A player that Zion might have a hard time passing up any way you look at it in the race to win the Rookie of the Year honors is the Grizzlies breakthrough point guard, and the reigning second overall draft pick, Ja Morant.
The Grizzlies are seeing an immediate impact coming from Morant and his natural pairing with second-year forward Jaren Jackson Jr. This Grizzlies team is starting to form a nice young core alongside Morant and Jackson Jr. Clarke is a nice fit along with them and this gives them direction for a brighter future in Memphis.
However, if not for Zion returning soon, Morant would be running away with the Rookie of the Year right now. He’s averaging 18.3 points per game, 3.3 rebounds, and 5.8. He’s doing that all while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range. No one is expected to be that efficient as a high usage rookie point guard.
It’s just a shame that the Grizzlies won’t be better in a deep West this season. Morant is going to suffer from the lack of national exposure, but his production alone will keep him in the thick of the running for Rookie of the Year the entire way.
Where Morant will separate himself from White is all the other main stat categories outside of scoring. Morant is also scoring more efficiently than White and he’s also in the starting lineup. There’s a big gap that exist between these two lottery picks and point guards at the moment.