'It was for the better': How Ja Morant and the Grizzlies turned last season's woes into success

JA MORANT DROVE the length of the court, kissed a hanging floater off the glass over a couple of Los Angeles Lakers defenders and saw an opportunity to make a statement.

It was in the final minute of a testy second quarter on Nov. 6 at FedExForum, a home game for the Memphis Grizzlies that felt too much like a neutral site for Morant’s taste because of the presence of so many Lakers fans.

Morant and LeBron James had exchanged buckets and “too small” gestures in the preceding minute. Morant had an up-close view when James smacked the teal paint in the lane with his right hand, as the Grizzlies superstar landed flat on his back after the league’s all-time leading scorer muscled him before hitting a turnaround.

Morant wanted to send a message: Nobody bullies the Memphis Grizzlies, not even a legend who outweighs him by 100 pounds or so. After hitting the floater and backpedaling a few steps, Morant spotted James standing in the lane awaiting an inbounds pass. Morant approached from behind and bumped James forcefully enough to move him several inches, earning a technical foul. It was worth giving up a point for Morant to make his point.

“I don’t like them,” Morant told reporters after the Grizzlies rolled to a 131-114 win that night. “They knocked me out of the playoffs. And then last year we had a game, and they came here and popped it on our home floor when I was in street clothes. I wasn’t [on the bench] tonight.”

A month earlier, inside the gym at a tony private school in Nashville, after a bitterly disappointing, injury-ravaged 27-55 campaign, Morant and the Grizzlies tried to wash away the lingering aftertaste of the past two seasons.

It was Oct. 1, and with a roster that still features several holdovers from teams that won 50-plus games and earned the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed the two previous years, Morant summed up the mood.

“We all feel like we ain’t done s— yet,” he said.

Two years earlier, Morant sat for an interview in Denver with ESPN’s Malika Andrews. His team was 19-10, atop the West standings and had been anointed by many teams as the best young team in basketball. And they believed it.

“I’m fine in the West,” Morant famously said.

A lot has happened with the Grizzlies since then — mostly negative — two league suspensions for Morant, a first-round flameout against the Lakers and the superstar guard’s inclusion on the lengthy, record-breaking list of Grizzlies players who suffered serious injuries.

“It was a humbling experience last season,” said Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins, whose staff underwent several changes over the summer. “It was miserable not being a part of playoff basketball.”

Still, the Grizzlies’ internal expectations weren’t dimmed by last season’s disappointment.

“I mean, if you don’t win a championship, what the f— did you do?” Morant said during the preseason. “Honestly, championship is the goal. Until then, we ain’t done nothing. My goal is to get there and do whatever it takes to get there.”

Morant didn’t want a 10-month layoff, but he saw some benefit in having such a long stretch away from the spotlight. He reported to camp with a sense of calm determination.

“I’d say it was for the better,” Morant said. “It allowed me to lock in mentally, focus more. I was able to be around my family a lot during my recovery process, being able to travel, feel human again, go to my AAU teams’ games, watch them win, watch the joy that they have being out there playing. It had me itching to get back on the floor.”

That’s one silver lining. But inside the organization, they feel there were several more that could fuel an expeditious rise back to the top of the West.

Such as the presence of lottery pick Zach Edey, the offensive development of power forward Jaren Jackson Jr. and the discovery of solid backup point guard Scotty Pippen Jr. — all are among the benefits from the 2023-24 campaign that have helped the Grizzlies get off to a 7-5 start with the third-best point differential (plus-8.2) in the Western Conference entering Friday night’s road game against the Golden State Warriors (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).

EDEY WAS A polarizing prospect despite winning back-to-back NCAA Player of the Year honors for Purdue, which he led to the national championship game last season. There were widespread doubts about how well a lumbering post player would fit in the modern NBA that is all about pace and space. Some teams did not have him in the first round on their draft boards, according to league sources.

But the Grizzlies pounced on the chance to pick Edey at No. 9 and immediately plugged the 7-foot-4 big man into the hole at center in their starting lineup. The early results have been mixed, as Edey played fewer than 15 minutes in four of Memphis’ first nine games. He has been used in a reserve role the past three games, a decision Jenkins said was made to evaluate different lineup combinations, not intended as a demotion.

Edey, who slimmed down to 290 pounds in preparation for the up-tempo NBA, has averaged 11.3 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 62.2% from the floor, including 70.0% in the restricted area.

“He’s not in the Big Ten anymore, and there are times the game looks too fast for him,” said an Eastern Conference scout who saw the Grizzlies recently. “But he’s a force in the paint. They need to pass him the ball more.”

The latter statement isn’t a consensus opinion among scouts. A scout who attended the best performance of Edey’s young career — 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting and 12 rebounds on Nov. 4 in Brooklyn — noted that the Grizzlies lost that game.

“I don’t think that’s their way of playing — just pass the ball inside and wait,” that scout said.

Culturally, Edey has fit extremely well with the Grizzlies. He’s not nearly as animated as Morant, but he has a similar combative competitiveness and refusal to be intimidated. Case in point: Edey exchanged shoves and stares with veteran center Jonas Valanciunas, one of the NBA’s most bruising big men, during the Grizzlies’ Nov. 8 win over the Washington Wizards.

After scoring 12 points and grabbing eight rebounds in Wednesday’s loss against the Lakers, a game in which he held his own against perennial All-Star Anthony Davis, Jenkins complimented his young big man.

“There’s this chip on his shoulder from coming up,” he said, “starting basketball late and everyone doubting him.”

FOR MUCH OF last season, Jackson stood alone. He was the lone Grizzlies starter to avoid major injury, and led Memphis in minutes and games played.

The circumstances required Jackson to carry a much bigger offensive burden than he ever had before, resulting in a career-best scoring average (22.5 points per game) but poor efficiency (49.4 effective field goal percentage).

But it gave Jackson chances to spread his wings offensively against NBA competition, allowing him to experiment with ways to expand his game.

“It was just a huge opportunity,” Jackson told ESPN. “I haven’t ever been put in a position to be that offensively free in probably my life. Just getting those experiences, I can take that to any year that I have going forward.

“But it’s more fun to have everybody around you, for sure.”

Jackson, 25, the Defensive Player of the Year two seasons ago, is off to the best offensive start of his career, despite missing all of preseason and the first two games of the regular season with a hamstring strain. He’s averaging 22.5 points per game — a team high — while shooting 54.7% from the floor and 39.2% from 3-point range.

The sample sizes are small, but Jackson has displayed the ability to score in a variety of ways this season. According to Second Spectrum data, he has averaged 1.19 points per transition opportunity, 1.35 points per isolation and 1.18 on post-ups, all of which rank well above the league average.

“Last year was a huge boost in his growth offensively,” Jenkins said this week. “It was definitely an unintended opportunity, obviously as unfortunate as last season was, but his development was one of the brightest spots I could see.”

Other bright spots include a trio of young players on two-way deals who parlayed larger than anticipated roles into four-year, standard contracts, providing hope they could play significant roles in the franchise’s near future.

Vince Williams Jr., a mid-second-round pick in the 2022 draft, ended up starting 33 games and usually taking the toughest defensive assignment. Opposing stars such as Luka Doncic credited Williams for his toughness and tenaciousness. Williams also shot 37.8% from 3-point range, showing drastic development in what had been an area of weakness, to emerge as the type of role player all good teams need. The Grizzlies locked him up, signing Williams to a four-year, $9.1 million deal in January.

GG Jackson II, a mid-second-rounder in the 2023 draft, spent most of the first few months of his rookie year in the G League before cracking the injury-ravaged Grizzlies’ rotation in mid-January. He earned second-round All-Rookie status, averaging 14.6 points per game as the league’s youngest player. He signed a four-year, $8.5 million contract in February.

The Grizzlies used the open two-way slot created by converting Williams to a standard contract to sign Pippen. He was one of many midseason additions as the Grizzlies had an NBA-record 33 players appear in games, but Pippen proved worthy of keeping around, averaging 12.9 points and 4.7 assists in 21 games. He played so well in the Las Vegas summer league that Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman openly wondered how he wasn’t selected as the MVP. Pippen signed a four-year, $9.6 million deal in October and has been a steady backup to Morant.

Unfortunately, GG Jackson (broken right foot) and Williams (stress reaction in left tibia) had to undergo offseason surgeries that have prevented them from playing yet this season.

“I gotta hold ’em to that standard of how they were playing — continue playing like that no matter who’s on the floor,” Morant said of the young players who seized opportunities last season.

MORANT SOARED TO catch an alley-oop on a fast break, the sort of moment that makes him one of the league’s most exciting stars, with the Grizzlies leading by 15 late in the third quarter of their home win over the Lakers. But the highlight didn’t happen this time.

Morant was undercut in midair by Lakers reserve big man Christian Koloko, preventing Morant from cleanly catching the pass and causing him to land awkwardly in a long fall to the floor. Seconds later, the Grizzlies called for a timeout so Morant could exit. As he limped to the Memphis bench, he barked at a referee for not blowing his whistle on the play.

Morant didn’t return to the game, but he downplayed concerns postgame, when he expressed his disdain for the Lakers. He sat out a couple of nights later, when the Grizzlies listed right hip tightness on the injury report.

Four of the most ominous words in the NBA — “MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES MEDICAL UPDATE” — hit email inboxes the next afternoon. An MRI had revealed the extent of Morant’s injuries: a posterior hip subluxation (without dislocation) along with multiple associated Grade 1 pelvic muscle strains.

Morant is officially considered week-to-week. A week later, he was still using crutches.

It has already been a rough start for those who figured that Memphis’ medical misfortunes had to improve after last season’s misery.

Each of the Grizzlies’ four veteran starters has missed multiple games with injury. Morant vented some frustration after an Oct. 30 home loss to the Brooklyn Nets, when he came back after sitting out a game with right thigh soreness, only to see two other starters go down. Desmond Bane (oblique strain) hasn’t played since and is also considered week-to-week. Marcus Smart (ankle sprain) missed six games before returning Wednesday night.

“Every time I play a game and I sit the next, people say, ‘Oh, you soft or you ain’t this, or ain’t this,” Morant said to Memphis media that night. “And then y’all got guys sitting out for longer than you want them to and it’s like, ‘Oh, he should have sat out.’ You got guys out here battling and that’s what you get for it.

“Y’all want me to play every game? Alright, see you tomorrow.”

Morant indeed showed up the next night. He put a highlight reel together while producing a 26-point triple-double to lead the short-handed Grizzlies to a blowout win over the Milwaukee Bucks, a performance that provided a reminder:

If Morant is at his best, the Grizzlies have good reason to believe.