How Ja Morant became a surprise top-three draft prospect 🏀
How Ja Morant became a surprise top-three draft prospect
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Lance Stephenson's air guitar celebration. Russell Westbrook's rock-the-baby boast. An Instagram post that read: "Jump wit Me if you want to go viral" after yet another jaw-dropping dunk.
Save for Zion Williamson, Murray State phenom Ja Morant is the most exciting player in college basketball.
The baby-faced beanpole snatches souls with ferocious two-footed jams, exploding 44 inches off the ground before cocking the ball back and delivering yet another slam. He puts defenders on skates with his ball-on-a-string handle. He whips passes all over the floor. The Racers play fast, they score often, and Morant (No. 3 in ESPN's top 100 draft rankings) is the catalyst.
"It's almost like he's been here before," said Tee Morant, Ja's father. "With this whirlwind going on, it seems like it doesn't even bother him."
How is it that a late-developing, small-town guard who weighs 175 pounds soaking wet can have so much confidence and swagger, regardless of the opponent? And how will his game translate to the next level?
The 19-year-old has been groomed for this stage since his early childhood. He was built for the spotlight.
The backstory
The Morant family is known for its cookouts and basketball sessions outside its country home in Dalzell, South Carolina. Spaghetti, shepherd's pie, hot dogs, fries, you name it. No kid or coach went home hungry.
"[Ja's mother, Jamie Morant] makes a pizza casserole that is unbelievable," said Murray State head coach Matt McMahon. "Just phenomenal. I don't want to put Tee's grilling skills down, but Jamie's pizza casserole is No. 1 for me."
Whether Tee was at the barbershop cutting hair or in the backyard training players, the Morant household had an open-door policy. Anyone was welcome, and the street was regularly lined with cars.
"It was nothing for me and my wife to wake up in the morning and there were 14 kids laying on our floor asleep," Tee said.
It was during these early years that Morant's showmanship and seemingly unflappable mentality were born. Morant's parents had him dancing or performing in front of big crowds at family cookouts by age 4. He hated the dancing at first, but as he got more and more reps, Morant turned into a regular entertainer. Soon he was doing Michael Jackson impersonations around Christmas time.
"I guess I can say that's what really broke me out of the habit of being nervous in front of a lot of people and performing," Morant said. "I don't do no more like that, but I got a little rhythm."
Morant developed his game in the backyard with his dad. Two-ball dribbling, tennis balls, anything to get his handle tight. Although skilled and blessed with feel at a young age, an undersized Morant wasn't jumping out of the gym.
"I used to always be like, 'Man, this kid is slow,'" Tee said with a laugh.
With an open backyard and a quarter court, Tee bought parachutes for his son to run with in order to build his athleticism. He had Morant jumping on the tractor tires to try to build his vertical. After every drill, Ja would jump on the tire 25 times, and by the end of the day he'd have gotten anywhere from 250 to 300 jumps in.
Tee and Ja would work on separation drills, a necessity given his size at 5-foot-6 entering eighth grade. They never drew lines on the court, either, as Tee didn't want the 3-point arc to limit his son's range.
"Dude was shooting from half court in high school," said one college coach.
The skill set was there for Morant, but he was still behind physically. Going into his freshman year he grew to about 5-10. Although still a toothpick, he spent long hours in the backyard -- now a full court -- not only working on his own game but also helping Tee train kids for a little extra cash. He and Ole Miss guard Devontae Shuler put in work, doing everything from ball handling to shooting to defensive slides.
"Great sessions," Shuler said. "Competing, going at it. That's his dad's mentality -- go at it. He's got that dog mentality, and that's how Ja is, he's got that dog mentality. He don't let things get to him. He's from a great family, real good family."
Morant joined the South Carolina Hornets -- a non-shoe-company club -- the summer going into his sophomore season, teaming up with Zion Williamson before the Duke star's legend really took off. Morant's first Division I offer didn't come until early in his junior season, via South Carolina State.
The offers weren't exactly pouring in, at least until Murray State finally discovered Morant the summer before his senior season. As the legend goes, Morant was a late add to the Chandler Parsons Camp. Then-assistant coach James Kane drove eight hours to the camp to see Murray State target Tevin Brown.
After a few hours on the job, Kane went looking for a quick snack and happened to see Morant playing three-on-three in the auxiliary gym. Kane was intrigued by Morant, and asked the program organizer what his deal was, as he wasn't on the original roster. Kane was then introduced to Tee Morant, and the relationship building began. Kane called McMahon immediately, and the Racers head coach was on the next flight out of Atlanta.
"Right away you just saw the athleticism and the explosiveness, the creativity and his ability to make plays for not only himself but for others," McMahon said. "He always had the flair. The creativity, the flair."
McMahon followed Morant to Greensboro, North Carolina, the next weekend. After the skinny guard went for 51 points in one game, it was clear Morant was the real deal -- no longer buried under the radar.
Fast-forward to present day, and Morant is now the face of Murray State basketball and a potential top-three pick in the 2019 NBA draft. He's the catalyst of a Racers team that took both Alabama and Auburn to the brink, and has all the ingredients for a run in March. Like those days in his Dalzell backyard, the vibe is light in Murray, Kentucky.
At a shootaround in Murray the day of the UT-Martin game, the family atmosphere was clear. Everyone from the head coach to the assistants were splashing deep jumpers, playing shooting games in the allotted 15 minutes before the start of actual shootaround.
Morant, donning pink Nike's, was at the center of it all -- just one of the guys on an uptempo team that eventually made light work of UT-Martin, winning 98-77. Morant finished with 18 assists and a monster dunk that landed No. 1 on SportsCenter's top plays.
"He asked me about that dunk -- I kind of fabricated a little bit when he asked me what I think about him dunking over the 6-8 guy," Tee said. "I told him I like the 18 assists better."
Morant is full of flash, excitement and bravado, yet humble at his core. He'll repost his dunks or highlights, clearly seeing the attention. Yet he doesn't forget the days when South Carolina State and Maryland Eastern Shore were his only offers, keeping the ever-lasting chip on his shoulder.
"Ja is just Ja -- Ja is what you see now," Jamie said. "He hasn't changed, at all. ... I can sit and watch his videos over and over again, because I'm like, 'Really, Ja, you really doing all this?'' Honestly, it's surreal. It's like, OK, he's finally getting what he deserves." How does his game translate to the NBA?
Morant is averaging a remarkable 24.8 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 10.7 APG while shooting 61.7 percent from 2-point territory and 35.1 percent on 3-pointers. No college player in our extensive database has touched such numbers, and those who have come close haven't done it with his efficiency, as he sports a 64.8 true shooting percentage through 15 games.
So what makes Morant so intriguing as a pro prospect?
Open-court play
According to Synergy Sports, Morant is one of only five Division I players who has used more than 110 transition plays, and he's far and away the most efficient of the bunch. He changes ends in a blur, weaving through traffic with tremendous body control. Once he gets to his two-footed launching pad, shot-blockers beware. He's capable of taking off from well outside the charge circle.
He puts pressure on the rim in the open court, knocks down a pull-up 3 if given time and space, and hands out open-court dimes as well as any guard in the country. In fact, Morant ranks No. 2 in the NCAA in transition assists with 50.
Simply put, for a young, rebuilding NBA team with shooting and athletes, Morant is the perfect lead guard to excite a lackluster fan base with his open-court play.
Facilitating
While the explosiveness is what pops, Morant's willingness and ability to make his teammates better carries considerable weight among NBA front offices.
Morant is an analytics wonder as a passer, with 53.1 percent of his assists coming at the rim and 39.7 percent coming on 3s. While the bulk of his playmaking comes in the open court, he's capable against a set defense, making a handful of his passes by way of his left hand off a live dribble. Having charted all of Morant's 181 assists, 33 of them have come off left-handed passes.
"In my head I think I'm left-handed," Morant told ESPN. "Just growing up I used to shoot with my right. I write with my right hand, but that's just because I was shooting everything with my right, so that's why."
He uses his left hand on lob passes or to hit the weakside corner on a pick-and-roll, as you can see above. He has excellent touch as a facilitator, and it's that ambidexterity, along with the fact that he doesn't need to gather the ball with two hands to deliver it, that make him an intriguing playmaker.
Breaking down defenses
Morant's ability to shift gears on a dime should make him a nightmare cover with NBA spacing, especially once he develops a reliable jumper. He can play slow to fast or high to low, changing speeds and directions on a dime. He's an instinctual ball handler who slithers his way to spots on the floor, not shying away from contact when he gets to his launching pad.
"I'm a big Russell Westbrook fan," Morant said. "That's really how I try to play, all around game."
While he can stand to add more finesse as a finisher, Morant's ambidexterity is a major plus. Of his 97 shots at the rim in the half court, 44 have been right-handed, 28 were left-handed and 25 were two-handed (dunks, power finishes). Morant has converted 64 percent of his left-handed finishes and 55 percent with his right. He has a strong finishing base when moving forward.
Off-the-ball potential
While clearly at his best with the ball in his hands, Morant is actually fairly comfortable playing off the ball. He's an outstanding cutter when he's fully engaged, and he's more efficient shooting off the catch than the dribble at this stage, which wasn't the case in a small sample last season.
You don't draft him to take the ball out of his hands, but the fact that Morant isn't a stranger to existing in lineups with other ball handlers bodes well long-term. What are we still learning about Morant?
How he'll fare defensively
Because he carries such a large load offensively, Morant is no stranger to getting his rest on the defensive end, especially off the ball. He has the feet to stay in front in one-on-one situations, and he likes to show off his bounce or speed in defensive playmaking scenarios. But he's too often upright in his stance when defending the ball in pick-and-roll, and he dies on screens at times, not always hustling to get back for a rear-view contest.
Off the ball he stands around quite a bit, late on rotations and allowing shooters to get open looks. Because he's so slight, Morant will need to turn up his defensive intensity in terms of doing the little things that affect winning. That's where Morant differs from a guard such as De'Aaron Fox, whom he's often compared to. He's not quite the defensive competitor that Fox was, which is partially a product of the offensive load he shoulders.
Morant likely doesn't project as more than a one-position defender long term. On the bright side, having seen Morant in a different setting at last summer's CP3 Youth Camp, he doesn't shy away from a challenge and figures to be more feisty defensively when the competition rises.
Pull-up shooting
The pull-up jumper is an important shot for starting NBA point guards now. While Morant has gotten better, this is an area where he still has questions to answer. Some scouts have compared his pull-up shooting unfavorably to Dennis Schroder's.
Morant attempted only 23 pull-up jumpers in 32 games last season, and he's generating only 0.83 points per possession on 54 attempts so far this season. He shoots a somewhat low-and-slow set shot, and he hasn't looked all that dynamic getting to it, either. As was the case with Fox as a rookie, teams are likely to dare Morant to shoot in hopes of keeping him out of the paint. Although he's converting 37.5 percent on such situations, Morant has taken only 24 3s when teams go under this season, and he'll have to continue getting better as he develops.
It wouldn't be shocking to see Morant's efficiency take a bit of a dive as a rookie given that he's not the most imposing physical presence and he's not a dynamic pull-up shooter. He actually has had some trouble scoring efficiently in late-clock situations. Morant also ranks in the 48th percentile in pick-and-roll situations, partially due to his somewhat shaky pull-up shooting. He's so used to finding success in transition or creating early offense. Becoming more comfortable snaking ball screens and playing in traffic against different coverages will help his game.
Floater game
One way that guards with Morant's frame and still-developing jumpers often combat NBA-caliber defenses is with a floater game. Morant has yet to show that ability, as he's 2-of-11 on floaters this season and was 4-of-18 a year ago.
Of course, he can live at the free throw line whenever he wants, and he has hops, but adding more finesse in the paint will be beneficial long-term.
Half-court reads
Based on his passing metrics and the tremendous instincts, there shouldn't be much concern in regard to Morant's facilitating, but he still has some fine-tuning to do in the half court. More than 30 percent of his assists come in transition. Learning how to manipulate defenses with his eyes and quarterback the offense against a set defense will ease his transition to the NBA.
A total of 20 percent of his assists have also come via overhead passes, as he has been able to use his size at the mid-major level -- a luxury he won't have in the NBA. He's no stranger to losing avoidable turnovers, oftentimes opting for flash over substance while sporting a 23.0 turnover percentage in pick-and-roll. These improvements areas are important, but Morant has still improbably captured the attention of every NBA general manager.
"They finally put South Carolina on the map," Shuler said.
he's now i see the #1 overall pick at nbadraft.net..
i'm a bit skeptical. i didn't read the entire article but what changed between say junior year of high school and his current sophomore NCAA season?.. surely big time schools make scholarship offers to lesser sized players and they should have been very aware of this player
i'm trying to think of smaller school nba draft picks............. chris kaman (CMU) and antonio daniels (BG) come to mind. scottie pippen (C Ark) too.. must be some others too. anyway, kaman/daniels to my mind were drafted far too high. pippen was a long time ago. oluwakandi (sp? university of the pacific). terrible pick
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How Ja Morant became a surprise top-three draft prospect 🏀
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