The Memphis Grizzlies finally lost a game on Monday night, their first of the year. But, of course, Ty Jerome was still the story. The Grizzlies point guard, who has gone full Linsanity Mode to start the season, rattled off 40 points on 64% shooting against the Pelicans. He made five of his six 3-pointers. He made seven of his eight free throws. 

With the Grizzlies trailing 124-115 at the 1:43 mark, Jerome engineered a personal 9-0 run to close regulation and send the game to overtime. 

Less than two weeks removed from opening night (when Jerome put 45 on the Jazz), it's obviously too early to have a real MVP discussion. But, if we could, Jerome would be in it. The league's sixth-leading scorer, he's now averaging 28.3 points per game on 50/42/88 shooting splits. 

People are wondering: how is this possible? Wasn't this guy a G League player? Yes, he was. But that was five years ago, and if you've been paying attention, you know he's been making consistent leaps as he has earned more and more opportunities. It's not to say anyone could've seen this kind of scoring boom coming, but there were signs. 

Jerome has long been a per-minute monster

Agfter bumping around with the Suns, Thunder and Warriors through the first four years of his career, Jerome, who had played well with whatever time he got specifically in OKC and Golden State, broke out with the Cavs during the 2024-25 season. He averaged 12.5 PPG on 51/44 shooting splits, finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, and became a legit go-to scorer in the playoffs. 

In Clevaland's first-round sweep over the Heat, Jerome averaged over 16 PPG, making 10 of his 20 3-pointers and shooting 51% overall. In Game 1, he scored 16 of his 28 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the fourth quarter. 

Look deeper at that season, and you'll see that Jerome was an All-Star-level scorer relative to his playing time, averaging 22.7 points per 36 minutes. That was a better mark that Jamal Murray, Tyrese Haliburton and Jimmy Butler, among many others. The only reason he wasn't a 20 PPG scorer was he only played 19.9 minutes per night on a Cleveland team that had Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland ahead of him. 

The Grizzlies saw this, and in the summer of 2025 signed Jerome to a three-year, $28 million contract that now looks like the biggest non-rookie bargain in the league. He only played in 15 games last season, but once again he was a per-minute monster. 

After missing the first three-plus months to a calf strain, Jerome scored 20 points in 20 minutes in his Grizzlies debut, and over the following six weeks he averaged 0.87 points per minute played, the same mark as Kawhi Leonard and fourth-best in the league among players who logged at least 10 games. 

The evidence was clear: If Jerome is on the court, he's going to score. It's just a matter of playing time. So far this season, he's playing 30 minutes per night, and is currently scoring 0.91 points in each of those minutes. That registers as the fourth-best mark in the league among players who have played at least 100 minutes. 

It's not to say we should've seen an MVP-level start coming for Jerome, but at the same time this scoring wave he's currently riding didn't come out of nowhere. The signs trace back to Cleveland. As his minutes, and usage, have gone up, so too has his scoring. He is simply playing more minutes now with a 31.3% usage rate equal to Jalen Brunson. 

Again, that's not to say Jerome is a superstar. But don't be thrown off by his underdog story or his lack of NBA athleticism. He's extraordinarily skilled and always has been. He's a world-class shooter, both off the catch and dribble, near and far. Going back to Cleveland, he has consistently ranked north of the 90th percentile as both a pick-and-roll and isolation scorer, per Synergy. What he's doing to start this season probably won't continue, but it also didn't come out of nowhere.