In four games back since his 25-game suspension to begin the season ended, Ja Morant has practically single-handedly turned the Memphis Grizzlies season around. In his absence, the Grizzlies were 6-19, rudderless and hopeless. Now, the Grizzlies are in the midst of a four-game winning streak, up to 10-19 for the season, and suddenly full of hope all because their MVP candidate point guard has returned to action.
In the four games since his return to the Grizzlies lineup, Morant is averaging 28.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game. He's already got a Western Conference Player of the Week award under his belt, and his heroics already have fans wondering whether Morant could make a run at the NBA MVP Award.
(Hold on, I just heard from Lee Corso, and he has something he'd like to say)
(Thanks, Coach!)
The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement states, “Players must be on the floor for 20 minutes in at least 65 games to be eligible for honors including NBA MVP and All-NBA teams,” according to Shams Charania, Mike Vorkunov and John Hollinger of The Athletic. Even if Ja Morant played in every single game for the Memphis Grizzlies the rest of the season, he would still be limited to just 57 appearances, which would prevent him from winning MVP or making an All-NBA team according to the newly introduced stipulations, which were included in the CBA mostly as a means to prevent load management.
Now, there are two cases that can be made here, and I'm not sure which one I feel more strongly in favor of:
- The Grizzlies were 6-19 while Ja Morant served his suspension, but let's say Morant manages to play all 57 possible remaining games and the Grizzlies go, I don't know, 42-15 with him in the lineup (yes, that's an awfully optimistic outlook, but just stay with me here), meaning the Grizzlies would finish with a 48-34 record, which will probably be good enough to avoid the Play-In Tournament. Let's assume Morant's numbers stay roughly the same as they have in his first four games back — let's just go ahead and round the numbers to 29 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists per game — and let's also assume that Morant has a handful of noteworthy highlights and a few more game-winning shots along the way. Wouldn't that be a tremendous case for Morant's “value” to the Grizzlies?
- Anyone looking to poke holes in Morant's perceived MVP candidacy can do so by making this simple argument: What is Ja Morant's actual value to the Memphis Grizzlies if his own off-court antics kept him out of action for 25 games, resulting in the Grizzlies season to be submarined before Morant could even step on the floor?
Of course, if you're a supporter of Case #1, you also have to reconcile the fact that Morant won't be the only player on a contending team putting up bonkers numbers. Is whatever Morant does in 57 games equivalent to whatever guys like Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jayson Tatum did in a full season's worth of games? Probably not, right?
And even if you're a supporter of Case #1, you can't just gloss over the fact that Morant's suspension had a negative impact on the team, and even if you feel as though the suspension was too heavy to begin with, it doesn't take away from the fact that Morant made the choices that led to his absence. It wasn't as if Morant was returning from an ACL tear and having this sort of on-court impact.
Either way, the last 500-something words ultimately boil down to the following point: it's great that Ja Morant is back in the NBA, and I'm hopeful that all personal issues that may have plagued him in the past will be handled in a better, healthier way moving forward. But the MVP talk is just that… talk. There's no conversation that can be had that changes the simple fact that Morant is ineligible to win the award this year. Let's just hope that no more time in the prime of his career is taken away, because he certainly has the talent to eventually win the NBA's most prestigious regular season award.
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