Ja-Morant, who is about to enter his third season, is confident of taking it to the next level. Will he be the kind of player the Grizzlies have never had?
On May 14, 2019, I spent most of my time thinking about a 6.6% chance. The NBA draft draw was held that night, and that probability was the probability that the Memphis Grizzlies would get the pick. Nine times out of ten, the winner signed to become Duke's supernova, Cain Williamson. More likely, the Grizzlies' draft picks fell into the hands of the Boston Celtics. That draft pick was protected with the top 7 picks, and the Grizzlies were 8th in draft order. The draft pick may not even be a player in this draft. But maybe, just maybe, we're going to get some great assets, a player with the talent to define a team, a player who has given the Grizzlies, who have bid farewell to the glory days of grinding and strangulation, to rebuild around it.
Things didn't go the way I thought it would, but "that player" did come. The Grizzlies also had a 6.6 percent chance of getting a pick, and they did just that, preemptively selecting Murray State's Ja Morante— a player who started out as a humble player and then had an incredible season in his sophomore year, averaging 24.5 points and 10 assists per game, making him at the top of everyone's draft pick.
Despite playing at a small college and not feeling a lot of love in high school, Morant's brilliant performance is undeniable, and his performance is so wonderful that he was elected to the top spot in most of the mock drafts, and only a few are more inclined to another Duke University hot rising star, RJ Barrett. My little disappointment with the Grizzlies missing Out on Cain soon faded away. They got Ja Morant, a player with the potential to become a superstar, and to be honest, a player the Grizzlies had never really had before.
Let me apologize quickly to Zach Randolph, Mike Conley, the Gasol brothers and Tony Allen. I love watching all these players play, and I have fond memories of all of them, and they've also contributed to a memorable, thriving era in Grizzlies history.
The best thing about the "grinding and strangulation" era is to appreciate a team that is larger than the sum of its parts to play against the big names in the league and often have the upper hand. In 2011, they managed to get the Spurs' big three to the bottom, and two years later, they rose to the bottom of the pack to eliminate the famous Aircourse City Clippers. It's a pleasure to watch these teams hang in the mud and play as ferociously as possible against the most talented, but at the same time, there's a reason these teams are never going to be true champions contenders: other teams always have ace players. If you look at who the Grizzlies eliminated each of the seven consecutive playoff trips from 2011 to 2017, the common answer is that every team that eliminated the Grizzlies had the best players on the field.
In 2011, after eliminating the Spurs, they engaged the Oklahoma Thunder in an unforgettable, intense seven-game game. Unfortunately, the offensive firepower of the young Kevin Durant and Russell-Weisbrooke proved too ferocious to be unstoppable.
Four years later, the Grizzlies unexpectedly led the Warriors, the West's top seed, 2-1, including G2 Mike Conley's legendary "Mask Battle," in which he returned with 22 points after returning from an injury in G1. Could there be anything disappointing? Until the Warriors realized they could let Andrew Bogut defend Tony Allen, things looked like this, and there was not much to say after that. The Splash Brothers went straight down three games and eventually won the championship.
Conley, Mark, Randolph and Tony's core four played the playoffs twice, both times being eliminated by the Spurs in the first round. At that time, the Grizzlies were getting older, and no matter how hard they played and how much the fans loved them, it was time to start all over again.
It was a painful process for Grizzlies fans, with players who defined their team leave for much of the decade, with Randolph signing with the Kings, Allen making brief stops with the Pelicans, and Gasol and Conley being traded. A glimmer of light was revealed during the 2018 draft, a long and tragic season with a No. 4 pick, followed by Michigan State University's Jalen Jackson Jr., who was a very underpolished piece of jade, but with a seductive talent. As a rookie, Jackson was quickly able to influence the game with a tight defense, and although he was still unpolished on the offensive end, he was already a powerful dunkman who could hit three points from time to time. If the Grizzlies want to build a competitive team, their next era will still need more talent to rebuild around them. They need a reliable rookie, the kind of player who can immediately change the face of the team and the views that the rest of the league thinks about the team.
After a summer full of discussions about what Morant could bring to the game, it didn't take long to feel his influence. When the Grizzlies attacked, the game revolved around him. Defenders are often fooled by his dazzling dribbling, leaving only a trail of his breakthrough. Despite his small size, his amazing athleticism has resulted in plenty of highlight moments.
But what about winning? At first, the Grizzlies started slowly, as you might expect from a team defined by youth and talent, but after a 13-22 start, the young Grizzlies rose to the chase and won 11 of their next 13 games, pulling back the winning percentage to 50 percent. Morant quickly built chemistry with his new teammates, and the team, which no one predicted would make a difference, quickly became a contender for a playoff spot. When COVID-19 started and the season was suspended, a fierce competition was in full swing. When the Bubble Zone resumed, the Grizzlies fell behind and eventually missed the playoffs. They are still ahead of their original plans, and Morant's rapid adaptation to the NBA's rhythm is the main reason for achieving this.
At first, Morant's second year looked like a lost year. He was injured in his third game of the season and the Grizzlies struggled to make a 2-6 start without him. However, although Morant's injury may have delayed his first All-Star trip, he managed to return and lead the Grizzlies into the playoffs. In a key knockout game against the Warriors, Morant scored 35 points, more durable than the determined Stephen Curry, eventually bringing the Grizzlies into the playoffs.
Although the Grizzlies were eliminated by the Jazz after five games, Morant played a brilliant performance, averaging 30.2 points and 8.2 assists per game, keeping every game anxious. The Grizzlies aren't ready to compete with a team as experienced as the Jazz, but admittedly they're incredibly tough, making every game except the last G5 intense. We have a vague impression of what a great team the Grizzlies will be in the future and how Morant will make great strides.
What needs to be understood about Morant and what he means for the Grizzlies and the city is that it's not just about those stats or even those dunks, what matters is the atmosphere. This guy feels like a superstar, the kind of player whose eyes are on him as long as he's on the court, the kind of player who defines a team, the kind of player the Grizzlies were looking for from the very beginning, the kind of player that every team that knows they might not have a chance on the free agent market wants to get in the draft.
Morant is a charismatic man, both because of his great performances on the court and because of his rich personality off the field (his Twitter account is one of the best in the league). He's not quite up to the level of an All-Star or a Best Team yet, but I have a strong feeling that that's exactly where he's headed, and his excellent performance against the Jazz strongly supports that idea. We just saw Trae Young establish himself as a superstar in his third season by leading the Atlanta Hawks all the way through the playoffs. Morant is also about to start his third year, and he seems confident he's getting the same done.
The last time the Grizzlies drew a pick at a draft draw — they never got a pick — was in 2003. They have the sixth-highest chance of getting a pick like the Clippers. As they did later in 2019, they moved up to the top spot. This is usually good news. Of course, they missed Out on LeBron James, but they still had a choice of Cameron Anthony, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh. Or rather, they could have done it if their draft pick wasn't exactly the first pick protection. That said, as long as the draft pick isn't a pick, it's sent to the Detroit Pistons, who were traded six years ago. The Pistons used the draft pick to select European rookie Dako Mirisic, who will become one of the biggest parallel cargoes in NBA history. One might think the Grizzlies escaped, but Milisic eventually played for the Grizzlies in 2007-2009 (on that team he became teammates with Kwame Brown, which seemed like a godsend).
The Memphis Grizzlies were so close to getting their chances of being selected as the greatest player in NBA history that they eventually let the opportunity slip away from the finger. Since then they have had many memorable players and competitive teams, but until they select Morant, no one can be credibly called a superstar. Now, let's make it clear that he's unlikely to be the next LeBron James, but that's only because James's accomplishments are so high that probably no one can match them.
But will Morant become a top ten player in the league? It looks like he's getting there. Top five players in the league? It seems possible. MVP？ He will be in a fierce competition with Luka Doncic and Trae Young, who are at the peak, and Giannis and Jokic in their prime, but this does not seem impossible. Given that he's on the verge of a breakthrough, it looks like he's capable of doing what players in Grizzlies history have never been able to do.
Of course, when a small-ball city team welcomes a truly special, team-changing player, the question of "how do they avoid messing up" ensues. Pressures around him to build a squad that can actually help follow, and the question of "will he go to big ball city/super team/big ball city super team when he has the opportunity" is always hanging in the air. Before LeBron finally returned and won a championship for Cleveland in 2016, Cavaliers fans witnessed a frustrated LeBron flee miami for a better future.
Similarly, despite Giannis' incredible performance against the Suns in this year's Finals, becoming a hero for the Bucks, assuming Kevin Durant takes a step back, it's entirely possible that Giannis is playing on some other team at the moment. When a player is as good as Morant might be, every team will want to get him, which means that the team he is in at the moment will always be a question of whether he can keep him for a long time. Still, having one such player is much better than nothing, and with Morant confident in making a breakthrough, Grizzlies fans can look forward to experiencing something they've never experienced before.
The Grizzlies of the "Grind and Strangle" era are one of the funniest, toughest, cutliest, and most meaningful teams in recent memory. That's why the fact that this team is clearly not enough to win a championship can feel so unfair. They did everything right, but it didn't matter because they didn't have "that player", and likewise, they found themselves powerless against Durant, Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard. Saying goodbye to the core foursome was a tough thing to do (the day they traded Conley was especially tough for me), but tearing down the team and starting over was to try to build a team that could go further and find the player who was really outstanding and could lead the team to a championship. As far as we know, Ja-Morant is "that player". He's an amazing, unique player, unlike any player who has worn a Memphis or Vancouver Grizzlies jersey. Now, it's time to see if he can do what LeBron and Giannis did for Cleveland and Milwaukee and lead Memphis to the Promised Land.