Suns find themselves in a pickle: Moving Markieff Morris

[AtheJ415]

And to make it clear, I'm no Markieff fan. I want him gone, and hate watching him play right now. But we're still in asset collecting mode, and Markieff's history plus his contract still make him a positive to other teams imo, even if he tanks the entire year.

[LukasBMW]

AtheJ415, I hope you are right.

I have visions of Josh Smith in my head at the moment.

[kennydorglas]

AtheJ415, I hope you are right.

I have visions of Josh Smith in my head at the moment.

Sadly, this is very accurate.

[kennydorglas]

Houston probably wont even entertain any trade with Kieff.
They already dumped his bro after trying to make him to get rid of his long 2's.

[bwgood77]

When the assault charges first broke, I thought there was no way we would void his contract if he was convicted. I figure we'd stick it out even if he had to do 6 months since he was on such a bargain contract.

Now, if he takes a plea, we may seriously think about voiding his contract just to get rid of him.

Who would trade for him now?

Plenty. Look, to believe he has no value right now would only hold if teams judged Markieff's ability on this season moreso than the past 2 seasons. That just is not the case. That doesn't happen for 26 year olds in this league. That said, since other teams know Phoenix is in a bad spot with Markieff and they know he's playing like crap, they probably would lowball Phoenix in any trade.

The teams that make the most sense are Detroit and Houston, and once the felony is out of the way so that both sides know how many games he'll miss, moving him becomes easier. I still think we can get a first or one of Houston's PFs. Who knows, maybe Montrezl and a second? (though any trade with Houston likely has to be a 3 way). Houston is a disaster right now and need a shakeup, and I don't believe they'll want to pay both Jones and DMO this offseason, and both have lower value since they are impending FA's under this crazy new cap where Tristan freaking Thompson gets franchise money. I could see a 3 way where Markieff goes to Detroit, Houston sends us one of Jones/DMO, and Detroit sends Houston picks or role players who can help them.

Or Ilyasova fits what Houston likes to do.

[bwgood77]

When the assault charges first broke, I thought there was no way we would void his contract if he was convicted. I figure we'd stick it out even if he had to do 6 months since he was on such a bargain contract.

Now, if he takes a plea, we may seriously think about voiding his contract just to get rid of him.

Who would trade for him now?

I don't think we can void his contract but he could always place him on waivers and SOME team would assume his contract. If he clears waivers I doubt he would agree to sign for less than he was making, so a team that might want him should grab that contract before the cap goes up so much. Of course if he did clear waivers, we'd still have to pay him.

[Saberestar]

I see Denver making an offer for Markieff. Probably Faried is available because he is playing less minutes in the last few games and he doesn't seem to have good relationship with the coach.

I don't know if I want Faried, but is an option out there.

[LukasBMW]

I see Denver making an offer for Markieff. Probably Faried is available because he is playing less minutes in the last few games and he doesn't seem to have good relationship with the coach.

I don't know if I want Faried, but is an option out there.

I'd take Faried in a hearbeat.

A heartbeat!

He plays hard, cleans up the boards, plays gritty defense, and has a great motor. Getting rid of slacker Keef and getting Faried would drastically improve our locker room. We still have our stretch 4's in Leur and Tele but now we have another option. Faried can even be our 5 in small ball situations.

I dare say we could run Faried at the 5 and run Len at the 4 on offense. Faried can clean up the glass and get oops. Len can pick and pop.

Running Faried with Chandler could hypothetically hurt our spacing, but it could also improve our points in the paint.

Where do I sign?

[LukasBMW]

You gotta figure this is the end of the Suns patience with Keef.

- December 15th is less then two weeks away. Trade season starts.
- Tonight is the last time he will face his brother. If his attitude does not improve quickly after tonight's game, he is a lost cause.
- It seems the team is starting to turn on him for his play. Watching the past few games it seems his teamates are fed up with him.

I can almost understand if he was distracted last night and looking ahead to tonight, but it's time for him to move on.

[Saberestar]

Well, it's seems that his value around the league is really really low.

I just made some calls and honestly there is little value for him. You can get off the contract but thats about it

https://mobile.twitter.com/Gambo987/status/671894618540150784

[LukasBMW]

If we can't get the Rockets to ship us Ariza and Jones for Tucker and Keef,

How about

Lawson
Jones

for

Keef
Weems
Maybe even a pick?

This is totally a McD move. Waive Lawson and his contact becomes expiring at the end of the year.

We get cap space and a talented RFA to resign .

Houston gets rid of Lawson (apparently they want to dump him) and gets Keef.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Why do we wait for players to be at career lows before we consider moving them.

Anyone can do that job.

I think our preference is to hold on for a big trade where we can bundle some crap into some decent assets for a difference maker.

Short of that, again it'll probably take us to lose 5 in a row, before deciding to trade away Markieff to try save the season.

[nevetsov]

Why do we wait for players to be at career lows before we consider moving them.

Anyone can do that job.

Maybe it's because if they are playing well and have value to other teams, they also have value to us?

Let's say (as unlikely as it may be) Markieff comes back and goes on a tear for a month or so. Will people still want to trade him or will they start thinking he's changed, and that he all of a sudden fits in with the team again? That he's all of a sudden too valuable to trade?

I know hindsight is 20/20, but we really should have dealt them at the same time. Sure it would have left us with a hole at PF, but we have a ton of assets we could use to fill the hole if needed. Plus, at the time, he had way more value than Marcus, so we could have gotten a very nice return. And lastly, we wouldn't have even had to worry about the risk of Markieff's reaction - it would have been another team's problem.

[Revived]

Why do we wait for players to be at career lows before we consider moving them.

Anyone can do that job.

I think our preference is to hold on for a big trade where we can bundle some crap into some decent assets for a difference maker.

Short of that, again it'll probably take us to lose 5 in a row, before deciding to trade away Markieff to try save the season.

Suns always wait so damn long before making trades. Was reading an article on ESPN about how had the Suns actually moved him when he demanded a trade through Twitter, they could have got something good back for him where as now they may have to give up something good just to get rid of him.