Ja Morant incident: The potential financial implications for the Grizzlies

evin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Before we dissect Morant’s candidacy, it’s first important to recognize that the games played threshold, which reportedly will become an official requirement for regular season awards starting next season, is already likely in effect. Whether we agree with it or not, we’re already seeing it factor in significantly in the minds of those who vote on awards or select players for certain honors.

Availability and actually being able to produce for your team certainly is value, and there probably should be an agreed upon games played minimum to qualify for certain honors. Whether 58 games, which could be the minimum starting next season, is a number you agree with or not, at least there will be an official cutoff. With that number now out there, it would make sense for voters who care about games played this year to at least go off of that for this season.

This year’s guard crop for the six All-NBA slots is extremely competitive and voters may ultimately use games played as a deciding factor. Lots of guards missed significant amounts of games this year and most of the best ones will likely end up playing somewhere between 60-70 contests. This could end up eliminating players like Stephen Curry and Devin Booker, who at this point can only top out at 56 and 55 games played, respectively.

Assuming they play out most of the rest of the regular season, Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are strong candidates to fill four of the six All-NBA slots at guard. The last two slots could go to any of Ja Morant, James Harden, Tyrese Haliburton, De’Aaron Fox, Kyrie Irving, Jalen Brunson, and Jrue Holiday.

Morant can still end up playing a maximum of 64 games for this season, which would give him enough flexibility to miss a couple of games and still end up playing as many games as some of the other competing guards. His play this season is on par with last season when he made All-NBA 2nd Team… although in a less competitive guard season.

He may have been considered a lock to qualify this year by some voters, but the field is too competitive to conclude that now. And even though he will most likely still be in the mix for an All-NBA slot, it’s possible he will lose votes because of his incidents. In a season with so many good choices among guards to select from, voters could use them as a tiebreaker against Morant.