Ja Morant is one of the NBA’s most explosive athletes, and ever since arriving in the league in 2019, he has authored some of the best above the rim highlights (and near-highlights) from a guard. His fearlessness in going up and trying to throw it down on anyone made him a fan favorite, but it also came with some serious risk. Morant has taken some big falls in his career and missed time because of it, most recently injuring his hip and missing eight games after getting bumped in midair and landing awkwardly.
After missing almost all of last year due to injury and suspension, Morant has a new perspective on the importance of being on the floor, and his early season injury was the last straw in causing him to re-evaluate how he plays the game. As he explained after Grizzlies-Mavs where Mavs fans booed him for not throwing down a big dunk on a fastbreak, he’s not kidding about his plan to stay healthy by cutting out the acrobatics, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I’m not trying to dunk at all. Y’all think I’m lying. I’m dead serious.”
“Sometimes I get knocked out the air and [a foul] don’t get called, and now I’m out longer than what I’m supposed to be,” Morant said. “Sometimes the foul might get called; I still hit the floor, but after the game you might feel that little fall. So I just pick and choose, man. Hey, two points is two points. I get it done. That’s all that matters.”
What will be interesting is how Morant manages to balance his attacking style that’s made him such a threat with a desire to stay healthy. One can expect more efforts at controlled finishes in traffic, rather than hurtling himself at the rim with reckless abandon, which as we saw earlier in the year when he hit a pair of 360 layups on the Nets, can still result in a dazzling highlight. However, for fans hoping to see Morant detonate on defenders, that Ja is being left in the past, at least for now.
