Ja Morant's play style has been questioned lately as injuries have ended three of his last four seasons. However, only one of those injuries occurred due to his high-flying nature, which was this season when he suffered a hip pointer after a dunk attempt in Game 3 of the Grizzlies' first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He toned down the dunk attempts this season and stated it earlier this season, following a simple fastbreak dunk attempt against the Dallas Mavericks that led to boos from the opposing fans. While the injuries are relevant because the Grizzlies need their best player on the court to contend, another part of his game has yet to develop consistently.
Ultimately, if the team wants to be regarded as a true championship contender, Ja Morant will have to fix an on-court problem that he has control over.
Ja Morant must become an average three-point shooter
The current MVP of the NBA and best player on the team with the best record, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, transcended into the star he is after becoming a consistent shooter. After coming into the league and not being known as a good shooter, Alexander has shot 35.4% for his career from three, including shooting 37.5% from beyond the arc this season.
While Morant's volume of three-point attempts has increased every season of his career, his career percentage is 31.6%. As one of the game's most dynamic players inside the arc, good teams (like the Thunder) pack the paint to force Morant to beat them shooting beyond the arc, and he can't make them pay consistently.
To compare to the other point guards that made deep postseason runs this season, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton is a career 39.2% shooter from three, and New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson is a career 38.9% shooter. Even Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards upped his career 36.4% three-point shooting to 39.5% this season.
Memphis needs Ja Morant to at least become a 35% shooter from three to gain respect from opposing defenses. His best year shooting from three came during his All-NBA second-team season in 2022 when he shot 34.4% on 4.5 attempts per game.
However, in a much shorter sample size, Morant shot 41.9% on 6.2 attempts per game in five games against the Los Angeles Lakers in their first-round duel in 2023. While asking Morant to make that big of a jump is a tall ask, getting him above or around 35% needs to become his reality behind the three-point line.