Ja Morant walking the dog doesn't require a rule change

It requires the opponent to put some pressure on the ball.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Ja Morant isn’t the first NBA point guard to walk the dog — this is a Chris Paul classic, and Marcus Smart has used it to pretty good effect, too. Trae Young was doing in the playoffs. But as with most things Morant does, he does it bigger and more emphatically.

In the third quarter against the Hornets with the Grizzlies up big, Morant burned 28 seconds of game clock walking the dog before Terry Rozier made him pick up the dribble. When this clip begins, Morant has already been watching the ball for 6-7 seconds. LaMelo Ball made a shot with 3:49 on the clock. Note that the broadcast team is already remarking on how long it’s been.

Molly Morrison @mollyhannahm

ja is a menace for this 😭

This is hilarious and entertaining only as a novelty; it has to be torture for fans of a team trailing by 29. Of course, Morant can do it because in this instance the game clock continues to run but the shot clock and 8-second clock don’t begin until the ball is touched. He basically burns off an entire possession, which is smart for the Grizzlies given that they lead. With a lead, you want to decrease the number of possessions remain. That’s why teams burn clock late in games. The problem with burning clock in the traditional way is that shots usually become more difficult later in the shot clock. Walking the dog solves that problem by keeping the shot clock at 24.

This is not really a basketball play, so of course there are some who would legislate it out of the game. And actually, a rule change to eliminate this would be easy and should avoid a lot of unintentional consequences: just make the 8-second count start once the ball is inbounded. This implies possession for the inbounding team though the ball is technically loose, but would essentially take this play out of the cookbook. Problem solved.

Except even that is wholly unnecessary. Opponents can simply send a player at Morant and other dogwalkers before 28 seconds runs off the clock! The Hornets are trailing big, and it’s in their interest to milk the remaining 16 minutes for as many possessions as possible. Shame on them for letting Morant burn up that much time.

You see one Hornets assistant urging a player to put pressure on Morant to force him to pick it up. Steve Clifford might be talking to his players and doing the same, but nothing about his stance looks urgent. Honestly, defenses could get creative with this: feint with two chasers, but drop one back when Ja goes for the ball to prevent an imbalanced attack on the pass ahead. Or send two defenders hard and make Morant make a potentially dangerous pass-ahead. Or they could simply just do what Rozier eventually does: cautiously approach the ballhandler, forcing them to pick it up without opening yourself up to an advantage. Mix it up! Or don’t. Just don’t watch the dude watch the ball while time ticks away.

What’s interesting is that based on late-game situations we see, many NBA players are not very adept at handling full-court pressure. Running some more early-game pressure packages could mix things up and keep teams out of such a comfort zone where they’d be willing to walk the dog like this. Teams are scoring at such high efficiency anyway that occassionally giving up an advantage when the pressure gets beat isn’t as big a deal as when points are more difficult to come by.

What I really want is to see a mash-up between this novelty act and another beloved backcourt trick play: Grand Theft Alvarado. We need Morant watching a ball barely trickle down the court when Jose Alvardo comes swooping in for a steal out of nowhere. Someone get Girl Talk on the phone ASAP. We’ll call it Dog Theft Alvarado, it’ll be great.