2019 NBA Mock Draft: Learning from the playoffs
Ja Morant. 3. player. 66. . PG. Murray State
This one’s simple. You know what every playoff team has? Good players at every position. The Suns, after eight years of drafting in the lottery, somehow still do not have a reliable power forward or point guard. Yet they feel so strongly about wanting to compete right now that they fired their rookie head coach, Igor Kokoskov, despite not giving him a lead playmaker capable of running his movement-based offense. It’s a mess.
Morant wouldn’t fix everything, particularly what’s happening in the bigger offices at Talking Stick Resort Arena, where the Suns play, but he would make life on the court easier for stars Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. It remains to be seen whether Phoenix is patient enough to develop a young point guard, but new general manager James Jones is reportedly smitten with Morant. Role players who run teams have an eye for guys who will work hard and get better, so Jones deserves the benefit of the doubt there, but it’s hard to look through the wreckage of this franchise and know what its modus operandi is or what it even needs to get back on its feet.
That being said, a point guard like Morant who excels in the open court, can get to the rim and makes the right decision more often than not is perfect for the modern NBA. That is, if he can shoot. Morant made 36.3 percent of his 3s this year, a solid number, but has an unconventional release and rarely looks to take them jumpers off the dribble to create vertical space in the halfcourt.
Stretching a defense is vital to open up space for scorers like Booker and Ayton. Clearly, Morant is the best option to do that from this draft class, but the Suns’ timeline is accelerating as Booker begins his second contract and the franchise nears a decade without the playoffs.