All-star game helps validate Ja & Jaren
Grizzlies teammates blossom to elevate their stock into career seasons as first set of Memphis players selected
Ja Morant responded before the question was finished.
What’s he most excited about at this year’s NBA All-star weekend?
He could have said the private jet, or the tequila shots, or the parties. Remember last year?
He could have said the new version of his shoe he’s expected to debut this weekend.
He could have said playing in the actual All-star game, dunking on someone’s head, or throwing an alley-oop to
Lebron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Instead, Morant gave a particularly powerful answer.
“Jaren,” he said immediately. “It’s his first time.”
It’s their first time.
This NBA All-star game marks a significant and symbolic milestone for Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. Their partnership, formed through the NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies when they were both still teenagers, is blossoming in ways the franchise has never seen before.
They are the first set of Grizzlies teammates to be named all-stars in the same year, an achievement that helps frame the entire season to date.
The two players Memphis envisioned being its most important after the demise of the Grit and Grind era, the players it invested the most in financially and emotionally thus far, are starting to fulfill their promise as a tandem. They are starting to consider the context of this moment, of how much is at stake presently and how long this ride may last.
“I want to make sure we take advantage of the early years, even though it’s young and it’s all hype,” Jackson said.
Morant and Jackson have elevated their stock within the sport this season, in part because they’re having a career year playing together. Lineups that include Morant and Jackson on the court have a net rating of 16.1 points per 100 possessions this season, up from 5.9 last season, and a negative net rating in
Morant’s first two seasons.
It’s progress that transcends the team’s recent swoon or its second-place status in the Western Conference, that isn’t completely tied to how the playoffs go, like so many other facets of this season.
The Grizzlies may not have the supporting cast right yet, but this weekend will serve as validation that they already have the right stars in place.
It’s easy to forget Morant and Jackson were an arranged basketball marriage, even though it always seemed a natural match.
Morant would be the athletic dynamo with point guard sensibilities and Jaren Jackson Jr. would be the modern day big man backing him up in the paint. Ja and Jaren — it even sounded good.
But they had never met before becoming teammates.
Jackson was the highly touted recruit and son of a former NBA player, pegged as a future lottery pick by the time he arrived at Michigan State.
Morant was the prospect who got overlooked and became the No. 2 pick in the draft in a most unusual way at Murray State.
Their personalities meshed off the court much more quickly than their skill sets did on it.
“His mind on how he was viewing the game, I definitely think was ahead of mine, even though I had been in the league longer,” Jackson said about Morant. “He reads the game really well, and there were things I needed to know to be able to align how he’s thinking the game through.”
“Now, it’s just like, we’ve had a lot of reps playing together,” Jackson added. “That’s what I’ve always said in the beginning, when everybody asked us what do we need. We need time playing together, and we’ve played long enough with each other to know what each other does.”
Morant is on pace to be an all-nba selection for the second straight year, averaging the most assists of his career. Jackson is a favorite to be the NBA’S defensive player of the year, blocking shots at an historic rate.
But it’s his growth offensively, especially coming off an offseason that got derailed by foot surgery, that feels like a revelation worth exploiting even more.
“He’s realizing that he’s a matchup problem,” Morant said.
They’re only just now realizing their power, and how it can still be harnessed.
There are still four other players on the roster who Morant has more assists to this season than Jackson. There are still accomplishments far more consequential than the one they will celebrate this weekend in Salt Lake City. There are still reasons to think it’s too soon for them to reach all of their goals this season. There are still more layers to what Morant said this week, about how excited he is for Jackson.
This is Jackson’s first All-star game. This is their first All-star game.
But the larger implication is that it won’t be their last.