Sky Sports NBA analyst also assesses the Utah Jazz's 10-game win streak without star man Mike Conley
Friday 17 January 2020 16:37, UK
Ovie Soko says rookie sensation Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies have quickly built a foundation that will lead to a bright long-term future.
Something is building in Memphis. It's energy. It's passion. The Grizzlies have a new young core. Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr, Brandon Clarke are stepping into their roles and things are starting to happen fairly quickly for them.
If anyone had called Memphis serious contenders for playoff spots at the start of the season, how many people would have really bought into that?
I have always been high on Ja Morant. I picked him for Rookie of the Year and he pretty much has that tied up. He has special leadership qualities. When I say that, I mean he gives me the same leadership vibe that Damian Lillard had when he came into the league - a young guy who is hungry and eager to show he is there to get work done.
You can tell when a player has been raised by a coach or a former player. Morant's dad played professionally in Europe. You can see it in Ja's game, particularly in the maturity that he has. He has been doing these things since he was really young and it is like breathing to him now.
He is making high-IQ plays at a really fast pace because of the way he has been taught the game. I feel like he is able to read the game in depth. Within a game, he is able to read time and score at a professional level. He was doing it in college and it stood out to me big-time. Now in the pros we can see he knows when to step up and he is not afraid of the big moment. We saw when he went back and forth with Kyrie Irving early in the season.
Morant does not back down at all. There is a fine line between getting into a personal battle and knowing when it is time to take over. Being able to gauge that perfectly is a skill. If you get it wrong, you run the risk of becoming a negative for your team and people saying, 'you're super-talented but why is it always just about you?'
In Morant's case, he gives his team-mates enough confidence without losing himself in the game. When everyone else is going well and feeling good about themselves, it becomes easier - when the moment comes - for them to accept it is time for him to take the team home.
Morant's confidence is becoming contagious for his team-mates. Dillon Brooks has been playing extremely well offensively - the guy can go. Clarke has been doing a great job as has Jackson Jr. I am huge on team's being able to build on a strong guard/wing/big man core. That foundation gives Memphis serious to build around.
The way Memphis are playing this season, I can see some similarities between them and Morant's college team, Murray State. The Grzzlies have a collection of forwards who are pretty versatile, guys who can step inside and outside, can put the ball on the floor a little bit. They can do a lot of different things.
Players like that work very well with Morant because he is a very unselfish player. He doesn't mind letting the team-mates around him make plays. When you have got big men and wings who can make plays, it's a treat to have a point guard that can get the ball up quickly, kicking it ahead and having the confidence in those guys. Those Memphis players are making plays at the moment and the team is really doing well right now.
Long-term, as long as the Grizzlies can keep their core together, I think they are going to be a team that will be hanging around tough in the West for a long time. Memphis have a bright, bright future ahead.
Up until that overtime loss in New Orleans on Thursday night, the Utah Jazz had been on a tear. And it's a funny one too given their blockbuster summer signing, point guard Mike Conley, has been out with (a left hamstring) injury when the team started playing at such a high clip.
For me, the biggest thing for the Jazz has been the fact they have multiple offensive threats.
They have four guys averaging 15 or more points per game, including two guys (Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic) comfortably over 20. Having multiple threats make it really hard for opponents to guard.
In Rudy Gobert, they have the two-time Defensive Player of the Year who I feel covers mistakes, takes up a lot of space and shows a great deal of pride in his play on the defensive side of the floor.
When Conley comes back, I don't think it will hurt Utah. In his absence, we've seen Mitchell increased his playmaking and getting other guys involved which has been a huge plus.
But in Conley, they will be bringing back a high-level point guard and playmaker back into the system who isn't going to be hunting shots. He can only help them. With the team playing so well, it takes a lot of pressure off him when he returns to the line-up.
If Utah continue to really thrive and Conley doesn't come back in the short term, there will be some fear over changing chemistry on the court when he does eventually return.
But for now, it's pretty safe to say he has enough time to recover comfortably. In the meantime, he will still be heavily involved around the locker room, for sure.
When the postseason comes around, the Jazz will really see the benefit of Conley. He has been there before and has dealt with reaching a frustrating point in terms of his time in Memphis. Being in a new environment with the possibility to shock some people… we'll see.
In their streak, Utah had a few respectable wins as well as a couple of close ones. One of their big recent wins was their road win over the Clippers, but last year's Finals MVP (Kawhi Leonard) was missing. Looking at the Jazz's schedule over the next few weeks, the calibre of their opponents is going to pick up. So we will learn more about them.
I said a few weeks ago the Jazz have the ability to surprise the big-name teams in the playoffs and I stand by that. Them being in the postseason won't be a surprise, they are clearly a playoff team. What I meant by 'surprise' was more about their relatively low profile in the West.
The number of teams with superstar players out West and the intense focus on them allows Utah to operate under the radar. They are above Dallas in the standings but the Mavericks get lots more 'pub'.
They don't get the headlines but the Jazz just get it done.
Read more from Ovie Soko throughout the season as part of Sky's best-ever NBA offering, which includes 134 live games and a record 48 games in weekend primetime slots.
