For the past month-and-a-half, point guard Ja Morant has been in Bradenton, Fla., toiling away at IMG Academy ahead of next month’s NBA Draft. Surely, he must be getting impatient with his workout regimen, eager to make his way in front of some team’s top brass at an NBA gym for a workout.
Or maybe not all that eager.
"I really don’t know how much I have to show," Morant told Sporting News on Thursday. "Not being cocky, I just feel like, most people seen me already. But I mean, it will be an honor just to go out and play in front of those guys, see how the city is and get to know the organization better."
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The presumption is that Morant will be the No. 2 pick in the draft, after Duke forward Zion Williamson, which would put him in Memphis and team him up with young forward Jaren Jackson Jr. That’s not set in stone, however. Morant said he was not sure which teams he might visit — his agency, Tandem Sports, is still planning that, and Morant might not need to work out at all.
"If my agency decides that I will work out with a team," he said, "it will probably be the top three. But I guess soon we’ll see."
Morant remains one of the most fascinating players in this draft, a lightly-recruited guard from South Carolina who landed at Murray State two years ago and became a sensation this year with his gaudy numbers — 24.5 points, 10.0 assists, 5.7 rebounds — and his jaw-dropping dunks. He described this season as "surreal."
But then, he thought his freshman year was underrated. He posted good numbers (12.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists) but did not need to be a take-over scorer because the Racers had seniors Jonathan Stark and Terrell Miller on board, went 26-6 and reached the NCAA Tournament.
"I think it was underrated honestly," Morant said. "I averaged about 13 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, so for a freshman with the team we had, I think that’s a bit underrated. But I don’t get into all that. I don’t mind."
But he has improved. For one thing, Morant arrived at Murray State weighing 148 pounds. He got up to just over 170 (he was listed at 175) to start last season, though he concedes that he lost weight as the year progressed. For another thing, Morant improved his ability to think the game.
Some of that came from his time spent with Chris Paul at the CP3 camp last summer. That’s where he better learned how to play off ball screens, a staple of being a point guard in the NBA.
"I loved how Chris Paul was hands-on with everybody," Morant said, "and what I learned the most was handling the ball-screen situations. I know at Murray we run a lot of ball screens. So we watched film. He showed us how he attacked screens, what he was trying to read on the floor, and that’s what I took most from that camp."
Morant is back now, working on adding weight again in Florida. Just hearing him talk about his daily schedule now is tiring.
"I wake up, like, eight o’clock, have breakfast," Morant said. "I go to treatment at nine and get treatment, massages and everything. I do an on-turf workout for like an hour, 10:30 to 11:30, and go straight to the court after that for another hour or so. I end around 12:45, go to lunch, have about a two-hour window that’s free time which I will probably do more treatment or just come and rest.
"Then I start back up at four o’clock with the weights, and that wraps up at about 5:30 or six o’clock. It’s a lot."
It should pay off in three weeks with a spot, probably No. 2, in the upper reaches of the draft. Morant is already getting excited — he signed with Panini, the trading card company, and will get a first look at his own card on draft night, with the collegiate version coming out in August and his NBA card available in October.
"Everybody, when you were young, you had players you looked up to and you were trying to get their trading cards," Morant said. "Panini gave me the opportunity to have a trading card of my own and be part of an amazing group. I am just ready to see how my trading card turns out."
Morant will have to land with a team before any of that. That may — or heck, may not — require a workout or two.