NBA Halloween: Playing trick-or-treat with each team’s early season trend

Memphis Grizzlies

Ja Morant should be the Rookie of the Year favorite: Trick

With Zion Williamson sidelined for the first few weeks of the season, Ja Morant seems like the no-brainer pick for Rookie of the Year. He was the No. 2 overall pick behind Zion, after all, and he’s in a starring role with a rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies team that will allow him to put up big numbers.

So far, Morant is averaging a team-best 17.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. He’s got the kind of bounce to create nightly highlight reels, and early on, he’s shooting a terrific 50 percent from the floor and 42.3 percent from 3. Games like his 30-point, nine-assist performance against the Nets — during which he scored a clutch bucket to tie the game late in regulation and then blocked Kyrie Irving to force overtime — will only reinforce his case.

https://twitter.com/NBAFantasy/status/1188623324248788994?s=20

However, it’s far too soon to make any definitive statements on the ROY race. The Miami Heat have not one, but two dark horse candidates who could be in the running. RJ Barrett is off to a sensational individual start in the Big Apple. Rui Hachimura and PJ Washington are going to put up big numbers on losing teams too. And no one should rule out 50 games of Zion Williamson being enough to win ROY considering how dominant he was in preseason. Let’s give this one some time.