The Grizzlies Have a Ja Morant PROBLEM

The Grizzlies Have a Ja Morant PROBLEM

Yo, what’s going on y’all? It’s Con and the Grizzies have a John Marant problem and it’s going from bad to worse. It is reaching critical levels to the point where I wouldn’t be shocked if a trade request comes at some point here soon. And honestly, I think it’s the way things need to go tonight. They lost to the New York Knicks who are a really good team. They’re playing amazing basketball. I got to make a video about them soon. Uh but yeah, like Memphis never had a chance in this game. They got dominated over the first three quarters. fourth quarter. They kind of fought back a little bit, made it somewhat interesting, but I never seriously thought the Grizzlies were going to win this basketball game, and they didn’t. They’re now 4-8 on the year, sitting 11th in the Western Conference. And yes, they’ve dealt with injuries. Brandon Clark, Zach, Tyram, Scotty Pippen Jr. All those guys have missed significant significant time almost all the time over the course of this season. And each one of those players would make a difference, would make this team better. I do think there is a better Grizzlies team here with the personnel they have when fully healthy than the one that we’ve seen so far. I’m not saying that, you know, the Grizzlies just straight out suck regardless of the injuries. I don’t think they’re great even when healthy, but I don’t think they’re this bad. The bigger concern is John Morant because John Morant like you know you get back some of those bigs to set him screens and you know like a Ty Drum Scotty Pippen Jr. for him to play off of open up the game a little bit. Those guys could make his life easier, but they’re not fixing what we’re seeing so far this season where John Morett is putting together easily the worst season of his entire career. Tonight against the Knicks, eight points, three rebounds, 10 assists on four shooting, two of six from three with eight turnovers. And seven of those came in the first half when they just let the Knicks run away with the game. If they don’t have that terrible first half, turn the ball over that much, maybe they actually have a real chance in the fourth quarter when they ultimately made a bit of a push, but it doesn’t matter. And honestly, that’s been the John Moran experience most nights. He’s going to give you highly inefficient scoring. He’s going to turn the ball over a decent bit. There are going to be multiple moments where you question his effort where it looks like he’s quitting on the play. The defense doesn’t exist. Like all in all on the season, he’s giving them 18.9 points, 3.7 boards, and 8.1 assists with four turnovers a night. That’s a careerhigh. But the points and rebounds also being two of the lowest marks of his career. And the worst part is he’s shooting 35.2% 2% from the field and 16.7% from three on five and a half three-point attempts a night. There is no reason Jon needs to be shooting that many threes because he cannot hit them at all. He’s never been a good shooter. Now he’s one of the worst shooters in the entire NBA. To put that lack of efficiency into even more context, he has a true shooting percentage of 46.9 on the season. That is abysmal. If you don’t know what true shooting percentage is, just know that that is terrible. In fact, that is the worst of any NBA player averaging at least 16 points a night so far this season. If you put down the threshold to 15 points per game, he’s only worse than Derek White on the year. And if you move it all the way down to 10 points per game, and there are a lot of players in the NBA that can go out there and average an inefficient 10 on rebuilding teams, you know, young guys still figuring it out with a lot of opportunity being allowed to kind of work through the mistakes. Jaw is still the fifth most inefficient player in the league, averaging 10 plus points per game, only ahead of Andrew Nemhar, Jarus Walker, Derek White, and Trey Man on the season. Jaw is not, you know, someone just starting to kind of spread his wings a little bit. He’s not a rookie. Jaw has been in the league for years at this point. And to be this inefficient, to be this incapable of generating consistent offense, it’s extremely alarming because it comes with some concerning stats like he’s posting career lows in rim frequency and field goal percentage at the rim. Basically, he’s completely unable to get downhill and get to the rim the way that he used to be able to. Like if you remember John Morant in 2022 when they faced off against the Warriors in that series and you know he’s going head-to-head with Steph Curry, Jaw was just I’m going to go ahead and attack downhill and get to the rim. I’m one of the greatest athletes in the sport. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. That was his game and it worked a lot of times. But he really doesn’t do that very often anymore. It feels like he has noticeably less burst. He’s less quick at getting there. He doesn’t have the touch around the rim that it looked like he once had. Jaw’s just not looking like Jaw at this point in his career. And I say at this point in his career, which makes him sound old. He’s only 26 years old. And it already feels like he’s losing a little bit of a step. He’s dealt with a number of injuries. And in addition to the fact that again, he just doesn’t really look interested. There was that game that he completely quit on the Grizzlies. He had that pretty public, you know, moment where he was like, “Ask the coaching staff why I didn’t play and this and that.” And he ends up getting suspended for a game. Like this is a number of incidents now that have happened between John Morant and the Grizzlies over the years, but this one was the most alarming because they’re playing bad. He’s bad. He looks disinterested. It’s going public with the coaching staff. A coach who was supposed to be like he was basically the guy that was supposed to save John Morant from what was a pretty rough down year for his career last season where in Taylor Jenkins system it was a little bit more, hey, everybody kind of eats. You know, we we share a little bit more. J, your numbers aren’t going to look insane, but we’re going to win some games. than they did before. They didn’t and really fell off in the second half of the year. And I don’t blame them for firing Taylor Jenkins. I don’t think he was that phenomenal. But like Eselo came in because it felt like a system that could better prioritize John Mor and he went crazy at the end of last season in the system. And now this year he’s like not publicly criticizing it, but it seems like he’s not a fan. He’s not super engaged. And I’m not saying the system is perfect or anything, but now this is two coaches in pretty quick succession that Jaw has been unhappy with. the team isn’t good. He’s supposed to be the guy that elevates them in the absence of the other players. And again, I do think like Edy to set screens or Brandon Clark to be a lob threat. These types of guys would help John Morat 100%. I am not at all discounting the lack of some supporting talent that he has. And I do think getting rid of Desmond Bane, an elite shooter for Jaw to play off of also makes his life definitely more difficult. But he’s still turning the ball over just carelessly. He’s dribbling into traffic and losing it. He’s unable to get to the rim. He’s unable to finish at the rim. He’s taking bad shots. He has not really progressed his game. Jaw has not gotten better as an offensive player at all really throughout his career since we saw him getting MVP votes pretty early in his career. And it’s reached a point where the Grizzlies are just straight up better when Jon Moran is off the court. So far this season, he’s played 339 minutes. And in those minutes, the Grizzies have a net rating of -7.4. When Jaw is off the court, it is a -3.1. They are 4.3 points better when John Morant is on the bench in his 237 minutes sitting there this season. That is alarming. And it’s not just like the defense is getting better because obviously Jaw’s never been a great defender. It is, but it’s just by one point. The bigger swing is offensively, the team is better offensively when John Mor is not playing. That is extremely concerning if you’re a Grizzlies fan, if you’re the Grizzlies front office, if you’re anybody thinking like, how is this going to possibly work out in Memphis? And it’s reached a point for me where I don’t think it is. I don’t think this is salvageable. This team is so far away from being competitive in any real context, even when they get healthy, they’re not that great of a squad, especially if Jaw’s playing like this. Jaw would have to get towards like an MVP level player to elevate them anywhere near like actual elite play. And I don’t think that’s going to happen. I don’t think Jaw can be the guy to lead them to, you know, relevancy again. I think that time has kind of come and gone, which is crazy to say because it really only happened for like one season, but I think that’s just the reality of the situation. There were some key injuries that ultimately halted this team. Uh there were bad decisions, I think, made by the front office and Jaw himself is just not himself. Like if you want another example of how this could be going better for Jaw, take a look at Jiren Jackson Jr. who so far this season is putting up, you know, not crazy points per game. He’s only averaging 17.2 is the lowest since 2022, but he’s shooting 51.4% from the field and 40% from three while averaging about one and a half blocks per game. Now with Jiren, the team is still getting a bit of a boost when he’s on the bench net rating wise. It’s a negative 6.3 with him on 4.8 with him off. And that also, you know, isn’t great to see, but it’s not nearly as big of a swing as the one with John Morant, who is supposed to be this team’s like superstar. Jiren is supposed to be the second guy on this team, an allstar, all NBA level player. you know, he won a deep point. Like Jiren has progressed. He’s gotten better. Jiren is the best player on this team right now. It’s no longer John Mor. And that of course has to bring about the the thought process. Okay, if Jaw’s no longer the best guy, do you just go ahead and move off of him? And I think the answer is yes. But the only issue is I don’t know what John’s value is around the league at this point. Like how many teams at the moment are desperate to trade for a player that’s putting up the numbers jaw is making $40 million and being injuryprone? I don’t know if many squads are going to go ahead and bite on that apple. Maybe if he turns it around a little bit and by the deadline he’s playing more like the jaw of old or at least just semi more efficient, then I could potentially see a team taking a swing because there is still so much talent here with John Morant. But I I just don’t know if we’re going to see him reach the level that he hit in like his third, fourth seasons. And that’s crazy to say because it really felt like he and the Grizzlies were kind of the next thing in the Western Conference. They’re rapidly on the rise. They went head-to-head, toe-to-toe with the Golden State Warriors that won the finals that year in 2022. In 2023, they’re one of the top seeds in the Western Conference that ultimately dealt with some injuries down the stretch, lost the Lakers round one. And since that point, it’s just all been bad. It’s just all been terrible. Last year got destroyed by the Thunder, a team that they were well ahead of at one point, and now they’re so so far behind. They’re far behind the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, those young powerhouses, never mind teams like the Denver Nuggets, even the Lakers, like who just pivoted from LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Grizzlies are supposed to pass them, but now they have Luca and they’re better. The Grizzlies have been passed by almost everybody that they had a head start on. And I think that leads to a conversation about the management of this team. I don’t think Zack Kimman has done a good job. I think they made some really poor decisions, weird pivots towards like more youth and letting key guys go at spots where it just didn’t feel like it made sense. Last year they just dealt away Marcus Smart who, you know, wasn’t playing insane or anything like that, but they just salary dumped him and gave up a pick to do so in a year where they were towards the top of the Western Conference and ultimately it wasn’t going to make a difference. But you think they’d at least try a little bit in a year where they’re semihealthier after that abysmal year with like everybody injured. It just feels like I think the front office knows that this isn’t happening. That this isn’t going anywhere. I think that’s why they trade away Desmond Bane. They were like we can’t pass up this offer and sure we’re going to get worse, but it’s not like we’re going anywhere anyways. I I think a full-scale rebuild is coming pretty soon here for the Memphis Grizzlies, especially if someone is willing to bite on John Morant. And I I think ultimately the job regression, his inability to really elevate and the fact that he’s just playing some of the worst basketball of his career is one of the big root problems for the way things are going right now with the Memphis Grizzlies. Again, it is nowhere near all his fault, but he’s supposed to be the guy and it just no longer feels like he’s the guy. I’m hopeful that when he does get moved to a new situation, it’s better for him and that he kind of refineses his game because at one point Jaw was mustsea TV. Like if the Grizzlies were playing, you had to be locked in because Jaw was going to do some of the most insane stuff you’ve ever seen. Now, I kind of just expect like 15 points, you know, some pretty nice dimes, maybe like seven to eight to 10 assists, but he’s going to turn the ball over four to five times, and he’s going to shoot like three of 13 or something along those lines. It’s not the John that we used to know. It’s not a John that can lead the Grizzlies out of the the seller of the Western Conference are in right now. It’s not a John Rant who many teams are even going to have interest in in a trade. I don’t think so. Not with that type of money. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m sure someone would be willing to bite. Like, you know, Minnesota would probably love to try out John Moran if they could make the money work, which spoiler alert, they really can’t. Not many teams can, just the way the NBA is right now. So, um, yeah, that’s kind of my spiel on the Memphis Grizzlies and specifically on John Morant. And it really sucks because he’s one of those guys who’s supposed to be like a rival with Shay out in the Western Conference. You know, John Shay battling two of the best guards in the sport. you know, both trying to lift their young teams towards relevancy and now it’s just it’s just not there for the Memphis Grizzlies. So, those are my thoughts on them. Let me know down below in the comments what your takeaways were from this Knicks Grizzlies game, more so from the Grizzlies beginning to the season. Let’s move on and talk a little bit about some of the other games. A lot of blowouts, so I don’t have a lot to say. The Toronto Raptors win again 119 to 109. Just dominated the Brooklyn Nets. Nothing super surprising there. Uh Manuel Quickley had one of his better games of the season, 248 and 5, 25 from Ingram. Uh the Raptors have been looking pretty good and quietly. I think they’ve won now five of six or maybe even five in a row, which is cool to see. I like to see this Raptor team having some success. We had the Thunder annihilating the Golden State Warriors. Uh shout out to my guys. 11 and one now. Chad Homegrren 2010 double double with perfect shooting. One of his best games. Uh Chad is just an automatic masterclass against the Golden State Warriors. To be honest, Shay had 285 and 11. Just another game where he doesn’t have to play the fourth quarter. He’s now only played in six out of 12 fourth quarters. The Thunder have had so far this season. Another good game from AJ Mitchell. Uh, amazing defense the Warriors could not get anything going. Again, it’s kind of what I talked about before the season. I was a little bit worried still about who was going to be the consistent second guy behind Steph Curry. Not that Steph Curry was good tonight. He was, you know, really, really struggling. But it still feels like the Warriors rely on Steph Curry running around a million screens and, you know, moving off ball relentlessly at like 50 years old to try and get consistent offense. And I just don’t think that’s a reliable strategy. They looked sluggish. They looked completely outmatched against the Thunder for a team that wanted to be competitive this season and looked really good down the stretch last year. They’re only six and six. And I I believe all six of those losses are on the road. They just can’t seem to win in anybody else’s building. The Jazz put up 152 points on the Indiana Pacers. 152 to 128. Lowry 35 points. Uh the Pacers are going for one of the top guys. It’s they’re in fallout tank mode which I can appreciate. They got pretty good games from Simma Hiluke, Isaiah Collier, Bryce Sensuba, Philipowski. If you run the Utah Jazz, you scored a lot of points tonight. I mean, 152 is is insane. Uh they’re actually, I think, four-7 now. They’ve looked decent this season, so shout out to Utah. The Nuggets knocked off the Kings in another absurd Joic game. It’s reached the point where if Joic misses a shot, I’m kind of shocked. Had 3515 7-2 on 84% shooting. Uh he’s playing at one of the highest levels we’ve ever seen, which is a lot to say for Joker. Uh Jamal Murray hit some big shots because the Kings kind of made this interesting but like not really. They fake made it interesting. And for Sacramento, uh Sabonis had like 19 points, 18 from D Rozan. Russell Westbrook didn’t shoot super well, but 14 points, eight rebounds, and 11 assists. He’s been one of the better players on this team and honestly should be probably pretty consistently starting over Dennis Shruder at this point, who has just been a terrible sign. And finally, the Sixers win. A thriller over the Boston Celtics. Every Sixers game is a heart attack waiting. This game was the Justin Edwards game. He went insane uh in the fourth quarter at five of six from three. Had one stretch rate, three straight to kind of get Philly back in this one for them to ultimately win. Kelly Ubé gets the game winner off a tip in. Andre Drummond, great defense on Derek White on the perimeter to go ahead and close this one out. Uh yeah, just all around impressive from Philly to go ahead and hold it down, get the W, and uh they’ve been a lot more fun this season than they’ve been over the past couple of years. I’ve really enjoyed Sixers basketball. Celtics basketball, it’s hit or miss. And yeah, Derek White, it’s just been brutal for him this season efficiency-wise. Yeah, those are my thoughts. Again, let me know down below what you think about the Memphis Grizzlies and John Morant. Would love to hear also your thoughts on all these other games. What were your big takeaways? Leave a like, subscribe if you enjoyed, hit the notification bell so you don’t miss out on future videos. Again, I’m going to shout it out, start a second channel where I’m doing like NBA quiz miscellaneous type of content. I might do a couple videos this weekend with um my brother Ryan. We did the podcast for a little bit and my guy Matt from back home, one of my best friends. Um, and like the three of us try to do a quiz. I don’t know. We’ve got ideas if you’ve got any else. Let me know. But yeah, that’s over on the second channel for Cone. Shout out to y’all. 500 subscribers already over there is sick. Um, but yeah, I appreciate all support on that. Appreciate over here. We’re pumping out content left and right. It’s been the best start to a season I’ve ever had. We’re going to keep this thing rolling. So, appreciate youall watching. I’ll see youall later. Everyone say it back.

The Memphis Grizzlies have been bad this NBA season and Ja Morant is one of the biggest reasons why. He’s struggling to score, turning the ball over, got suspended for a game, and trade rumors are now circulating. It’s been a steep fall off from when he and the Grizzlies were dueling the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers 3-4 years ago. A rebuild might be coming but a Ja Morant trade might be impossible with the current situation.

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0:00 – Intro
0:31 – The Grizzlies are bad and injured
1:05 – And Ja Morant has been terrible
4:42 – Is the coaching a problem?
5:49 – They need so much more from Ja
8:31 – Is a Ja Morant trade coming?
9:53 – The front office has made some big mistakes
10:55 – Is a Ja Morant bounce back coming?
12:20 – The rest of the NBA
15:18 – Outro