The NBA at the start of this week awarded their 2021-22 Kia Most Improved Player to the floor general of the Memphis Grizzlies whose rise in productivity has helped guide his team to its best season in franchise history.
Memphis Grizzlies’ star point guard Ja
Morant was named the 2021-22 NBA’s Most Improved Player for 2021-22 regular season
becoming the first player in their team’s history to win this honor that began
back in the 1985-86 season to a player
in honor for their dramatic improvement from the season or seasons before.
Morant, who earned his first All-Star
selection this past regular season earned 38 first-place votes (221 points)
from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters overtaking fellow
finalists in San Antonio Spurs’ lead guard Dejounte Murray, who received 20 first-place
votes (183 points) and Cleveland Cavaliers third-year point guard and fellow
first-time All-Star selection Darius Garland finished third with 11 first-place
votes (178 points).
Morant’s teammates in guard Desmond Bane
and forward/center Jaren Jackson, Jr. also earned votes for the Kia Most Improved
Player honor with Bane earning seven first place votes and Jackson, Jr. getting
one second-place vote.
At Grizzlies practice prior to their Game
5 First-Round tilt on Tuesday versus the No. 7 Seeded Minnesota Timberwolves,
Morant received a special edition 75th NBA Anniversary commemorative
trophy in celebration of win MIP. The commemorative trophy that was composed of
a crystal basketball that featured the logo of NBA’s 75-year 3D laser etched suspended
within the center.
Morant, upon receiving the commemorative
trophy from his head coach Taylor Jenkins, he was surrounded by his teammates receiving
cheers of congratulations in the celebration.
Morant went from averages of 19.1 points
and 7.4 assists and four rebounds on 44.9 percent from the field in 2020-21 to
averages of 27.4 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.7 rebounds during the 2021-22 regular
season on 49.3 percent from the field in 57 games played. Morant also rose his
free throw percentage from 72.8 percent to 76.1 percent at the charity stripe
on 7.3 free throw attempts. He also raised his three-point percentage from 30.3
percent to 34.4 percent.
When asked on NBA on TNT’s “NBA Tip-Off”
pregame show on Monday night by Ernie Johnson on his offensive improvement
across the board from last season to this season, Morant said, “constant work.”
“Putting in, you know, work to be better in certain areas of my game each and every day,” Morant added.
The No. 2 overall pick 2019 NBA Draft out
of Murray State joined NBA 75th Anniversary members in Oscar Robertson
and current member of the Utah Jazz ownership group Dwyane Wade in NBA history
to reach the averages he did in 2021-22 regular season in points, rebounds, and
field goal percentage in one’s first three NBA seasons.
Hall of Famer and four-time NBA champion
Shaquille O’Neal in giving props to Morant said that he had the so-called “it”
factor, which he first noticed back in college at Louisiana State University where
he played with now former Denver Nugget and Sacramento Kings’ guard Mahmoud
Abdul-Rauf, formerly Chris Jackson as well as the likes of former NBA teammates
in Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway when the two played with the Orlando Magic in the
middle of 1990s; Dwyane Wade with Miami Heat in the middle of the 2000s and
LeBron James in the late 2000s.
At the end of February, Morant set the Grizzlies’
single-game record for scoring in back-to-back games with 46 points in the team’s
116-110 win at the Chicago Bulls on Feb. 26, followed by a career-high 52
points two nights later versus San Antonio Spurs.
When asked by NBA on TNT’s Kenny Smith on
the two things that he worked on to improve his game in summer of 2021, Morant
said that he worked on his ability to consistently make three-pointers and his
ability to shoot and make floaters in the lane area.
“It allowed me to take a big leap in my
game as you can see from my scoring and you know that’s what led me to being
here now on the show to accept this award,” Morant said.
After posting just one 40-point game his
first two NBA seasons, Morant registered six 40-point games this past regular
season. The 6-foot-3 guard led the NBA in points in the paint in 2021-22 at
16.6.
Shortest Players To Lead NBA In Points In Paint
Per Game
Season
Height Paint PPG
Zion Williams (NOP) 2020-21 6’6” 19.5
Ja Morant (MEM) 2021-22 6’3” 16.6
LeBron James (LAL) 3 Times 6’8”
Behind Morant, the Grizzlies finished a
franchise-record tying 56 wins, with their 56-26 mark in the regular season ranking
No. 2 overall in the NBA as well as No. 2 in the Western Conference, which has
pitted them against the No. 7 Seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the First-Round
of the 2022 NBA Playoffs, which is now tied 2-2 after they took down the Grizzlies
119-118 on Saturday night to tie the series 2-2 with Game 5 back at FedEX Forum
in Memphis, TN on Tuesday night.
Morant, who had the first playoff
triple-double in team history (16 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds) in the
Game 3 win (104-95) overcoming a 26-point and 25-point deficit when asked by
Hall of Famer Charles Barkley on what it will take to win their series against
the Timberwolves, Morant said his squad is to pay attention to the details of
the game plan. Limiting the miscues that they have made, especially in Games 1
and 4.
“I feel that what’s been hurting us as of
late. Them [Timberwolves] capitalizing on our mistakes,” Morant, whose averaging
20.5 points, 10.8 assists and 7.8 rebounds so far in the 2022 postseason said. “Most
of it is coming from us, you know. With our energy and how we are starting
games. How we’re finishing games and you know throughout.”
“I feel like we got stay locked in for the
full 48 minutes and you know, will win the game.”
Two years ago, the Memphis Grizzlies just missed
the playoffs falling in the Play-In game in the 2020 restart versus the
Portland Trail Blazers. Last season they won both their Play-In games versus
the Spurs and at the Golden State Warriors to make the playoffs for the first
time since 2017 falling in five games to the top seeded Jazz. They finished No.
2 in the West with an aforementioned franchise-record tying 56 wins and are
locked in a dogfight with Minnesota Timberwolves 2-2 as they try to win their first
postseason series since 2015, where they fell in the West Semifinals to the
eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
Those hopes and dreams of reaching the West
Semis rest on the shoulders of the 2021-22 Kia Most Improved Player Ja Morant.
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