Spotlight: Markieff Morris

How about a round of applause for Markieff Morris? Morris scored 24 points, grabbed 17 boards, and had 6 blocks in a loss to the Cavaliers during the summer league game today. Morris has shown in the first two games that he’s improved from last year, his rebounding improved, his jumper improved, and he’s a lot more aggressive which was something that wasn’t always there his rookie year.  

Morris has shown in the first two games that he will make a bigger impact this year than he did last, however with the addition of Scola and the presence of Channing Frye it’s still a question mark regarding how many minutes a night Morris gets.

Although Morris through his first two games has posted impressive numbers, he’s been a little less than effiecent; he shot a combined 16-42(38%) in the first two games. That’s actually better than the number shows because Morris got a couple of lucky ones. Morris has to make better decisions with the basketball, as I mentioned in my previous post Morris has to learn to be patient and not make badly timed moves which leads to a block, a miss or a turnover.

Morris also seems to love his jump shot a little too much, he took of a couple of Carmelo Anthony type isolation one dribble pull up twenty footers; tough to imagine those well right? Morris is clearly a good jump shooter but he has to learn how to establish in the post, because that’s where he’s going to make his living. Morris has good touch around the basket it’s a shame to see him taking jumpers all the time.

Ultimately Morris has shown that he’s ready to make big contributions next year, too bad Steve Nash because Morris can certainly get easier looks off those perfect pick and roll passes. Nonetheless I think Dragic and Marshall will feed him and the rest of the crew just fine, Morris still has a little over 3 months to refine his game and bulk up for a full 82 game schedule.