The Phoenix Suns have had two problems all summer long, and they’re identical. When the Suns unceremoniously shipped away Marcus Morris, they were closing the door on family. Specifically, the family of their starting power forward, Markieff Morris.
I mean, why even go for LaMarcus Aldridge when you could just keep Markieff Morris there? That trade was DESTINED for disaster.
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In any event, Mook hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinion on his former team. As is the case with any bad breakup, the mature thing to do is to constantly talk about your ex’s biggest flaws with your new partner, not only because they REALLY CARE, but also because it shows that you’re completely over it and totally ready to move on.
I’m sure that’s exactly what Marcus Morris was doing when he told Keith Langlois of Pistons.com that he should’ve been the Suns’ starting small forward instead of P.J. Tucker.
"“In Phoenix, I thought I should have started at the three. The guy that’s there now (P.J. Tucker) might have been a better defender, but as an all-around three, I thought I was the best we had. And I thought a lot of players thought that, too.”"
And you know what? He’s right.
For starters, let’s acknowledge how downright disrespectful it was for the Suns to do something that every team in every sport in every professional league — EVER — has done before: trade a player and risk hurting his feelings. The twins are more than brothers; they’re basically the same damn person.
Didn’t the Suns know the emotional anguish they’d be putting these multimillionaires in by separating them, especially in this technological age where a FaceTime call takes a whole eight to nine seconds to register? For identical twins who live by the motto “Family Over Everything,” the Suns cruelly united them only to split them apart a little more than a year later.
The NBA may be a business, but the Suns missed the memo on the unshakable importance of “F.O.E.”
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This is after all Mook had given the Phoenix in 2014-15 too. All the hard-earned technical fouls, all the intriguing off-court headlines, all the fervent social media interaction with Suns fans? The front office was clearly in the wrong to trade such an asset to the franchise, but to not even give the twins a courtesy call to let them know, like approximately zero sports teams have ever done before? The audacity.
Getting back to Morris’ point, let’s just forget about P.J. Tucker and the obvious assets he brings to the table. Wing defense. Far superior rebounding numbers. A passion for the game that is conducive to team success. Glorify those winning qualities if you must, but I’d rather have some concrete individual numbers.
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What really matters is that Morris averaged 10.4 points in 25.2 minutes per game last year, compared to Tucker’s 9.1 points in 30.6 minutes per game. What really matters is the fact that he shot a full 1.3 percent better than Tucker from three-point range in 2014-15. Take a look at the numbers per 36 minutes and it’s quite clear that Marcus Morris deserved more minutes than Tucker. (Well, you know, except for the rebounding column, but just ignore that one.)
No, it’s not important that Tucker simply had a down shooting year after drilling 38.7 percent of his three-pointers in 2013-14, becoming a corner three sniper in the process. And no, I don’t see the merit of Tucker playing hard on both sides of the floor. Why do that when you can be “well-rounded” like Mook and just be all right on one end while sort of making up for it on the other?
You can throw out fancy statistics that favor Tucker like true shooting percentage (Tucker: 54.1 percent, Morris: 52.0 percent), defensive win shares (Tucker: 2.7, Morris: 1.9) and defensive rating (Tucker: 102.7, Morris: 105.8) too. I certainly don’t think it’s important that Tucker had far better defensive statistics despite playing out of position.
You want to talk about “out of position”? Let’s talk about how Marcus Morris’ position should’ve been starting small forward. Or about how the Suns misused him on the perimeter instead of in post-up situations, which is another insightful point he made in his interview with Langlois:
"“That’s always been a part of my game. With being a big three, I’ve got to utilize that. I don’t want to stand out on the wing and I’€™ve got a smaller guy on me. That tended to happen a lot in Phoenix where they didn’€™t utilize the mismatches. And I think that’s going to be a mismatch.”"
I mean, don’t just take Mook’s word for it. Check out how he fared in post-up situations last season, complete with league-wide rankings among the 250 players qualified for the category on NBA.com:
- Post-up Field Goal Percentage: 125th (42.4%)
- Post-up Score Frequency: 176th (35.7%, trails P.J. Tucker)
- Post-up Points Per Possession: 164th (0.71, also trails P.J. Tucker)
How could the Suns have overlooked such a dynamite post-up option who could’ve exploited mismatches in the paint at such a below-average rate?
Now we arrive at Tucker’s passion. All that diving for loose balls, getting defensive stops and grabbing second chance rebounds in late-game situations? Give me a break. Marcus Morris has passion AND MORE:
You admire Tucker’s hustle? How about the time the Morris twins signed autographs for Suns fans at a home game just days after publicly bashing those very same fans? The hustle doesn’t get much stronger than that.
Mook also raises a great point about how many players on the Suns probably wanted him starting at the 3 over Tucker. Tucker was only one of the longest-tenured Suns and the most prevalent locker room presence at the time, after all. This isn’t about tenure, old-timer. IT’S ABOUT MERIT.
Think about it. The Suns had Markieff Morris on the roster, Marcus’ identical twin who shared the same house, bank account, tattoos, general thoughts and overall “F.O.E.” life philosophy. That makes AT LEAST one person in the locker room who might have thought Marcus Morris should’ve been starting. It’s a miracle there wasn’t a locker room mutiny with that much support for Mook.
Alas, the front office made the trade and what’s done is done. In his interview with Langlois, Morris seems ready to bring a little bit of vintage Rasheed Wallace AND a Bad Boys mentality to the Detroit Pistons. I wouldn’t doubt his ability to do so. All he needs now to bring the exact same qualities as Sheed and the Bad Boys are the experience, skills and success parts of the equation.
It’s a pity the Suns won’t get the opportunity to see how that shakes out. Instead of having the new version of Rasheed Wallace minus the talent, versatility or winning mentality, Phoenix will just have to settle for just another useful 3-and-D guy.
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