The year Morant entered the industry, I felt like Rose + Westbrook.
Rose's sharp rise and stop, Wei Shao's tireless bravery in the pile of people.
He described the Warriors' 35-point game at the beginning of the season, where he resembled Rose:
There are people in the league who talk about speed, but when it comes to variable speed, when it comes to stopping and stopping, probably no one in active duty can surpass Morant, straight to the peak of Rose.
Morant has a habit of playing slowly and leisurely like Rose: when you want to speed up, one step directly to you.
There's a difference, of course, ten years ago during the Rose MVP season, the commentators loved to scream "so fast so smooth yet so big!" Rose was quick and fluid, but also big enough; so he couldn't stop it and couldn't hold it.
In comparison, Morant is still thin as a light. But he has a different strength:
He had Rose's start and stop, but with incredible reflex nerves and balance. So he can make all kinds of improvisations in the breakthrough, unlike some speed guards, "the speed can't be stopped, a set of moves can't be rubbed and can't step on the brakes!" ”
It's like Rose's free-flowing, mixed with a little BIT of AI's slimness and slipping, and a little bit of Wei Shao's indefatigableness.
In the final moments of the day against the Warriors, Wiggins was basically flawless when he guarded him, but finally let him shoot the winning goal.
This sudden stop, straight waist turn, a moment of reading, balance and speed, the brain and hands and feet are too fast.
Wiggins did every step right: blocking the first step of the breakthrough, reflecting Morant's straight waist, the center of gravity also kept up, Wiggins's own height and arm length balance lateral movement are the best choice, after all, it is the posture of the champion.
But Morant transformed into a thin blade, suddenly stopped straight, and then took another step to make Wiggins turn his crotch, a turn to brush it, and passed.
In an instant, the start-stop point turned and was completed in one go.
These two days I sorted out my thoughts and felt that he was like Rose's, more than that.
Morant is now in the third grade, 22 and a half years old, averaging 25+6+7 per game. 29% of shots are done under the basket.
Rose was in his third year, 22 and a half years old, averaging 25+4+8 per game, and 29% of his shots were made under the basket.
(Off-topic: In the rookie year, 42% of the shots were attacked... ）
Morant's favorite shooting point is 3 to 10 feet: he breaks through the limit and has a hand throw. Rose still prefers long-range shots: he's a double-action shot.
Morant, like Rose, makes a sharp stop, twists his waist and stagnates, does whatever he wants, and really does not mention the small waist.
Interestingly, when Morant was absent earlier, the Grizzlies won back-to-back, 14-12 in games he played so far, and 10-2 in games he missed.
So much so that Redick said that Morant was not worthy of the MVP...
Indeed, in the first month of the season, when Morant took it, the offense was fine and the defensive league was at the bottom; Morant was absent, and the Grizzlies were the first in the league in defensive efficiency in the same period.
So he defended too poorly alone and dragged the team down?
Nor does it seem to be... Half a month after he returned, the Grizzlies lost two straight and then a six-game winning streak: The defense was fine.
This involves a small change in the Grizzlies' defensive style.
No matter how the Grizzlies stopped injured this season, the three starting players remained unchanged: Adams the Sea King, Jarren Jr., and Bane.
Adams was known to be able to carry the restricted area, but was afraid of being pulled out for military training. Morant was thin again into a ray of light, and the cover was gone.
So the Grizzlies were very afraid of blocking at the beginning of the season.
The start of the season was a 20-point defeat to the Blazers; 25 points were cut by the Suns, Paul had 15 points and 12 assists in the 27 minutes; and 32 points were cut by the Hawks, including Trae Young's 31 points and 10 assists in 27 minutes.
With the return of Dillon Brooks, Coach Jenkins also made some adjustments.
In November, the Grizzlies averaged 8.8 steals per game.
In December, the Grizzlies averaged 11.6 steals per game.
A classic case:
With Luka Doncic's excellent vision, the Grizzlies dared to pinch and hit him recklessly, driving him to the corner; Luca wanted to play the ball and immediately pinched him with two passing options in a row - copying the ball.
Unilateral pressure + copying.
Of course, most of the time, the Grizzlies let Adams sit under the basket in order to collect rebounds; the strong side stacked people, forced people up the corner, and relied on other teammates to link:
Forcing people into a dead end, Adams waiting under the basket, is their ideal way.
This season, the Grizzlies averaged 10.3 steals per game in league first and 5.9 league second. Pressure, pinch, copy, cover.
This is the Grizzlies.
As clever as you must have seen:
Such a defense, must miss three-pointer ah!
yes...... The Grizzlies are 37 percent defensive this season, the third worst in the league.
If you encounter a transfer pass cut good, it will be bad.
Before Christmas, he was just played by Curry for 46 points, and the pressure was too fierce, and let Peyton Jr. eat the second highest score of his career?
But the Grizzlies dare to bet:
Pinching, pressuring, copying the ball to fight back; the opponent has a three-point chance, willing to gamble and lose, and admits it when he is thrown; did not shoot? That's still a counterattack.
Their defensive style of fighting and attacking are complementary.
The Grizzlies have the second most defensive shots in the league this season — the first being the Hornets, who lead by three goals.
Morant averaged 5.4 goals per game in defensive turn this season, the seventh most in the league and the first in the organization guard.
The ninth most numerous was his teammate Dillon Brooks.
Say offense.
The Grizzlies use this kind of big lineup to attack and defend, so of course you can't expect three-point shots to be too good — three-point shooting is fourth from the bottom in the league. In the starting lineup, Bane is also a full-time shooter.
But they have a way:
The Grizzlies have 13 frontcourt rebounds per game, the league's first.
Why?
Teams with good rebounds up frontcourt either have long cutters or breakers and are good at sabotage — the Grizzlies have Adams and Morant.
Here's where Morant resembles Rose again: Rose's peak, breaking through without cover. Other defenders need space to pull away, long men block demolition, Rose speed up and go directly to you.
Morant has blocked less often this season than Terry, Mitchell, DeRozan, Paul, Fox, Luca and Lillard, but he has the second-most breakouts in the league (after Alexander).
In other words: break through without blocking, go straight to you.
Look at his breakthrough against the net: directly get rid of a start and go, the layup is successful; and Adams is actually in place, once Morant does not score a layup, it is a frontcourt rebound.
Meanwhile, look at the Grizzlies' offense:
They like to press their opponents towards the four corners, and their own attack is also a four-corner attack.
That is, Morant is not a monopoly arc commander. He broke through with the ball to score, and was also responsible for setting off the attack to the weak side, and both Bain and Dillon could catch the ball and even the second wave. Adams rebounded in front of the court or cut inside the basket.
So Brooks is the team's second ball carrier, Bane is the team's top scorer and in fact the second offensive player of the season, Adams is the team's defensive axis, but in the Grizzlies system, the most important player outside of Morant is Jaren Jackson Jr.
In a way, he was Giannis the Grizzlies. Defensively, his rotational substitution allowed the Grizzlies to exert pressure, and on the offensive end, he pulled away space and chose the timing of the inside cut and shooting. The Grizzlies are formed by a group of forwards like him, Anderson, and Dillon who can drill and have sharp hands and feet:
Pressure, destruction, counterattack, stabbing, scrambling, rebounding.
This team can not be made by Morant, which can explain the Grizzlies' winning streak in December.
Of course, it's even better to have him – as long as the defensive end doesn't leak the bottom.
After all, Morant is the king of destruction.
It is said that this set of "breakthrough defenders + forward group + strong side pressure + frontcourt rebounding" posture... Familiar?
The third-year Rose, the Chicago Bulls in the Thibodeau belt, has the league's top frontcourt rebounds - Noah, Boozer, Gibson - the defensive end of the strong side of the pressure, let Rose Scud run; position warfare Rose often does not find a block to break up, or give the weak side Rolle Deng to play a second breakthrough, and then the front group seven hands and eight feet inward to find the rebound in the front court...
Morant is a bit like Rose, and his Grizzlies style is a bit like Rose's bull:
Surrounded by a super guard, not by a three-point group but by defensive rebounds + incisions + frontcourt rebounds.
Digression: Just talked about the third grade Rose and Morant data is a bit like, actually...
That year, Rohr Deng averaged 17.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.
So far this season, Bain has averaged 17.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game...
Of course, there is still a little difference:
Thibodeau averaged 39 minutes per game, Rose averaged 37 minutes per game, and Noah and Boozer (injured) averaged 32 minutes per game. His method of employing people, we all know.
The Grizzlies averaged 30 minutes per game this season, except for Morant 33 minutes per game and Bane 30 minutes per game. Long rotations, wheel wars, everyone don't get tired in the regular season.
High-intensity work when attacking and defending, but combined with work and leisure.
——Coach Jenkins used to be an assistant coach for Coach Budenholzer, and the regular season can know how to rest people...
Anyway, back to that.
Morant's scariest stats this season were the league's most scorers in the box in November.
Of course, he's a little worse than Giannis's level of basket-attacking maniacs, but he has the most shots in the 5-foot to 9-foot shooting league, and his 1/3 shots are concentrated at 3 to 10 feet, which is very crazy:
He is now more often a virtue than other defenders who slip on a cigarette and look for a chance to get a basket: not to speed into the box, to grab the position and not to rush to shoot; anyway, if you want to shoot at any time, just walk up to your eyes and hang around, see if your defense is messy, and then whenever the opponent's defense moves, he passes with a pass. Anyway, he can shoot at any time in the box, what do you do.
So he's averaging 25 points and seven assists per game, and it's hard to reflect the visual sting of the opponent — if you're his opponent, you feel like he's trying to attack you anytime and anywhere.
Behind him were the claws of a tough and fierce grizzly bear, and he himself was like a stinger of a swarm of bees. For the rest of the league's top defenders, it will make the opponent feel:
"What is he going to do, what he has to do, what to do, to judge his next step..."
Morant, on the other hand, takes the ball and can really make the opponent feel:
"Don't come here!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ten years ago, when Rose approached with the ball, the opponent probably felt the same way: