It's time.
If you have Ja Morant on your fantasy basketball roster, Tuesday December 19 is a day you've been looking forward to since your draft.
Fresh off his 25-game suspension for stupid off-court activites that earned internet monikers like Ja Wick, Morant will embark on his ambitious quest to wrestle the lowly Memphis Grizzlies out from a 6-17 start, tied for 13th in the Western Conference.
They have the same damn record as the Portland Trail Blazers, man.
This team looks uninspired, overwhelmed, unrecognizable and overburdened by the absence of Morant. The enigmatic 6-foot-3-ish lead guard is the only one capable of providing this team the shot in the arm they need to save their season…
And perhaps save you from yours.
Morant played 61 games last season and managed a top-75 finish across Yahoo and ESPN fantasy leagues, and could be in line for a similar finish this season despite missing 25 games. At the very least, you should be adding a player who could crash the top 100 (accumulated numbers) before the end of the season and could provide top 25-50 production for the rest of the season, health-willing.
Whether you play rotisserie scoring, head-to-head categories or whatever else, Morant projects to be a possible game-changer if he replicates what he's done over the last two seasons.
In 2022-23, Morant logged 26.2 points, 8.1 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game, accumulating 1,596 points, 493 assists, 357 rebounds and 66 steals. For those of you in leagues counting double doubles (20) and triple doubles (7), he helped you out there, too.
In 2021-22, Morant was as good, recording 27.4 points, 6.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game, adding 10 double doubles and a lone triple double. In both seasons, he averaged 3.4 turnovers per game.
Now, in adding categories, it could get slightly trickier, but the good far outweighs the bad if Morant is reasonably efficient.
Morant shot 46.6 percent from the field last year, down from 49.3 percent in his 2021-22 campaign. From three, he dipped to 30.7 percent from a career best 34.4 tally, though he made 1.5 per game from deep in each season. His free throw percentage hovers around 75 consistently, going from about 78 to 73 to 76 to 75 with some rounding in four seasons.
If you're in a points league, you know exactly what Morant should provide: High number of points and assists with occasional steals, quality guard rebounding, and modest shot-blocking. He'll get you double doubles on occasion and perhaps some triple doubles, which will be helpful if your league scores that. In any format, the turnovers will hurt, it's just easier to overcome in points leagues, which are largely built on volume.
In the more tactical category formats, where you seek a well-crafted balanced roster, Morant will, like many others, have some weak spots. He'll again lift you in points, assists, and rebounds while mixing in some steals and threes, though he's not typically your lead dog in either category.The percentages are where we have more uncertainty. Morant's field goal percentage is typically very good for a point guard, but following the long layoff, a slow start to the season wouldn't be surprising — it's something you'll have to ride out. His free throw percentage will hurt you on some nights, as will the turnovers.
Some nights, you'll get 36 points, nine assists, eight turnovers, four rebounds and three steals on 11-of-28 shooting, 2-of-9 from three, but 12-of-12 on free throws — he did this on March 29 last year, which would've been championship week for some of you.
The next game, he got just 10 points, five boards, four assists, three turnovers and shot 4-for-11 from the field, 0-for-3 from three and 2-of-4 on three throws. It'll happen. But you ride it out, because you'll get those 25-point, 11-assist efforts on over 50 percent shooting with just two turnovers. But Ja will giveth and taketh, and even still, he'll be one of your better players more often than not, even as the inefficiencies — from three and free throw, in particular, may be maddening.
I'm in two leagues I care about, one is head-to-head points, and the other is a nine-category league: Points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, threes, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. That's the league where I snagged Morant late in Round 6, perhaps slightly early, but I'll be 7-1 and in first place by the time he takes the floor, and it beats watching Jordan Poole and the Washington Commander-ass Wizards devalue Tyus Jones every other game.
Whether you're depending on Morant, like the Grizzlies, to bring you out of the ashes, or you're a top-half team in your league just adding star power — and or a potential future trade chip — the good should outweigh the bad with Morant in fantasy basketball, and ideally, in actual basketball, too … for everyone's sake.
