Chicago Bulls: Is Ja Morant’s jumper a legitimate concern?

Murray State point guard Ja Morant is making some serious noise among NBA circles. Should his shooting issues concern the Chicago Bulls?

Ja Morant is one of 2019’s most exciting NBA prospects, but he isn’t perfect. He has a wiry frame, his defensive upside is questionable at best and he struggles to shoot the ball from deep. In today’s NBA, does Morant need to be a good shooter in order to be effective?

That’s a relatively loaded question. The simple answer would be yes, in order for Ja Morant to be effective, he needs to develop his jumper. But what does “effective” mean? Can Ja Morant be the greatest basketball player of all time without a knockdown jumper? Probably not. Can he be an All-Star? The answer to that question is a little murky, so let’s dive into it.

During Morant’s freshman season at Murray State, he shot a rough 30.7 percent from 3-point territory on 2.8 attempts per game. This season (his sophomore season), he’s shooting 33.6 percent from deep on 4.8 attempts per game. The latter numbers are definitely better than the former, but they’re still not good, especially considering the NBA 3-point line is considerably deeper than the college three-point line.

With the way the NBA is trending, it’s easy to say that Morant needs a jumper to be an elite guard. But is that really true? Guys like Damian Lillard, Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving are all deadly from deep, but what about someone like Russell Westbrook?

One of the biggest knocks on Westbrook throughout his entire career (especially this season) has been his inability to shoot from deep. He’s one of the league’s worst high-volume shooters, but he still manages to be one of the NBA’s best players every single year. How does he do it?

It starts with energy and effort – two things that Westbrook brings to the table every single day. The dude is an absolute energizer bunny, and that makes up for a lot of what he lacks in shooting skill. Morant has the drive and athleticism to be the same way.

Westbrook had been a historically bad shooter this season prior to the All-Star break, shooting an atrocious 24.9 percent from deep on 4.7 attempts per game. Yes, Westbrook has been a different beast post-All-Star break (shooting 37.5 percent from deep on 8.8 attempts per game), but let’s focus on his pre-All-Star break numbers.

Despite shooting the basketball horrendously, Westbrook was still able to make a positive impact on his team. He was setting the table for other dudes (averaged 11.2 assists per game), he rebounded the ball well (averaged 11.2 rebounds per game) and he put pressure on the defense whenever he attacked the basket. OKC also had an impressive 32-17 record before the All-Star break.

Sure, a lot of OKC’s pre-All-Star break success was because of the MVP-level of play from Paul George. But make no mistake – George wouldn’t be having the type of season he’s having without Westbrook by his side.

Even if Morant has Westbrook-esque numbers from deep when he enters the league, there are still enough things that he does well to make him effective.

Yes, Morant’s jumper is cause for some concern. Obviously, it would be better if he had a Steph-like jumper. I mean, can you imagine if a guy like Westbrook could shoot consistently from deep? But Morant has enough tools in his bag to be an All-Star even without a knockdown jumper.

Russell Westbrook has proven that even though today’s NBA is all about shooting, you don’t have to fit that mold to be a superstar. As long as Ja does what he does best, he’ll be just fine.