RealGM

I was looking at his game log from last season and noticed that this kid had 24 double digit scoring games with the Rockets. They won a fair share of those.

With Butler traded and Beaseley most likely waived, do you guys think he'll get big minutes and touches by default? Did his summer league performance show glimmers of hope?

He should now finally be able to get consistent playing time behind Tucker. Bad thing is that he won't be playing with his brother necessarily since Markieff is likely going to start.

I don't expect Marcus Morris to ever break out into a star but I hope he can be a solid role player for us.

I hate to say this about such young players but I don't think either of them has a ceiling higher than the bench. They are both tweener forwards that seem to be okay at everything but not great at anything; limited mostly by below average motor & consistancy. Maybe im being unfair by calling it so early in their careers but I honestly dont see either becoming a breakout player. I predict them to have your typical journeyman/bench type careers.

No, his skin is flawless.

Teaser Pleaser wrote:I don't expect Marcus Morris to ever break out into a star but I hope he can be a solid role player for us.

Yep, I can see them both as tough, rotation players on reasonable deals on the future Suns` team (alongside Bledsoe, Goodwin, Len and our future picks + couple of FA`s).

I was quite pleased with their Summer League toughness and leadership.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1PLm8VNT2Y[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB0UZwz5J5M[/youtube]

Ceiling: Solid starter

Floor: Out of the league.

Right now I see him on the same level career-wise as Derrick Williams - i.e bench player/sixth man. Their games are very similar too.

I think Markieff has a way higher ceiling, much tougher and better defensively.

His numbers when he got 30-39 minutes last year were actually bloody decent:

13 Games, 12 starts

34.5min per
15.2 pts
7.8 rebs
2.1asst
1.2stl
1.6blk (wow?)
1.1x 3s

And wait for it, 50.6%fg, 15-30 on 3s, 76.7% ft. He'll start, and put numbers up, but they'll be semi hollow numbers with the losses racking up...

I think both Marcus brothers are solid players and both will have the chance to inflate their numbers this year with our shortage or Forwards.

This could really benefit us if either Morris brother put up "rising star numbers" due to excessive playing time.

Once upon a time we traded Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang for Charles Barkley. (veteran + young talent + young talent)

Perhaps our next blockbuster will be Gortat + a Morris + (insert name here) for a superstar.

I watched Marcus in Houston and he improved as the season went along, however Markieff is the better player. Naturally I think they'll be better together and both are useful players.

I'm looking for Marcus to improve his 3pt shooting.

I hope he breakouts better than this

As much as Derrick Williams has fallen short of his draft slot, he is a LOT better than Marcus Morris. Williams is really inconsistent but has put up quite a few big games, multiple games of 20-10, Morris has not had a double double in his career.

I think Markieff could become a solid rotation player but I have not seen anything from Marcus that makes me think he is anything but a one trick pony, whos one trick (outside shooting) is something he isnt all that good at anyway.

phrazbit wrote:As much as Derrick Williams has fallen short of his draft slot, he is a LOT better than Marcus Morris. Williams is really inconsistent but has put up quite a few big games, multiple games of 20-10, Morris has not had a double double in his career.

I think Markieff could become a solid rotation player but I have not seen anything from Marcus that makes me think he is anything but a one trick pony, whos one trick (outside shooting) is something he isnt all that good at anyway.

Yeah I'm with you on Marcus. The real telling number is his career free throw percentage. In the NBA it is an abysmal .576 which does not cut it for a supposed shooter. In college we was only slightly better going .660 for his career.

TASTIC wrote:I think Markieff has a way higher ceiling, much tougher and better defensively.

His numbers when he got 30-39 minutes last year were actually bloody decent:

13 Games, 12 starts

34.5min per
15.2 pts
7.8 rebs
2.1asst
1.2stl
1.6blk (wow?)
1.1x 3s

And wait for it, 50.6%fg, 15-30 on 3s, 76.7% ft. He'll start, and put numbers up, but they'll be semi hollow numbers with the losses racking up...

I was hot to draft Kieff and thrilled when we got him, then he looked even better than I hoped .... for a while. On this team he needs to work on his inside game - 7.8 boards is nice, but we need 10. Honestly, I thin he may really be playing out of position, but is he quick enough to play the 3?
He did look considerably more rugged in summer league, so that's a good start.
We really need a hardass at the 4 or the 5

JohnVancouver wrote:

TASTIC wrote:I think Markieff has a way higher ceiling, much tougher and better defensively.

His numbers when he got 30-39 minutes last year were actually bloody decent:

13 Games, 12 starts

34.5min per
15.2 pts
7.8 rebs
2.1asst
1.2stl
1.6blk (wow?)
1.1x 3s

And wait for it, 50.6%fg, 15-30 on 3s, 76.7% ft. He'll start, and put numbers up, but they'll be semi hollow numbers with the losses racking up...

I was hot to draft Kieff and thrilled when we got him, then he looked even better than I hoped .... for a while. On this team he needs to work on his inside game - 7.8 boards is nice, but we need 10. Honestly, I thin he may really be playing out of position, but is he quick enough to play the 3?
He did look considerably more rugged in summer league, so that's a good start.
We really need a hardass at the 4 or the 5

I always thought that both brothers look a little thick, and not lean thick. It seems to me that they could improve their speed and agility by getting a little more lean.

Something that needs to be remembered when looking up a guys stats when they play 30+ minutes a game; There was often a reason WHY they played less than 30 minutes on given nights, and on the same not a reason why the players was given extra PT on the nights he was producing. For example... Markieff had a lot of awful 15-25 minute games during the year, the reason he didnt get more minutes on those nights is because he sucked in many of those games.

Hopefully with more consistent minutes he will find consistency as a player, but I certainly dont expect his production to double by virtue of getting a mere 8-10 more minutes a game.

Another bummer about Markieff is his defensive splits. They are shockingly bad. The Suns were much much better defensively when he was out of the game.

http://www.82games.com/1213/12PHO11.HTM#onoff

And seeing as the guy usually in his place (Scola) is no defensive stalwart himself, it makes those numbers even more concerning. He needs to get way better on that end. Hopefully a lot of the defensive problem came from our bad defensive chemistry team wide.

It's tough to look at minutes in the case of Markieff. Often he seemed like the ref scapegoat, and got tons of bads calls, which ended up having him sit. Also he made some bad reaches which ended with the same result of being called.

Next, I really don't think Gentry did a good job with minutes and position. For example, Gortat playing very well through three quarters, and then sit out the whole fourth. Ronnie Price playing well enough to earn a good amount of backup point, but instead Gentry plays him out of position and starts him at the two.

Let's see how Markieff works with Hornacek. But I agree with an earlier remark, that if Mark starts, he needs to be rebounding at a higher clip at least nine. And he needs to figure out how not to get called for those ticky tack fouls. Either don't reach at all, so the refs don't have a reason to call them, or foul so hard that the next time a guy will think twice of going inside against him, which will mean he will have to foul less (hopefully).

Either way, I really think both of the brothers are bench guys, and they need to play more of a team game. I do like how they physically looked in SL. Actually many of our guys looked in great shape.