Overview:
The 2014-15 season came with high expectations for the Phoenix Suns, a young team on the rise that had won 48 games the year prior. But with the trade deadline departures of Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas and three other players, the Suns lost one-third of their roster and fell apart soon after.
Still, the season was not a complete waste. Young players who needed more minutes finally got them, the core is intact moving forward and Phoenix will look to regroup in the offseason. But in order to put the season in context, it’s time to take a look back on 2014-15 and examine how everyone performed and how they fit in for the long-term.
Today, we continue our daily 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades with Markieff Morris, a player who’s come under fire in the past year for his flaws as a power forward and his temper problems.
Is Markieff Morris a starting-caliber power forward? Can he improve his rebounding and defense to remain a viable option alongside Alex Len moving forward? And do his evident attitude problems outweigh his value on a bargain contract for the next four seasons?
In order to find some answers, here’s a look back on his peaks and valleys with the Suns during the 2014-15 season.
Next: Weaknesses
Weaknesses:
To be a power forward in this league, you need to be able to bang bodies in the paint. You need to be able to hold your own on the glass and in the West, you need to be able to defend the Blake Griffins, Zach Randolphs and Serge Ibakas on a nightly basis.
Markieff Morris can only do so much about his physical limitations, but the fact of the matter is, he needs to be a better rebounder.
Averaging 6.2 boards per game, Keef ranked tied for 23rd among all power forwards in rebounding, per ESPN.com. He ranked 37th among forwards who were at least 6’7″, per NBA.com. At 6’10”, Morris is taller than Randolph and Draymond Green and he’s the same height as Griffin and Ibaka. And, yet, all four of those players had far superior rebounding numbers.
McDonough: "I feel like we need a little more size, a little more rebounding. We need better shooting on the wing...more leadership." #Suns
— Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) April 15, 2015
When Keef was on the floor, he collected a meager 10.8 percent of available rebounds. Just for reference, that ranked him 33rd among forwards who played at least 25 minutes per game this season, putting him right alongside names like Harrison Barnes, Wilson Chandler, Kevin Durant and teammate P.J. Tucker — all small forwards.
For a starting power forward, those numbers need to be much higher.
It’s not just on the boards where Keef struggles to hold his own defensively, however. Though he’s actually a better interior defender than he’s given credit for (more on this in a bit), the percentages he holds his opponents to probably look better than they really are considering how often he bails them out with a foul.
With a total of 245 fouls this season (3.0 per game), Keef ranked fifth in the NBA in personal fouls. That number’s a bit inflated because Morris played all 82 games, but the point still stands: Keef often has to resort to fouling near the basket because he’s not strong enough to stop the big bruisers of the West.
Fortunately, Morris is more than aware of his need for improvement when it comes to preparing his body for that kind of nightly punishment.
Markieff Morris said he wants to get his body right and get more fit to be able to bang bodies in the paint with the big PFs in the West
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) April 15, 2015
“Eighty-two games is a lot,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to play and start all 82. In the offseason I have to work on my body a lot more and get used to this gruesome schedule.”
Markieff’s most notable flaws lie on the defensive end of the floor, but he’s not a perfect offensive player either. He’s a dynamic scorer when he catches the ball near the block, faces up and goes to work one-on-one, but his midrange shot didn’t fall this year as often as you’d think from the left side of the floor:
With the departure of Channing Frye, the Suns lost a dynamic offensive weapon. His abilities to spread the floor as a stretch-four who knocked down threes at a deadly efficient clip opened up lanes for Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe to attack the basket.
It seemed like Keef had vastly improved his three-point touch when he shot 39 percent from downtown in December, but he quickly came back down to earth afterward.
Last season, Keef attempted only 1.3 threes per game, converting at a 31.5 percent of this attempts. This year, he increased his attempts to 2.2 per game, but was only able to raise his three-point efficiency by 0.3 percent to 31.8. He was stellar from the top of the key, but other than that, he needs to continue improving in that respect.
Finally, we can’t bring up Markieff Morris’ flaws without talking about his temper. The Morrii have never played better than they did this past season, but it seems their reunion has given them a little too much confidence, especially when it comes to arguing with officials and s**t-talking opponents.
Russell Westbrook v Markieff Morris is one of the more underrated NBA mini-feuds. NBA's technical leaders always tangle/argue when they meet
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 30, 2015
Keef is a good power forward on the rise, but he’s not that good. He had the second-most technical fouls in the league this season with 15, not to mention four disqualifications, three flagrant fouls and two ejections. This team is already shorthanded enough in the frontcourt without Keef losing his cool and being so unreliable.
Once again, Morris knows where he needs to get better. When asked whether his improvement needed to come from a physical or mental standpoint, he said, “Both. Being fit is the most important thing. I have to get my body better to play more inside than I have these last two seasons. I need to rebound better and physically and mentally get through all 82 games.”
Part of that mental aspect is not blowing up every time a call doesn’t go his way. It’s keeping his composure when an opponent opens their mouth. And pending the results of the felony aggravated assault charges facing the Morris twins, it’s working hard to restore your image (if need be) and avoiding off-court situations that could lead to more trouble.
Next: Strengths
Strengths:
Keef has a lot of noticeable flaws, particularly on the defensive end, but his vast improvements as a scorer have been overlooked in their wake. In terms of consistency, the Suns might not have a better go-to option on offense than getting the ball to Keef and letting him take his man one-on-one.
He may not be strong enough to dominate the boards on the other end, but Morris was certainly strong enough to establish position posting his man up in the midrange, turn and face, and make a move that was hard to stop.
Of the 1,100 total field goals Keef attempted this season, 342 of them came on shots from 8-16 feet. On those close-to-midrange shots, he shot an impressive 50.6 percent, including 57.1 percent on fadeaway jumpers, 69 percent on pull-up jumpers and 56.3 percent on step-back jumpers.
With his back to the basket, Keef was clever with his spin moves to free up some space for fadeaways and step-backs. When he turned and faced, he used pump fakes to either get by his man or took advantage of his defender’s hesitation by popping the jumper before he could get a hand up.
Whether it was with one dribble to free up enough space for a jumper, multiple dribbles to get to the basket or no dribbles to just take a contested shot, Keef put many a respectable defender in his (poor man’s) midrange version of Kevin McHale‘s torture chamber.
Curiously enough, Morris seemed to thrive in situations where he was more tightly guarded. On shots with his defender 0-2 feet away, he shot 47.2 percent, per NBA.com. On shots with a defender 2-4 feet away, he converted a staggering 49.4 percent. But on wide open shots, with his defender six or more feet away, he shot a woeful 39.3 percent.
His ability to create his own offense while being tightly defended came in handy in crunch-time situations. Though the Suns rarely closed out tight games with a win, that was more because of their failures to get stops or rebounds on the other end. Forget about the buzzer beaters for just a second. How many times did Keef knock down a clutch shot on the preceding play to give Phoenix the lead?
The answer? Quite often, and the devastating manner of those defeats made Keef’s penchant for clutch shots fade from the spotlight.
In “clutch” situations, which NBA.com defines as the last five minutes of regulation with a five-point differential or less, Keef shot a respectable 46.1 percent.
That percentage only ranked him 39th in the league among players who logged at least 80 “clutch” minutes of playing time, but when you weed out the players who only took a few shots in those situations, you start to realize Keef is among the premier closers in the NBA — especially in the midrange.
In the clutch, Keef converted 35 of his 76 field goal attempts. The only players who attempted that many crunch-time shots and posted a better field goal percentage were LaMarcus Aldridge (44-for-78, 56.4 percent) and MVP candidate James Harden (37-for-77, 48.1 percent).
Okay, so many those parameters aren’t fair. So what if we include players who attempted at least 45 shots in clutch situations? “Clutch Keef” remains elite, ranking 13th in the NBA in clutch field goal percentage behind notable names like Anthony Davis, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and DeMarcus Cousins.
The point is, when the Suns needed a bucket on offense, they were either going to Eric Bledsoe or Markieff Morris. If the Suns had been able to close out games with stops, we might remember Keef’s 2014-15 season a little differently.
Finally, as much as he catches flack for his defense, Morris actually isn’t as terrible as his reputation on that end. In fact, according to NBA.com, he held his opponent to 53.2 percent shooting on shots from less than 10 feet, 1.3 percent worse than they’d normally shoot from that range.
Even at the basket, he held his man to 59.6 percent on shots from less than six feet (0.3 percent worse than his man would normally shoot). He’s not an elite (or even great) defender by any means, especially taking into account his rebounding woes, but even being overmatched by the star power forwards of the West every night, Keef relatively held his own.
Next: Lowlights
Lowlights:
It must have been disheartening for Morris to deliver in the clutch so many times on offense only for his team to give up the game-winner right afterward on the other end. But even with all those buzzer beaters, most of the low points of Morris’ season came in moments that had little to do with actually being on the court.
First of all, there were all those technical fouls. Any time you have a technical foul compilation video on YouTube halfway through the season, you know you’re probably doing something wrong:
Showing a little passion and getting T’d up every now and then isn’t the end of the world, but Keef’s outbursts came out of foolishness and anger more often than passion. For example, with the Suns trailing the San Antonio Spurs by three with two minutes to play on Jan. 9, Morris and P.J. Tucker got back-to-back technicals that wound up costing Phoenix the game.
Speaking of the Spurs, following a 101-74 blowout loss to the defending champs at home on Feb. 28, Morris chose that moment to call out the fans of US Airways Center. He had questioned the fans the game before, after a big OT win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, but by going on the record after the Spurs loss, he came off as a sore loser unwilling to own up to his part in the team’s ugly defeat.
Basically, it’s probably not a good idea to call out a fair-weather fan base the night after you set a new franchise-low for points in a single half (24).
Finally, as much as I’d like to keep the focus strictly on Keef’s season on the court, we have to mention the felony aggravated assault charges. The results of those charges won’t come about for some time, but since the news about the investigation first leaked out during the regular season, we have to include it.
Simply put, if these allegations are true, this is unacceptable behavior for a franchise trying to rebuild. Even on bargain contracts, the Suns would have to at least consider trading away the twins if they’re found guilty. Remember when Jason Kidd‘s domestic abuse situation caused the Suns to panic-trade him?
At the time, Kidd was a top-five point guard. The Morrii are not even close to being top-five in the league at their positions.
The Morris twins are innocent until proven guilty, and we won’t have a firmer grasp on how this situation will play out until their first court date on May 7. But after what we’ve seen from Markieff Morris and his temper on the court, would anyone be surprised if it were all true?
Next: Highlights
Highlights:
Everyone remembers the buzzer beaters that killed the Suns’ season, but what about the shots that came before to give Phoenix the lead in the first place?
In that overtime loss against the Los Angeles Clippers that ended with a Blake Griffin step-back three, Keef knocked down a shot to pull the Suns within one with 48 seconds left in regulation. In overtime, he hit a three to give the Suns a four-point lead with 43 seconds remaining (1:52 mark of the video below). It’s really not his fault that game improbably slipped away.
In that buzzer beater loss to the Milwaukee Bucks a week later, Morris had 25 points and knocked down a clutch midrange jumper to give the Suns a one-point lead with three seconds remaining. He just had the misfortune of watching it be washed away by Khris Middleton‘s ugly game-winner.
Or how about the James Harden game-winner that handed the Suns a home loss against the Houston Rockets? With 16 seconds left and Phoenix trailing by three, Keef was able to tie the game with a huge three-point play (2:40 mark below)…only to watch the Beard make it irrelevant once again.
But wait, we’re STILL not done! In that buzzer-beating loss to DeMarcus Cousins and the Sacramento Kings, guess who made the Suns’ last bucket of the game to put Phoenix up by two with 1:21 to play? That’s right, Clutch Keef himself.
So for those of you keeping track, Markieff Morris scored a go-ahead or game-tying bucket in all FOUR of Phoenix’s losses that came at the buzzer this season. Had those shots rimmed out, we’d probably remember Keef for the crunch-time offensive hero that he really is.
What’s funny is that none of those games were even his best performances. On Nov. 17, Keef put up 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in a win over the Boston Celtics.
His best game of the season was probably Phoenix’s home win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In that epic contest, it turned into a one-on-one battle between Keef and LeBron…and Keef won. Morris finished with a career-high 35 points on 15-of-21 shooting, with 11 coming in the fourth quarter. At one point, he scored nine straight points for the Suns.
Everyone remembers the Suns’ win in overtime over the Thunder on Feb. 26 because of that epic Eric Bledsoe-Russell Westbrook showdown, but if it weren’t for Keef’s 29 points and 11 boards, the Suns wouldn’t have even been in that game. For example, Keef had another clutch moment with a three-point play with 20 seconds left in regulation to put Phoenix up three.
As far as individual plays are concerned that don’t fit out clutch category we’ve already been covered so thoroughly, Markieff Morris welcomed Josh Smith to Phoenix by putting him on a classic poster:
And for the sake of not leaving anything out, we really can’t forget about this ridiculous trick shot that had no business of going in:
Next: Final Grade
Grade: C+
If we were judging Markieff Morris’ 2014-15 season solely by his performance on the court, this would probably be closer to a B. In his first season as a starter, Keef was pretty consistent until the trade deadline ruptured the roster. At that point, everything pretty much went to s**t.
But Morris was a bright spot for the Suns all season long on the offensive end. His game has developed so much on in that respect it verges on unbelievable. Remember the timid young player who was afraid to take open shots and couldn’t make anything?
That player is long gone, and in his place is an underrated power forward with a deadly midrange game and the ability to create his own shot at any time. He’s better on defense than people give him credit for, he played all 82 games this season and though he took his licks starting against the star power forwards of the West, he held his own better than most expected.
Unfortunately, even with all that improvement, Keef still might not be good enough on the boards to be a starting-caliber power forward in this league. And when you consider all the off-the-court issues and problems with his temperament, we’ve reached a turning point in his NBA career.
Does he have a long-term future with the Suns? It’s impossible to tell right now. Keef is only 25 years old, he’s still innocent until proven guilty, he’s on a steal of a contract for the next four seasons and if the Suns somehow got their hands on a star power forward, Keef would be unbelievable in a sixth man role.
But given what we know about Morris from the technical fouls and the asinine comments about the fan base, it’s hard to place too much faith in the results of these charges. It’s also hard to picture him being okay with downgrading back to a sixth man role if the Suns were to find a superior starter in his place.
“I think I took an OK step, but I can get a lot better,” he said. “I can improve a lot of areas in my game. This is my first full year of starting and I know what to look forward to next year in starting, getting better in back-to-backs and being a leader of this team. I’ve been here the longest, next year will be my fifth year and I have to continue to get better.”
You like to hear that out of a flawed player who wants to continue improving, but it may be out of his hands now. As a basketball player, Keef is an excellent scorer who’s only going to get better and despite his rebounding issues, his contract and clutch play more than makes up for it.
But when you consider the whole package, Markieff Morris’ 2014-15 season fell short of the success story it really should have been.
More 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades:
Jerel McNeal
Danny Granger
Brandan Wright
Earl Barron
Marcus Thornton
T.J. Warren
Archie Goodwin
Alex Len
Marcus Morris
Gerald Green
Reggie Bullock
P.J. Tucker
Brandon Knight
Next: Phoenix Suns: 10 Worst Moments Of 2014-15