NBA – Rising star, exciting player: Can Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies) be elected MVP this year?

It’s “The next big thing” that should get the “next” label off pretty quickly. Right now, even. Ja Morant, a slender leader (1.91m for 79 kilos) with rather unimaginable athletic qualities and a largely perfectible long-distance shoot, is blowing a wind of revolution on the League. Holder All-Star in Cleveland, leader of the galloping youth of the Memphis Grizzlies and, now, well anchored in the discussion for the title of MVP, Morant grinds the steps. Only 22 years old.

Chosen behind Zion Williamson in the 2019 draft, elected Rookie of the Year in 2020, Ja Morant took off as we imagined for Zion. However, the physical glitches and the relative investment of Zion coupled with the impact and the talent of Morant modified the trajectories of the two men, raising fears the worst for the interior of New Orleans and the best for the leader of Memphis, in a distant remake of the failed duel Greg Oden – Kevin Durant.

Useful and pleasant

Eighth man in history to score a triple double during March Madness (17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds against Marquette in the first round of 2019), the first since 2012 and a certain Draymond Green, Morant had not arrived at the university with a label on the saddle. He made up for lost time. At Murray State. And, of course, in Memphis.

This season, Morant has the good idea to combine business with pleasure. Morant has undoubtedly succeeded against the decade against the Lakers, at the end of an action which gives a fairly precise idea of ​​his physical qualities. Impulse with two feet, fingers 3.60 meters from the ground and a counter that we had already seen in NBA Jam, less on the floors.

Morant continues the highlights every week. The latest? This successful buzzer shot on Monday against Spurs, four tenths from halftime. Icing on the cake of a successful evening in exceptional proportions.

52 points at 22/30 (including 4/4 at three points), Ja Morant bent the Spurs and, already author before this match of three of the five best offensive performances of Memphis (including a personal best at 46 units the previous match ), the leader went to sit at the very top of this hierarchy.

An eel capable of sneaking into the League’s rackets at leisure, Ja has Derrick Rose in him, less muscular and, hopefully, more solid. Can he now imitate the leader of Chicago, crowned MVP in 2011, also at 22? He is in the running, for sure. And, since the beginning of the week, voices have been raised to give substance to his candidacy, such as Allen Iverson. The 2001 MVP also used his silverware to suggest what he thought of his younger brother’s season.

His coach, Taylor Jenkins, does not say anything else. If we expected no less from him, he still sums up the situation quite well: “He’s in the conversation and he absolutely deserves to be MVP. There are certainly a lot of great players who play at an extremely high level. (…) But his level of play and his impact on our success sum up what makes an MVP. Now it’s not me who decides but it’s pretty obvious to me that he has to be MVP”.

Top stats + winning team

To be crowned MVP, and with a few exceptions, such as Russell Westbrook in 2017 crowned for his exceptional individual statistical achievements, you have to achieve the following clever mix: top statistics + winning team. However, Ja Morant currently ticks both boxes.

• His individual stats: 27.6 points average, 5.9 rebounds and 6.6 assists.

• Memphis record: 43-20 in the West. Third report of the League.

Add to that that the Grizzlies, as promising as they are, weren’t destined to fly this high this season. And that, as talented as Desmond Bane or Jaren Jackson Jr, Morant seems less well surrounded than a bunch of superstars he met in Cleveland, during the last All Star Game.

More deserving than the other candidates? It’s possible. Will that be enough? It’s a different story. Two months from the end of the regular season, the sorting is taking place. Except for a huge reversal of the situation, which would bring – for example – a Curry, a Booker or a Tatum to the front runners, Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers), DeMar DeRozan (Chicago Bulls) and Giannis Antetokounmpo ( Milwaukee Bucks) appear to have taken the lead. In particular the duo Jokic – Embiid.

In 2011, Derrick Rose (we’ll come back to this) surprised everyone with his crazy stats, obviously (25 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists) but also and above all when he had hoisted the Bulls to the top of the League, a year when the Miami Heat had gathered all it was possible to gather in terms of stars. The Bulls’ 62 wins had weighed as much as D-Rose’s stats and exploits.

Barring a huge surprise, Morant and the Grizzlies will not end the season as the dominant power in the League, while Phoenix seems too far ahead (50-12). Clinging to the Suns, or even passing in front of the Warriors, would not serve Ja Morant, whose candidacy for a surprising time now seems natural. And that is perhaps the main thing.