2023-07-07 10:43:00
Suspended 25 games by the NBA following a new gun story on Instagram, his team will miss Ja Morant for almost a third of the 2023-24 season. But the coach Taylor Jenkins wants to reassure everyone, he already knows how the Grizzlies will compensate for the absence of their point guard.
Playing part of the season without its best player will not be an easy task for Memphis, which will have to adapt to compensate for the suspension of Ja Morant. In an interview for NBA TV (via The Commercial Appeal), Taylor Jenkins explained how he was preparing for this challenge. According to him, the absence of the point guard will not change anything in the game plan of the Grizzlies.
“Our game plan is not changing. What we insist on offensively – speed, spacing, altruism – and defensively, the discipline that we must have every night, that’s what we will rely on.
And when we see the coach so confident, we want to trust him, because the Grizzlies have been used to playing without Ja Morant for the past few seasons, and it’s been pretty good ! Last year, they posted an 11-10 record without their leader. And the season before, they were even 20-5 during Ja’s injury! We won’t go so far as to say that Memphis is better without Morant, but in reality the rest of the team has been able to raise their level of play to allow the Griz to continue to perform.
This year, the equation will perhaps not be so simple for the Bears, since a factor has just been added to it… or rather withdrawn from it. Indeed, their backup point guard Tyus Jones was sent to Washington two weeks ago as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade in Boston. Ja’s luxury liner, Tyus held the house superbly when the latter was absent last year: 16.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 8.2 assists average over 21 games… starting point guard stats in the NBA. Memphis will therefore have to do without him next season as well, and it is Marcus Smart – with Derrick Rose (or rather what’s left of him) as reinforcements – who will take on the position of leader. But as Jenkins reminds us, it is above all by being united collectively that the Grizzlies will get by without Morant.
A 25-game suspension for Ja Morant means Memphis will have to do without him until around mid-December.
Early Christmas present for the Grizzlies, basically.
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) June 16, 2023
And it starts with the other stars of Memphis, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr., who will still have to step-up to compensate for the absence of their friend. Recently extended to a nice tarot, Bane will have to show he deserves his check by carrying the attack for the Grizzlies. In addition to scoring (21.5 points this season), he will also have to make others play more, an area in which he has made good progress since his arrival in the NBA. JJJ will also have to continue to assert himself on offense, as he has done well for two seasons, going from 14.4 points per game in 2020-21 to 18.6 in 2022-23. Big pressure and big responsibility on the shoulders of this duo, whose performances will be decisive for the results of Memphis pending the return of Morant, scheduled for December.
No Ja for two months? No problem for Taylor Jenkins, who was confident regarding how Memphis will compensate for the absence of his leader. The game plan does not change, we trust the executives and we show everyone that the collective of the Bears is one of the strongest in the League.
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Sources texte : NBA TV (via The Commercial Appeal)
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