The violent dunks. The nervy passes. The off-the-bounce prestidigitation.

Ja Morant: Taker of Souls. Eater of Ankles. Highlight Hero.

But none of this may be quite what’s most impressive about the 20-year-old Morant’s franchise-altering rookie season for the Memphis Grizzlies. 

Maybe it’s his “pace” or “smarts.” Maybe it’s his control.

“I think his best asset as a point guard has been his pace of play,” said Elliot Perry. “He plays at his own pace and never seems rushed, with an ability to make quality decisions even in tough situations. He can be in traffic or look like he’s out of control or get in the air, and he can make something happen.”

“The most impressive part about him is how smart he is,” said Brevin Knight. “We knew the athleticism. We knew the playmaking. We knew the highlight plays. But what I didn’t know was how hard he works. I didn’t know what a student of the game he was or how quickly he’d able to dissect a coverage. That he’d know when and who to get the basketball to at his young age.”

After four years guiding then Memphis State University, Perry spent 10 years playing point guard in the NBA. After four years on the ball at Stanford University, Knight played the point across a dozen NBA seasons. As respective radio and television commentators for the Grizzlies, perhaps no one outside of the locker room or coaching staff has seen Morant more this season while understanding him better. 

And while Perry and Knight are as impressed as anyone by Morant’s athletic gifts, what grips them more is Morant’s preternatural mastery of the NBA’s most demanding position.

It’s one thing to grasp the geometry of the floor. But Morant seems to control its calculus, to direct the game’s continuous change.

“It’s an innate sense that you have,” said Knight. “People have tried, even guys who do it at a high level, but it’s something that is very hard to explain. How do you do that? If you’re playing golf or tennis, there’s a certain way you swing the club or swing the racket to be able to do this. But (as a point guard) I’m doing it with me. To get four other guys to be in concert with what you want to get done. That is just a special gift that some players have.”

“If you’re a fast point guard, you’ve probably heard your coach say many times, hey, just slow down and let this play develop. Because sometimes you can outrun the play,” said Perry. “Ja has the ability to play at a pace where he can let things develop, but he can also create those things.”

Searching for a comp

When people search for a comparison to Morant in the NBA’s past or present, they increasingly turn into Dr. Frankenstein, reassembling pieces of different players in search of an explanation.

Before Morant stepped onto an NBA floor, it was just “he’s the next Russell Westbrook,” inspired by his relentless rim attacks in a 6-foot-3 frame. Can it be all so simple? 

No.

As a rookie, Westbrook shot 42% inside the 3-point arc and 27% beyond it. Midway through his own rookie campaign, Morant’s at 51% and 41%, respectively. Per 100 possessions, Morant has both more assists and fewer turnovers than rookie-season Westbrook. 

Morant is so far averaging 27.8 points and 10.9 assists per 100 possessions. His usage rate (percentage of possessions he “uses” when on the floor) is 26.3. His true shooting percentage (accounting for 3-pointers and free throws) is 57%. 

How rare is it for a rookie guard to display this blend of volume and efficiency? If you set each marker a little below Morant — say 25 points and 10 assists per 100 possessions, 25% usage and 55% true shooting — then the list of rookie guards who have accomplished this is a brief one: Only Ja Morant, so far. 

Start lowering these markers slightly and a few other names begin trickling in: Kyrie Irving, Steve Francis, Trae Young, Damian Lillard. (Aside: We forget how good the young Francis was.)

Lower the shooting efficiency more steeply and you’ll allow in athletic dynamos such Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Derrick Rose. By some measures, the best rookie point guard of the current century was Chris Paul, and even he didn’t carry close to the usage load Morant has.

There simply hasn’t been someone, right out of the gate, who quite combines the supercharged athleticism of a Rose with the pure point guard’s command and efficiency of a Paul. Perhaps this makes Morant as much a basketball “unicorn” as anyone.

Grizz Week: The audacity of Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks’ hot streak and more

Over the course of his career, Perry played alongside a quartet of star point guards: Marbury in New Jersey, Terrell Brandon in Milwaukee and Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd in different stints in Phoenix. 

“I think Ja has a little bit of all of those guys,” said Perry. “And a lot of things that those guys didn’t have. Kevin (Johnson) was explosive. He was a passer, but he was a score-first point guard. But he wasn’t as creative as Ja. Stephon Marbury was balls to the wall. Going at you full-speed all the time. But not patient. Jason Kidd, full throttle, and even at the speed he was going very creative and able to allow plays to develop. But not as athletic as Ja. Brandon? Played at Ja’s pace, but wasn’t as athletic or creative.”

None of those quite fit. 

“He’s a point guard first. He’s setting people up, but can still score. He’s more like Chris Paul than any other guard I’ve seen,” said Perry. “Chris Paul plays at the same pace, has a lot of toughness, takes good shots, is a passer who sets up his teammates.” 

Knight thinks Paul is a nice comp because of the “headiness” both players share, but likens Morant to Iverson, less in terms of the specifics of his game than in his potential to change the idea of what a small guard can be. 

“He’s like Iverson in that he can revolutionize the position again in terms of how smart he is as a playmaker combined with his athleticism and ability to score,” said Knight. “A lot of the times you get guards who are one or the other. They are either a really good set-up guard with the ability to make shots or they are highly athletic with the ability to score. 

“That is what sets him apart. Kemba Walker makes some fancy dribble moves. Trae Young makes fancy dribble moves. Kyrie Irving handles the ball that way. The difference between Ja and the rest of them is that he combines that with being able to beat you over the rim. He can make all the same moves, but then when he goes to finish he finishes with his athleticism, which is different from every other guard who is able to handle the way he does. For the lack of a better term, he’s a freak of nature because he combines the highest level of athleticism you can find in our game with the highest IQ that you can find in our game,” said Knight. “And he’s only 20 years old.”

The 'It’ factor and moment of escalating 'Oh!’s’

The numbers on Morant’s rookie season, and his tangible ability to unite usually divergent backcourt attributes, are impressive enough. 

But what’s most special about him is that barely effable quality that makes you think “point guards are born, not made” could be more than cliche.

“How did I get people to play better? I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know,” said Knight, one of only 14 players ever to average eight or more assists as an NBA rookie. “You don’t know how you do it. You just do it. And for him, how did he make everyone on this team come up a level? He’s infectious. He has an ‘It’ factor. There are a lot of good and great players in our league. Not many have that ‘It’ factor.”

“When you think of any of the great players, obviously you have to work at it. We’ve seen good players turn into great players because they’ve worked on their craft,” said Perry. “But if you’ve ever played with a superstar — a Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan or Larry Bird — they have the ability to see things developing before we can see them developing. They know what’s going to happen. Magic used to say that while he was going fast, the game was in slow-motion to him. I think Ja has that innate ability to see things developing that in real time we can’t see.”

While the above-the-rim forays are thrilling, these “Matrix” moments, when it feels like Morant’s operating in slow motion, not just seeing the game but bending it, are perhaps more breathtaking. You can hear Perry reacting to one in real time, via a cascading series of wordless exclamations, during this Morant assist against Houston last week:

Here’s a video of @EricHasseltine @elliotlperry’s amazing call of @JaMorant and @jarenjacksonjr highlight play from last night. pic.twitter.com/M3OQLzK9ul
— Jeffrey Wright (@JWright929espn) January 15, 2020

Three days later, Perry relives it from memory, mimicking Morant’s movements. 

“He had a one-on-one against a guy. First of all, he cut back to the middle, which is what you’re supposed to do,” said Perry. “He went around his back, which froze (the defender). Going back to the basket to force them to play him like he’s going for a layup. He turns and there’s (Solomon Hill) coming, who he could have passed it to, then catching Jaren on the trail. Five things happened in that play and he allowed all of those things to materialize before the actual play happened.”

Perry expresses wonderment about Morant’s on-the-fly optionality: “I can break you down and get to the basket,” he said, playing Morant. “You cut me off, I can go behind my back and change directions. I can get to my left hand. I can figure something out.”

A place atop the pecking order

Former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders once observed that chemistry in the NBA means having a pecking order and having players accept it. Saunders had watched a promising core crack up when Marbury bristled at being franchise player Kevin Garnett’s sidekick. Saunders took a team to the conference finals a few years later when veterans Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell followed Garnet’s lead.

Last week, in a feature on Jaren Jackson Jr., we noted how Morant and Jackson feels like a more stable do-over of the Garnett/Marbury dynamic, with Jackson not only accepting but embracing his role in the pecking order as Morant’s No. 2.

How Jaren Jackson Jr.’s back-on-track development has spurred the Grizzlies

In this, Jackson is not alone. From fellow kids to what amounts to grizzled veterans on these uniformly under-30 Grizzlies, the entire locker room has accepted Morant’s instant ascension to the top of the team’s pecking order.

Part of that is the nature of the team that Morant came into. Unlike in Jackson’s rookie season, the celebrated “core four” are all gone. It was an acknowledged rebuild with no players with a substantial resume in Memphis and no veterans who have really ever been more than role players. 

But it’s not just that the lane was clear for Morant. It’s also the kind of player he is, both the magnitude and the nature of his talents. 

“We know his athletic ability and his toughness, but I think he’s a natural leader. He doesn’t have to force trying to be a leader. I think players know when a guy’s special,” said Perry, echoing a refrain that’s rippled through the Grizzlies’ postgame locker rooms since preseason. “I’ll use Charlotte as an example. I was there during Larry Johnson’s rookie season. They had veterans like Muggsy Bogues, Dell Curry, Johnny Newman, Kendall Gill. But we knew this was our guy. We knew Larry Johnson was special and we needed to ride him. I think everybody is falling in line with Ja.”

“There is no resistance because he’s a team-first guy,” said Knight. “Yes, he may be the most talented and most dynamic player, but he doesn’t do it by himself and he doesn’t set himself apart. That’s what makes it easier for the veteran guys to give him the leadership of this team.”

Evolution on the quick

Morant is arguably having as good a rookie season as any point guard this century, and with a combination of athleticism, pure point skills and scoring efficiency that might be unique. 

That doesn’t mean he’s a finished product. 

Defense?

Perry and Knight shrug.

“I think he’s held his own defensively. If he were really bad it would be glaring and people would be talking about it,” said Perry. “He tries hard and he’s not getting beaten off the dribble on a consistent basis. I don’t see a problem. There aren’t that many guys on the perimeter who can really defend.”

“He’ll learn,” said Knight. “At this point you just want him to not be a liability. In today’s game, defense has a different connotation if you can do so many things on the other end. It becomes a problem if you’re just out there like ‘Ole’ or ‘I don’t want to hit that screen’. But he’s not that. He’ll get in there and fight for rebounds, try to fight through screens and try to use his length in those situations. But to learn how to play defense is a lot harder coming into the NBA than it is to play offense.”

The 3-point shooting percentages are good, but the volume is low and the mechanics might be considered on the slow side. 

Perry and Knight shrug. 

“Is he going to be (an elite shooter like) Reggie Miller or Dale Ellis? Probably not. But he is more than capable. He shoots the ball more than fine. He’ll continue to work on it,” said Knight. 

“I wouldn’t try to alter what he’s doing. That stuff can get in your head,” said Perry. “I don’t think he’s going to be a volume jump shooter. I think he’ll be more get to the rim or use a mid-range floater than he’ll be seven-or-eight 3-point shots a night. I think Jaren will always take more 3-point shots than (Morant). People are going to do what James Harden did and back off. But he’s already effective with his jumper, so if he can keep people honest, then it opens up the floor for him to do what he does best. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Morant will need to get physically stronger and will have adjustments to make as teams put more emphasis on trying to contain him. 

“We know that teams are going to make some adjustments in the second half of the year and especially next year in terms of how they want to play Ja, how they want to defend him,” said Perry. “That’s when study habits will become more valuable for him. But I haven’t seen a scenario thrown at him he didn’t know how to read.”

Recently, former NBA great Tracy McGrady proclaimed that Morant would someday be the best player in the league. That sounds crazy, but given the magnitude of Morant’s physical gifts and how he’s already applied them, why put a ceiling on it?

“He definitely can be the best point guard in the league,” said Perry. “But internally, you have to table all of those things and just keep him focused on getting better and continuing to grow, finding areas where you can get better, physically and mentally.”

“Think about his progression,” said Knight. “This is how smart he is. When the season began, everything he did was a take-off to the front of the rim. I don’t care who’s there, I’ll just take off. Then he started shooting floaters. Then when they tried to take away him getting to the basket, he started shooting pullup jump shots. Then step-backs. 

“And think of the other evolution that happened. His team also got better in 40 games. I always go back to the Miami Heat games. The first game of the season, they got smacked in the face. ‘Holy cow, what is this? I didn’t know that they played this hard in the NBA. I thought the NBA was like this first half, where we’re able to do what we want.’ And then all of a sudden it stopped, and they couldn’t react to it. When we played Miami here the next time and it was a totally different experience. They tried to turn it up. They tried to go to the zone. It didn’t affect these guys. Not only has he evolved in these 40 games. But because he’s gotten better, the team has gotten better. And that’s why he’s so special. I just don’t think any of us knew how special of a player he was. Nobody knew that. Nobody understood it.”

But Knight might be wrong about one thing. There might be at least one person who knew.

“(Morant’s) favorite phrase, and you hear it all the time, is ‘This is what I do.’ I don’t think he’s thinking about being like other point guards. The rest of us, we’re surprised. None of this is a surprise to him,” said Perry.