"I've put your trophy in your kitchen, and you deserve it!"
After being named the NBA's fastest improving player for the 2021-22 season, Ja Morant posted this on social media and @reached his teammate Desmond Bain.
Morant has good reason to be named MIP, averaging 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game this season, improving his scoring average by 8.3 points per game and shooting a career-high 49.3 percent from the field. His explosive playing style has made him the best performer in the NBA and won the reputation of "waist king".
More importantly, under Morant's leadership, the Grizzlies played an excellent record of 56 wins and 26 losses, setting a record for the best in team history, overriding traditional strong teams such as the Warriors, Lone Rangers, Jazz, Nuggets, etc., ranking second in the West, becoming one of the fastest improving teams in the league.
But Morant knows that the rise of the Grizzlies is not his sole achievement. He may be the core and leader of this team, but in terms of the title of "fastest progress", there may be someone more suitable than him.
This person is Bane, the No. 30 rookie in the first round of 2020, the T-Rex shooter whose arm span is shorter than his height. The older rookie from Texas Christian University, a year older than Morant, who entered the league a year earlier, averaged only 9.2 points per game in his rookie season, but this season, he has averaged 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, averaging 3 three-pointers per game with 43.6% shooting rate, and becoming the league's top sharpshooter.
After Morant was officially elected the most improving player of the season, the well-known data website StatMuse also shouted for Bane on social media - "Compared with last season, Bain's average scores and assists data this year have improved more than Morant." ”
While this is more of a joke (as Morant's average assists per game this season is actually down slightly from last season), it shows that Bain's performance is well known in the industry.
In fact, this season's Bane is not only the fastest improving player in the Grizzlies and even the entire NBA, but also the Grizzlies playing a stunning performance and becoming the key figure of the league's biggest dark horse.
A big reason morant, the league's second-best star, has failed to be a strong contender for MVP is that the Grizzlies have performed better this season in his absence. This topic continued to be extended among fans, and the final conclusion was: the Grizzlies are a team that is the same for everyone!
But is that really the case? The author made a simple statistic:
The Grizzlies' overall record in Morant's absence this season is 20-5, with a win rate of 80 percent;
Dillon Brooks was out of the game, 34 wins and 16 losses, with a winning percentage of 68%;
In the absence of Jalen Jackson Jr., 3 wins and 1 loss, with a win rate of 75%;
Steven Adams was out of the game, 5 wins and 1 loss, with a win rate of 83.3%;
DeAndre Melton's absence, 7 wins, 2 losses, 77.8%;
Kyle Anderson's absence, 10 wins and 3 losses, a winning percentage of 76.9%;
Brandon Clark's absence, 12 wins and 6 losses, a winning percentage of 66.7%;
In the absence of Teres Jones, he won 5 and lost 4, with a winning percentage of 55.6%.
Bain, on the other hand, has missed a total of six games this season due to injuries, during which the Grizzlies lost three games and won only 50%.
Is this a coincidence? Let's move on to the stats: The player with the highest average winning percentage per game on the Grizzlies in the regular season this season is Brooks, but he's only played 32 games, and the sample is unconvincing. With the exception of Brooks, Bain averaged 4.8 points per game, the first in the team, higher than Morant's +3.3 points.
If that's not enough, then this series of playoffs first rounds against the Timberwolves is even more telling. In this round of the series, Morant in addition to the G5 fourth quarter of the wild ride led the team to reverse, most of the other times have struggled, although the average contribution of 21.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game, but the shooting rate is only 38.6%, 4 of 15 outside the three-point line, and the average turnover per game has reached 4.2.
Bane, on the other hand, as a playoff rookie, is the most consistent and outstanding performance of the Grizzlies in this series: not only does he average a team-high 23.5 points per game, but he also shoots a true shooting rate of 65% (shooting 49.5% and 48.2% from three-point range, respectively).
In Game 3 of the series, Bane broke the Grizzlies' all-time record for three-point shooting in a single game on 7-of-15 shooting from beyond the three-point line, leading the team to a 26-point comeback when Morant was lost. In the next game 4, although the Grizzlies reversed defeat, Bane scored another 34 points, including 8 of 12 from outside the three-point line, once again breaking the team record!
Throughout the series, Bane shot a total of 27 three-pointers, pushing Edwards, Thompson, Curry, ranking first in the league, becoming the "three-point king" so far in this year's playoffs!
Today's game, Morant still feels cold, the first quarter 4 shots all lost a point, not even two free throws failed to hit, while the opposite Edwards is hot, 7 of 6 in a single quarter to score 16 points. In such a situation, the Grizzlies still maintained a 29-28 lead, and the key was that Bain hit three three-pointers in a single quarter to get a team-high 13 points.
In the game, Bain shot 9-of-15, including 5-of-9 from outside the three-point line, scoring 23 points, tied for first place with Brooks. Three minutes and 03 seconds before the finale, it was his crucial three-pointer that helped the Grizzlies complete the 101-99 rebound, which was their first lead in the entire second half.
In the 43 minutes and 28 seconds of Bain's presence today, the Grizzlies beat their opponents by 22 points, which is the highest figure in the team (for comparison, the second on the team, Jarren Jackson Jr. has only +10 points on the game). And in the short 4 and a half minutes he rested, the Grizzlies lost 14 points!
Please note! This stark set of data contrasts is by no means just an "accidental event." In all six games of the series, Bain averaged +9.6 net wins per game, also far ahead of all his teammates, and in this statistic, Morant, who ranks second on the team, averaged only +5.6 points per game.
So it is understandable that after the Grizzlies once again reversed their victory over the Timberwolves 114-106 and eliminated their opponents by a 4-2 aggregate score to advance to the division semifinals, some netizens tweeted and joked: "Bane saved Morant's series."
Grizzlies reporter Damicael Cole also commented on social media as follows: "Through this series, Desmond Bain deserves to win respect across the country" and "He will be in Memphis with Ja-Morant for many years." He's the MVP [of this round]. ”
Bane, for his part, is still very humble. In a post-match interview, he said the trophy for the fastest improving player was still in his kitchen, but it was the trophy that belonged to Morant.
Is Bain a better player than Morant? We certainly can't come to that conclusion through a series. The type of style, the function of the court, the level of talent of the two people are completely different, and there is no comparison between them. Without Bain's excellent play, Morant may not be able to advance to the next round, but without Morant's huge pulling on defense, Bane would not have been able to get so many easy shots. They achieve each other and complement each other.
As Cole commented, Bane and Morant would be together in Memphis for many years. If Morant decides the Grizzlies' cap, Bane is the one who stands behind him and holds him up.