The Washington Wizards gave up an asset to acquire Markieff Morris from the Phoenix Suns, but the trade should be worth it in the long-run
Basic Stats: 12.4 PPG (46.7 FG% and 31.6 3PT%), 5.9 RPG, 1.4 APG
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be posting individual player reviews for the guys that ended the season in a Washington Wizards uniform. We’ll continue with everyone’s favorite ornery forward…
Ernie Grunfeld is a known active participant at trade deadlines.
In the past few years he’s made deals for Nene, Andre Miller, and Ramon Sessions among others and he’s usually good for a move or two to try and jolt his team forward (read: get his contract extended by proving he’s putting in those long hours).
This season’s iteration of the Washington Wizards most certainly needed that jolt so it was no surprise that Grunfeld was busy working the phone lines trying to find the missing piece.
While names like Ryan Anderson and Danilo Gallinari were floated around, the #WojBomb that finally hit announced that disgruntled but talented forward Markieff Morris would be arriving from Phoenix.
The reaction at the time was very polarizing with more people favoring the Suns’ end vs. Washington’s.
The Wizards sent over a top-nine protected pick in this month’s upcoming draft (and based on record at the time would almost be certain to convert) and received a forward in midst of one of the worst stretches of his career, not counting the multiple altercations with teammates and coaches alike.
However, in my mind I was genuinely stoked about the player.
Morris is a talented two-way forward with athleticism and a face-up game that Washington’s never really had in the John Wall era.
Given the defensive deficiencies found in the new pace-and-space style, Morris allowed the team to continue playing fast and stretch the floor while adding a rim protector next to Marcin Gortat.
Similarly, his anger wasn’t directed at DC in any way.
Robert Sarver and Ryan McDonough had basically done him dirty, trading his twin brother Marcus a year after they signed below market deals to stay together.
While that may be immature in a cutthroat business like the NBA, it’s at least slightly justifiable and also not our problem.
I didn’t love the pick protection, largely because the market seemed to have fallen out from underneath him around the league.
The Suns didn’t have much leverage but given that Washington was protecting cap space like one watches over his newborn child, maybe they felt adding a likely project who would rarely see the floor wasn’t worth the extra $2 million it would require.
In exchange, Morris was essentially the pick, delivered three months early.
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In an era of booming cap space, he’s locked in for three more years at an unbelievable $24 million total.
He’s still only 26 and will enter his prime alongside John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter.
And based on this season’s results, once he took his place in the starting lineup he seemed to fit right in.
His Per-36 minutes numbers in DC (which is near what I’d expect him to play next season) were 17-8-2 on 47/32/76 splits, per Basketball-Reference.
Nothing to write home about but included a big uptick in efficiency from his Phoenix portion of the season, not to mention accounting for the time it takes to acclimate to a new system and teammates.
Overall, offensively, Morris was impressive to me as a distributor, but not in the classical sense.
While he didn’t rack up a ton of assists, he importantly wasn’t a ball stopper either, finishing fourth on the team in both passes made (31.9) and passes received (27.4) per game, per NBA.com.
Similarly, he was third on the team in the “hockey assist.” As a random aside, John Wall was first by a mile in every passing category.
After a rough start shooting the ball, Morris made big strides from every level of mid-range, shooting a very respectable 45%, 47%, and 43% from 3-10 feet, 10-16 feet, and 16 feet to the arc respectively.
He’s proven to be tall enough to shoot over smaller wings and athletic enough to take bigs to the hole, where he was a tidy 70%(!!!) at the rim.
I enjoyed watching the team work defensively with Morris on the floor.
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Before the trade, the Washington Wizards were giving up a ghastly 1.075 points per possession on 56.7 TS%.
After the trade that number dropped to 1.038 PPP on 54 TS%, courtesy of NBAwowy.
As mentioned above, Morris gave the team more physicality down low that paired nicely with Gortat’s finesse and intellect based game.
While Jared Dudley was unconscious from deep for most of the season, the lack of an interior presence cost the Wizards when they’d collapse on a big man only to helplessly watch him kick it out for hundreds of uncontested jump shots.
From a character perspective, Morris was not a problem in the locker room and even received many positive recommendations from Dudley and Gortat (past teammates in Phoenix).
He appeared to have a solid on-court relationship with Wall and Beal, based strictly on handshake etiquiette.
Unfortunately Morris was detained last week in Philadelphia airport for a substance suspected to be marijuana.
While I couldn’t consider that more harmless of an offense, it is by law not allowed so it’s disappointing to see in that regard. He may have to sit out a game but nothing much worse is expected.
Markieff Morris’ first stint with the Washington Wizards was a positive one.
Next: Looking Back At Ramon Sessions' Season
He didn’t lift the team into the playoffs but when he finally jelled with the other pieces, the product looked really good. I look forward to seeing what training camp, preseason, and a new coaching staff does to an already productive player.