your go to guys and bench isn’t as big as it is here, but it doesn’t work here. You gotta let these guys get in rhythm. Even if it worked in a long regular season, it’d be suicide to run in the playoffs

[Daddy 801]

What the hell is going on in Memphis? Why am I reading their best players aren’t playing together and they are rocking a 12 man rotation and their main guys playing less than 30 mins?

If the Jazz got fined last season I don’t see why this isn’t fine worthy. That’s clearly a tank job by the coach. I mean I’m fine with tanking so whatever. But if the NBA says sitting guys who have an injury history is tanking I’m not sure why playing your stars all less than 30 mins isn’t tanking.

If this isn’t tanking then coaches now have the blueprint for the proper way to tank without getting fined. So I guess tip of the hat to a creative tanking approach.

[threethehardway]

Why do you think we drill "try your best" into kids? So they dont turn out like Ja Morant.

If he's not interested in giving 100% effort every night, I wouldn't want him on my team and I sure and **** wouldn't want to be a teammate.

This is why I call professional sports media and fandom the "personal catharsis and salvation of the moral of the middle class".

All that crap we tell kids, "Try you best", "Integrity is what you do when no one is look"

Is supposed to be the basis of behavior and as you get older, you supposed to cultivate your own sense of right and wrong not parrot platitudes like a self-help book or a parent.

Two years with Ja and him being jerked around by back to back coaches that want to take the ball away from him despite him being the best player and taking his teams to the playoffs.

His current coach is terrible and has them losing game after game with his line-ups.

The coach is not interested in increasing minutes.

"Go out there and try your best Ja, it'll be alright."

[Quattro]

Why do you think we drill "try your best" into kids? So they dont turn out like Ja Morant.

If he's not interested in giving 100% effort every night, I wouldn't want him on my team and I sure and **** wouldn't want to be a teammate.

This is why I call professional sports media and fandom the "personal catharsis and salvation of the moral of the middle class".

All that crap we tell kids, "Try you best", "Integrity is what you do when no one is look"

Is supposed to be the basis of behavior and as you get older, you supposed to cultivate your own sense of right and wrong not parrot platitudes like a self-help book or a parent.

Two years with Ja and him being jerked around by back to back coaches that want to take the ball away from him despite him being the best player and taking his teams to the playoffs.

His current coach is terrible and has them losing game after game with his line-ups.

The coach is not interested in increasing minutes.

"Go out there and try your best Ja, it'll be alright."

Ya youre right. If he doesn't like the way things are going, he should just go out onto the court and screw around all night.

[bkkrh]

None of this excuses Ja's (lack of) effort, but Iisalo's system is not producing a functional offense whatsoever. The Grizz have two above-average players in Ja and JJJ. I don't understand the fascination with implementing a gimmecky system when the simplest solution is to just play your two above-average players regular minutes especially when the team is decimated with injuries. Why does the 15th man on the roster get as many shots as your two best players?

How can you try your best when your coach is absolutely opposed to your effort.

Sports fans treat pro sports like little league or something.

"You gotta try your best..."

Ja is a grown man with millions upon millions of dollars, dealing with another coach who minimized his role - again. Either way, he is going to get paid and be fine. Give effort for what? The coach don't want him to have the ball. He isn't going to be rewarded with more playing time because the coach don't believe in playing his best players for extended periods of time.

Now it's not only affecting Ja, it's affecting JJJ.

NBA Basketball is simple, give it to your best player the best way you can. All of this "European" style crap, where you got hockey substitutions and everyone plays 20 minutes, it's stupid. They need to stop bringing that crap to the NBA.

Ja is top 5 playmaker, give him the ball and let him do Ja Morant stuff.

Ja is playing 30 minutes per game, his career average is 31.9, he never played more than 33 minutes on average (besides the season he only played 9 games). He is taking 17.6 shot attempts per game despite shooting 38 from the field and 14%, his career average is 17.4. His usage rate is 32.3%, his career average is 30.7% and this is the 3rd highest of his career.

So where exactly is he being held back? He is basically turning into the 2nd coming of Starbury.

[MrBigShot]

Ja's maturity is questionable to say the least but their current coach is not utilizing the personnel he has to their strengths.

[Johnny Bball]

How has Iisalo gone from genius to idiot in a matter of months to some people. Yet, its never the player's fault, even when its one that routinely causes problems.

[NO-KG-AI]

The Grizzlies had to figure out ways to structure the team and the offense to win without Ja because he finds ways to not be on the floor routinely with injuries and idiotic behavior. Jenkins found a way to win 20 something games or whatever straight, without him. It’s always “why isn’t the offense more Ja oriented”, and it’s easy to figure out why it isn’t and hasn’t been to everyone but Ja and some apologists.

Zion has been a screw up and has a ton of self inflicted career wounds, but I just can’t imagine how everyone would feel if he was out here blaming everyone else for it. It’s a crazy way to go about it.

[WarriorGM]

The new coach wants to implement a particular system. Give it a shot, a good faith effort. If the system is affecting Ja's performance it is reasonable for Ja to say that but he shouldn't be checking out. If he is checking out, that's on him.

[MrGoat]

It's amazing how playing a team as pathetic as the Mavs helped Ja find his joy again, it seems the coach even somewhat abandoned that plan against them so maybe Ja won the stareoff

[UcanUwill]

Not sure if some comments here are serious or sarcastic. Not playing guys 30 minutes is a tank job now... Also, its ok to not sleepwalk in your job if you are an adult, its for kids to try hard, I wonder why we teach kids to try hard in the first place?