Baxter Holmes and Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com published a lengthy investigative story this week detailing the transformation of Grizzlies guard Ja Morant from a Murray State prospect with “zero” red flags into a player whose worrisome off-court behavior led to multiple sit-downs with the team’s brass and – eventually – to suspensions of eight and 25 games.
While ESPN’s report includes several new details and quotes and is worth checking out in full, Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins rejected the idea that it created an “elephant in the room” for his club, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. According to Cole, shortly after ESPN’s article was published, Jenkins met with the team — and separately with Morant.
“I read the article, and I’m not going to comment on anonymous sources,” Jenkins said. “I’m not really going to comment on the past. I’m really just focused on the present right now — the strides he is making, positive strides, and the strides that the team is making. … I want him to know he’s got 100% support from us and his teammates.”
Morant’s teammates were equally dismissive of the ESPN report and expressed their support for the point guard, who will serve his 25-game suspension to begin the 2023/24 season. Big man Xavier Tillman called it “annoying” to have to relitigate Morant’s past behavior, while Desmond Bane said the rest of the team has “got his back.”
“People are bringing up anything they can just for people to have anything to read,” Bane said. “We ain’t worried about that. We with 12.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- The Spurs‘ starting five for the regular season will consist of Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Victor Wembanyama, and Zach Collins, head coach Gregg Popovich revealed this week (story via Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News). The 6’9″ Sochan will serve as the de facto point guard in the super-sized lineup, though he expects to share the ball-handling duties. “It doesn’t mean I have to control (the offense) or be the main ball-handler,” Sochan said. “Whoever gets the ball can push it and play with a flow instead of playing slow.”
- Pelicans big men Larry Nance Jr. (ankle) and Cody Zeller (back) took part in contact drills in practice on Thursday, while guard Jose Alvarado (ankle) was a limited participant, tweets Christian Clark of NOLA.com. New Orleans will be without Naji Marshall and Trey Murphy when the season gets underway, so having Nance, Zeller, and Alvarado available would help bolster the club’s depth.
- Rockets guard and former No. 2 overall pick Jalen Green sat down with Shams Charania of Stadium (Twitter video link) to discuss what he worked on during the offseason, his thoughts on the addition of free agent point guard Fred VanVleet, and his impressions of several of his new teammates, among other topics.
- Mavericks wing Josh Green, who injured his back earlier this week, was a full participant in practice on Thursday and doesn’t sound concerned about his availability when the regular season begins next week, as Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News relays (via Twitter).
That… is a choice by Pop. I guess they’re depending on everyone but Sochan to shoot? Collins has shown some touch, and Wemby theoretically can space the floor. Weird way to use your PG in the modern game, but the defensive upside might be a game changer.
Defense should turn into plenty of offense for the Spurs. They will have the passing lanes covered with all that length.
I’d say that’s less rejection and more simply ignoring and moving on. Which is the right move because what can be done at this point but do that?
I want to see how this plays out with Pop basically starting 4 power forwards.
Grizzlies gonna spend a lot of time with ‘12’ if Morant keeps his antics up
Sochan at point?
He’s shot below 25% from 3 and even in college shot below 30%. He was below 70% from FT’s which is up from just below 60% in college.
His 2.5 assist per game to go with 1.7 turnovers as a rookie PF really doesn’t excite me for what’s to come.
Because of his size I expect him to get more steals and blocks against guys 6 or 7 inches shorter than him. But at the same time he’s going to give up possession a lot with hounding guards picking him up and tipping poor passes.
It’s not like he offers spacing either so it’ll allow defences to sag on them which just makes it harder on the inside for a very thin Victor.
Really think this is a poor move, yes the defence might be slightly better for it but the offence will be terrible and your making other guys jobs harder.