Grizzlies: Ja Morant’s 3-point shooting will improve drastically in 2021-22

Ja Morant’s 2020-21 season will likely be remembered by his first NBA Playoff appearance, where the second-year guard broke the Memphis Grizzlies‘ franchise record for points per game in a hurry with 30.2 in four games against the Utah Jazz.

Between the NBA Play-In Tournament and the aforementioned series, Morant instantly became “that dude” in Memphis.

But one storyline that slowly faded away near the end of the season was Morant’s struggles shooting the ball from beyond the three-point line. After a subpar but acceptable year where Morant knocked down 33.5% of his long-range shots, he hit a brutal slump in the 2020-21 season.

For a large chunk of the season, the Grizzlies’ point guard’s three-point shooting percentage was in the low-to-mid 20s. It would eventually level out around 30% to finish the season, marking a clear regression from a season prior.

For those who didn’t watch the Grizzlies much in 2020-21 and simply scroll through the stat sheet, this is a bad look for Ja Morant. Thankfully, many of you reading this and myself watched nearly every Grizz basketball game, leading us to a much different conclusion.

Memphis Grizzlies PG Ja Morant is a better three-point shooter now than he’s ever been

For starters, Morant never had any mechanical issues with his shot. This isn’t a Markelle Fultz-Lonzo Ball-type situation. Rather, this is a player who simply entered a sophomore slump from the three-point line. Deep-range shooting was never part of the package for Morant, so when he goes through a slump in that department, his shooting goes from subpar to bad.

Those who watched Morant, however, know that his shooting was already back to normal by the end of the season. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that he was shooting the three-ball better than we’d seen in his career at the end of the season.

His last full month of basketball in April saw him shoot 40.9% from deep. That’s not a typo — Morant was lights out from long-range in the month of April. He didn’t just look like he was back to his old ways, he actually looked like an improved shooter. Oddly enough, the same month saw him shoot just around 66% from the free-throw line.

The fact of the matter is simple: Ja Morant’s shooting should not be a concern. If you think that it is, you simply have not done enough research.

Players similar to Ja Morant have seen significant upticks in their three-point shooting in Year 3

Okay, this part is more of a “correlation does not equal causation” type of point. I might lose some people, though I still think this is an interesting pattern. If it sounds familiar, you probably saw me reference this amidst Morant’s shooting slump.

It starts with a simple question. If you had to compare Ja Morant to any player in the league’s history, who would you choose? Obviously, Morant has a pretty unique playstyle, but there are a couple of clear choices here. Those choices, in my eyes, are Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose, two of the most athletic NBA point guards of all time.

Both of these guys were never capable of shooting the ball very effectively. But to draw the comparison even closer, both of these guys shot terribly for their first two seasons in the league before seeing a dramatic increase in their long-range percentage in their third season. Rose saw a 6.5% bump in his three-point shooting percentage, while Westbrooks’ increased by over 10%.

After this, both of their percentages plateaued in the low-to-mid 30s for the remainder of their career. So, on the bright side, if Morant follows the trend, he’ll be a decent enough three-point shooter to win the MVP award.