Grizzlies: Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton are in elite company

When you think of the up-and-coming stars of the Memphis Grizzlies, who comes to mind? For most people, the answer is simple — Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.

Those were the team’s highest draft picks in recent memory and both guys who are expected to be NBA superstars by the time their careers conclude. But what if I told you that one of the players on the team with the most potential is also the most overlooked?

No, I’m not talking about Dillon Brooks. Not Desmond Bane, keep trying. Not Ziaire Williams. I’m talking about De’Anthony Melton, who was recently named on a list among a handful of elite young NBA players.

Memphis Grizzlies guards Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton were named among the league’s best youngsters

Recently, Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton received some unexpected recognition. Most notably, a post began to rise in popularity on the Grizzlies’ Reddit page that highlighted the success of these two young guards.

Here’s the tweet that was referenced in the post, showing the DARKO projections from 2016 for each player’s five-year future.

This metric is completely unique to any other that you’ve seen for the NBA. DARKO projections are created to mimic baseball metrics, which tend to be extremely accurate. The positive behind DARKO metrics is primarily that they don’t dwell on the past — they’re extremely accurate at projecting toward the future.

This specific figure projects how good players under the age of 23.5 will be in five years.

Most impressively, the list from 2016 was near-perfect, especially from the top. The top six players on the list might be in perfect order from best to worst seasons in 2020-21. For this reason, DARKO projections have been mentioned by plenty of websites, most notably including The Athletic.

Part two of the tweet shows Memphis Grizzlies guards Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton

I’m not just rambling about this random metric for no reason at all. The reason why I’ve brought this up is that two Memphis Grizzlies players were listed in the top five of this year’s projections to 2026. The second tweet in the thread above shows the updated list for today.

Grizzlies fans will instantly see Ja Morant at the top of the list. Even more impressively, he stands above every other player by a relatively wide margin. Two down from Morant, we see another Grizzly in De’Anthony Melton.

While Morant’s number one spot may come as a slight surprise, it won’t be surprising to see him listed. Melton, on the other hand, may be one of the most underrated players in the league, especially looking at this metric. Melton seems like he’s been in the league for a while, but he’s really only 23 years old.

Melton’s positioning likely comes as a result of his improved three-point shooting last season, as he made a 12.6% jump in terms of shooting percentage. He was already a strong defender, so this improvement made him one of the most effective and efficient bench players in the league last year.

Hopefully, this projection comes to fruition, as the Grizzlies would love to have two of the best guards in the league.