Marcus Morris: 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades

Strengths

Marcus Morris has some obvious strengths, in his ability to hit some tough shots and be creative on offense, but something he really doesn’t get enough credit for is his situational awareness of when he shoots.

To clarify, that is talking about when he shoots in relation to where the defense is and how he is being guarded, not necessarily in relation to where he is on the court.

According to NBA.com, about 70 percent of the field goals Morris attempted outside of 10 feet saw the nearest defender more than four feet away, and on three-point shots, he took a greater percentage of shots with the nearest defender being six-or-more feet away (44.99 percent) than when a defender was within four feet (15.16 percent).

To repeat that staggering statistic, he took nearly three times as many threes with a defender six-feet or greater away from him than he did when he was facing any semblance of defense.

And going off that stat, while it can be quite easy to remember the times when he did isolate and take a long shot, it’s worth noting that Morris received assists on right around 85 percent of his three-point baskets. There weren’t a whole lot of times where he just sucked the ball in and launched up a bad three, which is certainly something to note.

And it’s also worth noting that from three, he was pretty much money on the right side:

Another thing that Morris did well was defending beyond the perimeter. When guarding in a one-on-one situation, Morris held opponents to a worse field goal percentage outside of 15 feet, and he did so by a fairly significant margin: 2.5 percent.

Compare that number to other players from 15+ feet out…

Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard:

Opponents shot 1.8 percent BETTER against Leonard than average .

Jimmy Butler:

Opponents shot 3.6 percent BETTER against Butler than average.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist:

Opponents shot 2.2 percent BETTER against MKG than average.

LeBron James:

Opponents shot 0.2 percent worse against James than average.

P.J. Tucker:

Opponents shot 1.0 percent worse against Tucker than average.

That’s right: Marcus Morris did better than all of them.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Marcus Morris is some lockdown defender. Certainly, he’s not at the level of those guys, and there are better players as far as perimeter defense is concerned. After all, Tony Allen has nearly a percent drop off twice as good as Morris, and there are other players that definitely matchup favorably.

HOWEVER, what it does mean is with time winding down on the clock late in a game, you can do a lot worse than Marcus Morris stepping up to play some defense.

You can do a lot worse than this:

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