Most valuable player talks can get very contentious at the end of a season. While Joel Embiid, Steph Curry, and Nikola Jokić lead the headlines, many fans believe Ja Morant should be in the conversation. As great a season as he’s having and as unexpected the Grizzlies’ success is, “Ja Morant” and “MVP” do not belong in the same sentence.
With a plethora of Ja Morant highlights flying around social media, MVP discussion seems appropriate at the surface level. Fans will likely see a Ja highlight on social media after every single Grizzlies game. Morant is doing some unreal things on the basketball court. He is seemingly leading this small market team to a top seed in a very tough Western Conference. He is an unreal player with a skill set rarely seen at his size.
But here’s the hard facts, Ja Morant accolades stop at being a flashy player. He’s made some unreal defensive blocks, and he is a human highlight reel, BUT he’s not valuable to his team.
The most valuable player needs to be a difference-maker. Embiid deserves to be an MVP because the 76ers would not be a playoff team without him, and the same argument could be made for Curry and the Joker.
While there are plenty of reasons why Ja should not be an MVP candidate, the most significant piece of evidence lies in his time away from the team. Morant injured his knee in November and was out till late December. In that month without him, the Grizzlies were 10-2, including a game where they set an NBA record beating the OKC Thunder by 73 points. Upon Ja’s return, they faced that same OKC team and lost.
On top of that, the statistics are there to back up the fact. The Grizzlies are the worst team defensively when Ja is on the court but the second-best when he’s on the bench. This is something I’m sure he’ll improve on over the next few years, but at the moment, he doesn’t have the juice.
However Ja ended up on the NBAs, “Kia MVP ladder” is beyond me. The bottom line is the Grizzlies are a well-constructed team from top to bottom. The Grizzlies are the team the Bulls dream of being. Remove anyone from that lineup – including Ja Morant – and they will still find a way to win.
Ja Morant is a phenomenal player doing things I’ve never seen someone do on a basketball court. He’s fun, electric, and a once in a generation talent, but at this point, he’s not an MVP
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