Memphis Grizzlies: Ja Morant’s highlight-filled 2020-21 season review

Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant took big strides on the offense end

On paper, Ja Morant’s offense may not look overly impressive in year two. His points per game increased marginally, his shooting percentages went down, and the rest of his numbers stagnated. So why does it still seem like he improved so much?

Well, because he did. Each of the improvements to Ja Morant’s game in 2021 were subtle but vitally important to his game.

For example, one area that the young star improved in was his ability to take the ball to the paint and draw fouls. Looking across his statistics, not much jumps out, but his free throw attempts per game improved pretty drastically. In his rookie season, he shot 4.6 free throws per contest. This past season, he shot 5.9 per game.

But when shooting those free throws, his numbers were down from the line. In fact, his shooting percentages all across the board went down. So what gives?

Well, he simply started the season in a shooting slump. For a good portion of 2021, there was a lid on the bucket and it was hampering his ability to do anything productive on offense. We saw him finally start to hit shots down the stretch, which opened up an entirely new game for him to play, as he averaged over 30 points per game in the playoffs.

One not-so-subtle area that saw improvement from Morant was his ability to create highlight plays. Even though this won’t show up on any stat sheet, these plays give huge momentum boosts to the Grizzlies’ offense. Morant went from the occasional highlight pass or dunk in 2019-20 to multiple per game in 2020-21.

It may not be obvious to the casual fan, but Morant took huge strides in year two on the offensive end.