Can Ja Morant save the Grizzlies season?

Can Ja Morant save the Grizzlies season?

Johnar Cody right now uh he’s only played four games as of recording this he looks spectacular in those four games I mean can can we just get into this for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet this guy is first of all we know about the superpower of finding like little seams

In the defense and keeping his dribble alive and splitting double teams and navigating his way down to the Baseline and finding a way to finish with a reverse or something like that he’s got the obviously the great ball handling to split traps get into the paint we know

About all of that for the last few years of course once you do that that Rim pressure starts to open up the passing and you can collapse defenses and kick it out to open teammates but the thing that’s really jumped out to me this season in these first few games is he

Looks stronger his balance is better because of his strength he looks sturdier so he hasn’t lost a lot of burst if any he still has the same burst but he can take hits and keep on going and drive through that contact he can get into the paint lower his shoulder a

Little bit as he because he’s so fast he’s he’s angling around you move someone off that contact push them back like a stronger kind of bigger player that we would expect it LeBron James that kind of archetype take that kind of hit and then finish when you combine all

That stuff I mean there’s more to get into but he just looks spectacular to me right now right out of the gate yeah and I think the the difference between him and some of these other guys that we’ll be talking about is the jump shot especially early on isn’t great he’s

Shooting in these first four games like 177% from three which is not ideal from like an offensive centerpiece but like you said his ability to just keep the dribble going right like he’s able to there’s a pick and roll splits the the hedging defense splits some kind of

Defense gets into the paint he hits somebody he doesn’t fall to the ground he keeps the dribble going a little bit more and because he’s such an explosive athlete he’s able to jump in the air and people used to talk about this with Michael Jordan in terms of like he jump

In the air and like wait for other people to come down before he shoots John Mor’s passing manipulation in those situations is just incredible like he can leap into the air and kind of look somebody off people are like hanging in the air with him like is he going to

Take a floater is he going to pass this guy and then nope he dumps it down for a layup or hangs up in the air wait someone to start cutting and boom hits him for like a layup pass right and so when you have that combination of just

Like his his court mapping his awareness of offense of where his guys are going to be along with his ability to just like get wherever he wants whenever like there’s a couple of plays where like gets downhill he immediately like sort of fakes this pass to somebody that’s rolling completely freezes the defense

And because he’s so good with his balance he takes this like weird loping step for like a layup and you know people like like to you know the Tik Tock Trends B seeing johnar put his head near the rim and you’re like oh my God John Mor’s the best offensive player

We’ve ever seen it’s not even those big explosive plays that are so impressive to me it’s his ability to like elongate the step and finish a layup or to like maybe wrong foot somebody and finish with uh with the off hand or something like that his offensive ability to just

Kind of like make it up as he’s going once he’s already inside the arc with his dribbles it’s incredible and it feels like he plays a lot bigger than he is like when you look at him up and he’s like 62 it doesn’t seem like he’s a 6-2

Guy like he seems like he’s a couple inches uh taller than that so even though the shooting woes are there the rest of the offensive package to me like more than makes up for it he’s been so good in these first few games with that Tempo that pace control the strength the

Ball handling to carve into the paint and then the thing that’s really jumped out to me is the the passing manipulation the combination of I’m going to get up in the air and I can threaten you in the air but once I’m in

The air I can make a pass uh he has this incredible play from the Pelicans game where he does his sort of patented like Jaw crossover where he throws it out in front of him and then starts dancing with his feet gets to the left hand that

He loves to get to gets up in the air like he’s going to finish and at the last second throws a lob to the big instead to punish the shop blocking uh that would that that’s a ridiculously highle read so the ability to blend all

This stuff and jump in the air and pass in those situations with this like really crazy live trigger off the bounce that he has Cody so you have the ball handling that gets you into the paint but then you can whip it right off the

Bounce uh like 90 Mi an hour to Shooters and other players um the deliveries on some of these passes are really fantastic to start the year I think that whole package looks really impressive the control and the tempo of the game the interesting thing about me with

Morant in general which goes back a couple seasons is you could almost say he pushes the button too much sometimes on his driving ability like he’s not 66 or 69 right he’s 62 or 63 gets up in the air and can finish but if you look at

Last season for instance he was second in the league in Drive frequency which tells an incredible story about someone who just cannot be stopped going to the rim but he was just in the 53rd percentile in finishing efficiency on those drives so you’re getting there all

The time but you’re kind of middle of the road and your efficiency finishing and when we look at the ultra high frequency Rim pressure guys in the league the Zion Williamson the dearen foxes typically those guys are like 8 to 10% ahead of where jaw was last year he

Was 55% true SHO shooting last season on all those drives and the best players in the league will be like 63 to 65 or 66% if you compare him especially to someone like Tyrese halberton who plays almost the opposite way is he shooting a little too much at the basket instead of

Spraying it or being more opportunistic with those windows and even in the first few games back you see situations where he’s like missing a couple dunks or uh maybe the shot gets blocked a ton and psychologically we rarely think of that as like poor shot selection but I

Actually think that’s one of the questions about like is can J improve and get that out of his game to get his efficiency and his overall impact to an even higher level something else I like with his passing game too we talked about the manipulation just as like he’s

Trying to push the tempo a little bit more right like I think like Desmond Bane is a great running partner with him where Bane can kind of get himself wide open and when he’s open for three he’s just going to bury it so John brand throwing these kick ahead passes to try

And you know just kind of push the offense a little bit catch C the defense napping for a second he’s like oh there’s Desmond Bane I’m going to kick it up there and he’s going to hit a three you can see some of the rust when we get to the half court possessions

Like I think jaw has been like he’s like oh I can whip these like 100h handed passes but they’re a little bit off like you can see that he hasn’t been playing for a little bit more and I think even then like he’s been playing really well

With some of these turnovers that he’s been throwing so you’re like I see the vision of what it can be once he’s back into the rhythm of playing the NBA game defensively he’s definitely like a negative and more of an issue on that end but I do you know the offense being

Able to get to the basket get to the free throw line and things like that those are things that will hold up in a playoff situation well the thing to consider about that rust is this is almost like his preseason and he’s already playing at this level and we

Know in the past this translates to the playoffs we know in the last couple postseasons that it’s very difficult to keep him out of the paint because he just has that athletic advantage because of his ball handling because of that Comfort burst and aerial finishing and body control once he gets

There to either draw fouls or finish the passing doesn’t break down against highlevel defenses he’s still a fantastic passer so I think he’s tested as a playoff guy very very well I think the only question with jaw is to me has the shot improved in any material way

With another offseason with a break because last year if you remember the shot was back down to like 30% he started three of 18 this season in a super small sample so do we actually have any Improvement on that shooting can he get the free throws from like the

Mid 70s up into the low 80s for example that would help him a lot as a guy that can get to the basket and pressure the rim so I think it’s just been a fantastic start changes the trajectory of the Memphis team entirely and we know it’s something uh that translates into

The post season thanks for listening you can find the full episode of this thinking basketball podcast on Apple podcast Stitcher Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts

Is Ja Morant better after returning from suspension? In this enhanced segment from the Thinking Basketball podcast, Ben and Cody break down the hot start for the Memphis Grizzlies All-Star guard, including his improved strength and balance, elite passing, and shot selection on his drives (can a player shoot TOO much at the basket)?

–Full episode–
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88vdisqDh4
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uD0VUbHiQaTDLNRdlfdUW
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/243-top-25-under-25-draft-2024/id1428290303?i=1000639955104

Support at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175
Podcast: https://player.fm/series/thinking-basketball or at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ben-taylor/thinking-basketball-podcast
Website: https://www.backpicks.com
Twitter: @elgee35

Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.

Stats courtesy:
http://www.pbpstats.com @bballport
https://www.basketball-reference.com
https://stats.nba.com
—–
Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.

#thinkingbasketball