Ja-Zion has real meaning Rookie of year, playoffs at stake
If only LeBron James could choose this season’s Rookie of the Year.
The two front-runners played his Lakers in back-toback games over the weekend. Ja Morant set a new career-high with 14 assists to go with 27 points. His Grizzlies beat the Lakers — fully loaded with both James and Anthony Davis — by 17.
Zion Williamson had next, and turned in the most spectacular game of his young career:
35 points, seven rebounds, only four missed shots and multiple instances of eating Kyle Kuzma’s food.
Williamson’s Pelicans, though, didn’t come away with the victory. The Rookie of the Year award will go to whichever player’s team ends up in the playoffs.
Williamson may have played in only 15 games, but he’s been nothing short of phenomenal for a Pelicans team that traded Davis to the Lakers over the summer. Morant may be a generational talent in his own right and has jump-started a Grizzlies
rebuild ahead of schedule.
Here’s what it boils down to. The Grizzlies own the NBA’s fourth-toughest remaining schedule. The Pelicans have the easiest.
New Orleans is now three games behind Memphis for the West’s last playoff spot. If the Pelicans — who started 7-23 with Williamson out — overtake the Grizzlies and make it into the playoffs, Williamson should win Rookie of the Year, even if Morant has been spectacular all season.
Williamson has arrived, and he’s every bit the beast the world saw at Duke, and even before then when he torched kids half his size as a high school basketball bully in South Carolina.
If availability is the best ability, then Morant has been the better player. He has played in all but six Grizzlies games this season. Until Williamson’s return from a torn meniscus, Morant had been far and away the best player in the 2019 NBA Draft class. Morant, averaging 18 points and seven assists, has come out of the gate with a reliable three-pointer, already putting him ahead of a previous generation of great point guards.
Even scarier than the fact that Morant can shoot is that it appears Williamson can, too. He is shooting 41% from three after shooting 4-of-4 from deep in his NBA debut. This is not Charles Barkley. This is not Blake Griffin. This is not LeBron James. Williamson is more of an undersized Shaquille O’Neal — with handles and possibly a jumper.
Since returning from a torn meniscus, Williamson has averaged 24 points and seven rebounds per game on 59% shooting from the field and 41% shooting from three. In his last seven games, he’s averaging 29 points on 61% shooting. If he keeps it up, he’ll join Shaq as the only rookie ever to average at least 20 points on 55% shooting or better.
Williamson didn’t make his debut until Jan. 22. If he plays every game for the rest of the season, he’ll finish with 37 games played. Joel Embiid was easily the most dominant rookie in 2016-17, but lost the Rookie of the Year race to Malcolm Brogdon due to a load management schedule and a knee injury that eventually required surgery and limited him to 31 games.
Embiid’s Sixers, though, were nowhere near the playoff race. Williamson’s return has vaulted a previously bad Pelicans team into contention. If he pushes New Orleans into the playoffs, he should push Morant out of the top spot for Rookie of the Year, as well.
The Pelicans and the Grizzlies play each other two more times this season: March 21 and 24. Mark those dates on your calendar. You won’t regret it.