The Memphis Grizzlies May Be Cheating To Get Jaren Jackson Jr. Defensive Player of the Year

The Memphis Grizzlies May Be Cheating To Get Jaren Jackson Jr. Defensive Player of the Year

Getty Image / David Berding


The Memphis Grizzlies are having an outstanding season. The team is 2nd in the Western Conference and sits at 31-18.

Of course, franchise point guard Ja Morant is a big reason for that. He’s a bona fide MVP candidate, and the 4th year player looks like he could be the best player on a championship team as soon as this year.

And, his main partner in crime is Jaren Jackson Jr. JJJ, as he is frequently called, is the defensive anchor for the Memphis Grizzlies. The 23-year-old is in his fifth year out of Michigan State and is really coming into his own. After an injury-plagued 2020-2021 season in which he played just 11 games, he played 78 last year and established himself as one of the league’s best young players.

This year, his 3.1 blocks a game and excellent shot-contest defense has him the Vegas favorite to be defensive player of the year. But, that candidacy may be under fire, because there is a huge disparity in his defensive stats between home and away games. Now, people are catching on and wondering if there’s a conspiracy going on.

Here’s some text from the Reddit post.

I decided to take a closer look at his games and IMMEDIATELY 1 thing became crystal clear. At home in Memphis he has 66 blocks in 16 home games, averaging 4.13 blocks per game, versus just 35 in 16 road games, averaging 2.19 in nearly identical minutes- an 89% increase in Memphis. In home games he has been credited with 22 steals in 16 home games, versus only 10 steals in 16 road games. This means he is averaging nearly 1.4 steals per game at home, but just 0.63 steals on the road per game- an astounding 120% increase in Memphis. In home games he has been credited with 88 blocks + steals, versus 45 on the road. This equates to an average of an outlandish 5.5 blocks+steals at home in limited minutes versus a reasonable and realistic, and still outstanding, 2.81 steals+blocks per game on the road. This equates to a 1.96X home stat increase only in these 2 categories. A 96% increase in performance specifically at home is truly an aberration which should be reviewed. This demonstrates the sort of incredulous statistics which calls for serious analysis.

Well well well… That’s quite the conspiracy. It will be interesting to see how his odds change now.