Sports
Memphis Grizzlies: A case for Ja Morant in the All-Star game – Beale Street Bears
The NBA All-Star game is rapidly approaching, and soon every media outlet will be concerned with talking about who made it, who didn’t, who was snubbed, and who will make it next year. But with regards to this year, is Ja Morant already an All-Star?
The first thing that we can do to figure this out is compare Morant to the other guards that we are almost positive are going to the All-Star game. For the purposes of this article, we’ll say those guards are Jimmy Butler, Luka Doncic, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook.
(Note: these are just the guards who I think nobody will argue about whether or not they’ll make the team. Personally, I’d also include Kemba Walker and Chris Paul, but we’ll get to them later.)
Right, so let’s look at the average stats for each of those players, and see where Morant falls in there:
The above graph compares Morant’s numbers with those four players, taking the highest average, the lowest average, and the average across the four players.
What we see from this graph is that, as good of a season the Morant is having, he’s still on the lower-tier of All-Star players. In fact, with the exception of one category (rebounds per game), Morant ranks below the lowest average among those four players.
However, the main problem with that above is that we’re comparing players who are definite All-Stars, and who have all (with the exception of Luka WHICH WAS A SHAME) made the All-Star game before.
To be a little more accurate, and a little more fair to Morant, we should look at how his numbers stack up against the guards in the NBA who are only possible All-Star players. These are guys who have a good to fair chance of making it, but could likely be on the wrong end of the traditional “which players got snubbed” articles. For the purposes of this article, the players examined here were Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, and Chris Paul.
Now, when we change the parameters of the discussion, it looks much more likely that Morant should be in the conversation for the All-Star game. Not only does he rank above the lowest average in every category except for rebounds (oddly enough), but he also ranks above the average in assists per game.
So how do we decide whether or not Morant should make the All-Star game? Well, one way that we can look at it is through team success.
While Memphis hasn’t been the most outstanding team so far this season, they’ve been on a really impressive run through this last month or so, and have ended up in a better position than some of his competition, and that’s worth some consideration.
Next. Three impressive stats from Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.. dark
Ultimately, it’s up to the fans to decided the starters, and Morant probably won’t be among that crop. However, if coaches and players send him to the ASG in the reserves, that would be a great sign that things are turning around for Memphis.
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