Overview
The word fiery doesn’t quite seem like it does Marcus Morris justice, but that’s the word that best sums up who he is. As a player, he’s passionate and unafraid to make his feelings felt. As a person, he’s not going to sit by and be satisfied with mediocrity.
As you scroll through this player grade, you’ll see examples of exactly this. Examples of how Marcus Morris took criticism to heart and made a change. Examples of how his emotions boiled over in a way they really shouldn’t have during an ESPN broadcast. Examples of how he actually cares about the way his team plays and looks to outsiders.
And in a way, that’s kind of refreshing.
Morris wasn’t afraid to talk about the fans, and he wasn’t afraid to make his feelings felt about something he didn’t agree with online. And while that sometimes (most of the time…okay, all of the time), led to problems, it was certainly different.
After all, who could forget the one word that Marcus Morris tweeted that became strongly associated with him shortly after, at least on Twitter…
@BrightSideSun foolishness
— Marcus Morris (@MookMorris2) January 4, 2015
Now, as far as the on-court product is concerned, Morris certainly had his fair share of ups and downs, but he actually provided a fairly strong option for his team off the bench, at least for a significant part of the season.
There were definitely areas where Morris showed plenty of room to improve, but he was still a really productive bench player, and paired with his brother (Markieff), he helped keep the Suns in the playoff race until the last couple weeks of the season.
Given the injuries the team dealt with, I don’t think it’s “foolishness” to say that in of itself, that’s pretty impressive.
Next: Weaknesses
Weaknesses
With Marcus Morris, the capability to be an efficient scorer is certainly there, but sometimes he falls in love with shots that aren’t his, or takes certain shots because they are open, even if that isn’t what the team needs.
And for one month, that was kind of a big problem, at least 20 days in…
Marcus Morris’ shot chart in March (33.3 FG%). Yikes. pic.twitter.com/CugpIiIECp
— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) March 20, 2015
While Morris would improve, the biggest problem, in his percentages at least, was that he took a high percentage of his shots from an area that didn’t make sense for him to be shooting in.
Despite the fact that Marcus Morris shot roughly 44 percent on threes from the right side, he ended up taking 34 MORE threes from the LEFT side, where he shot just 31 percent.
And this was a problem that got worse and worse for Morris as the year went on. In March, 48 of his 84 three point attempts (57.1 percent) came from the left side, and in April, 11 of his 19 three point attempts (57.9 percent) came from the left.
Simply put, Morris could drastically boost his percentages and efficiency if he could learn to turn down open looks that weren’t necessarily his shot, and continue to work within the offense, although it’s not like that played too significant a factor in any of the team’s games.
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However, for Morris, shooting isn’t the only problem.
At times, Morris struggled with team defense, although his individual defense was much improved from the year before. Additionally, his offensive rebound rate dropped all the way to 3.9, which was not at all good enough.
Last year there were 13 different BACKCOURT players that managed a better offensive rebound rate. Overall, Morris ranked tied for 172 in the NBA, which means on average, every single NBA team had 5-6 players better than Morris in that area.
It wasn’t much different in defensive rebounding, as Morris posted the 125th best defensive rebound rate in the league, and the 143rd best overall rebound rate in the league.
For a 6’9″, 235-pound forward, that simply was not good enough, and it’s something that he’ll really need to buckle down and improve moving forward.
Next: Strengths
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 .
Opponents shot 3.6 percent BETTER against Butler than average.
Opponents shot 2.2 percent BETTER against MKG than average.
Opponents shot 0.2 percent worse against James than average.
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:
Next: Lowlights
Lowlights
While Morris did post career high’s in points, rebounds and assists per game, there were still some things he struggled with, starting with team defense.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Morris’ individual defense DEFINITELY improved from the year before. It was something he worked at over the summer, following some criticisms of his ability on that side of the ball, but the Suns as a whole were definitively worse on defense when he was in the game last year, at least in looking at the numbers.
Last year, Morris’ defensive rating was so bad that it fell behind roughly 360 other players that recorded at least a minute in the 2014-15 NBA season. Gerald Green and Archie Goodwin were the only Suns players to finish with a lower defensive rating, according to NBA.com.
Additionally, most of Morris’ percentages and metrics went down from the season before, as he posted a lower Player Efficiency Rating, True Shooting percentage, offensive rating and average of win shares per game on the season, not to mention there were some locker room/off the court/on the sideline issues.
As far as in-game lowlights were concerned, there weren’t too many bad ones. However, early in the year, there was definitely one play that stood out. The Suns were in a close game against the Celtics, and had the ball up with a little bit more than a minute left in the game.
Jeff Green stole the ball off of an errant pass, and went end to end, absolutely demolishing Marcus Morris with a poster slam. While Morris’ effort to hustle back and contest the shot deserved recognition, it’s no secret that the result was not what he was looking for. Just watch…
It’s actually kind of funny, but that, and the other real lowlight of his season on the court occurred in the first 11 games of the season. After all, a couple of games before the Jeff Green poster, Marcus Morris had an opportunity to go for a highlight slam of his own against the Nets.
Morris blew past Teletovic off screen from Gerald Green, and rolled to the hoop with bad intentions. However, one man stood in his way… Mason Plumlee.
And just like his brother had showed in Phoenix on a couple of occasions… Mason Plumlee didn’t want to get dunked on…
Next: Highlights
Highlights
Okay. So we’ve already discussed Marcus Morris getting dunked on and rejected at the rim, but it’s worth noting that in the NBA he’s found himself on the good side of the highlight much more often. And while he didn’t have any truly spectacular poster slams this year, it’s worth a quick look to remember the type of athlete he can be, even if he isn’t the greatest dunker in the world:
Apologies for the quality, but that dunk is amazing. Here’s another (this time with the Suns though):
But that was last year. What about this year?
Well, as I’ve already mentioned, Marcus Morris posted a ton of career-highs, two of which came in a game against the Utah Jazz, when he scored 34 points on February 6. In that game, Morris shot 5-of-7 from three, and he managed to pull down 12 boards for the double-double.
Sure enough, those totals were good for career-high totals in points and rebounds for a game. And while he has topped his rebounding total, he has yet to come within 10 points of topping 34 since then.
Other than that, Morris had some solid stretches where he led the way for the Suns. Between Mar. 13 and Mar. 29, he scored 15+ points six times in eight games, cracking the 17-point mark five times and the 19-point mark three times. Morris also had 10+ rebounds four times in that stretch, which included a career high 13 rebounds in a win over the Pelicans.
Morris’ second best career point total, at least to date, also came earlier this season, when he went for 25 points against the Miami Heat. Morris knocked down 5-of-6 three-point attempts while adding five rebounds and four assists, although the effort would come in a loss.
Overall, Morris came into the season with five career 20-point games, and he finished having nearly doubled that total, with nine for his career. For the Suns, the season didn’t quite have the storybook ending the team wanted, nor did Morris absolutely blow anyone away, but he had about 25-30 really solid games, which off of the bench was certainly a boost.
Next: Final Grade
Grade: B
While Morris wasn’t exactly a B-type player for the whole year, he played in 81 of the team’s 82 games, and he spread out his good games throughout the year. He got started with 21 points in his season debut, and really spread it out after that.
After all, Morris had seven double-digit scoring performances over the next month, eight in the month after that, 11 in January and February and 12 in the last month-and-a-half of the season.
Overall, the body of work was there.
Now, Morris definitely struggled at times, but there were also stretches where he was crucial to the team. For example, when the Suns won five-out-of-six in the middle of March, making a late push for the postseason, it was Morris leading the way.
He played 36+ minutes in five of the six games, racking up point totals of 20, 18 and 17, with rebound totals of 13, 11 and 10.
Morris also shot 44.0 percent or better from three for two separate months, including a ridiculous December, where he shot 51 percent from three, and shot 60 percent or better from three in five of the 10 games he took at least three attempts.
All that, combined with a career high assist rate and rebound rate, paired with a turnover rate that dropped off by nearly 3.5 percentage points, is why Morris is deserving of the grade.
Longevity. Body of work. Occasional break out games.
He was solid, and with that comes the grade he deserves: A solid B.
More 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades:
Jerel McNeal
Danny Granger
Brandan Wright
Earl Barron
Marcus Thornton
T.J. Warren
Archie Goodwin
Alex Len
Next: Phoenix Suns: 10 Worst Moments Of 2014-15