Over the summer, Markieff Morris was in an odd situation that caused a strange state of mind. He has been teammates with his twin brother, Marcus Morris, for as long as they can remember and then all of a sudden Marcus was traded away from Phoenix. Then, Markieff Morris sounded off and made it sound like he was demanding a trade so he could get out of Phoenix himself. He was telling everyone that he guaranteed he wouldn’t finish this season on the team, and no one seemed able to fix it.
Fast forward a month or so and then Markieff Morris is telling everyone that he wants to stay in Phoenix. He’s now on board with the front office, coaching staff, and team and he’s ready to play basketball. A sigh of relief came from the Suns fans as he played a big part on the team for the last couple seasons. Hold the phone, Morris took a pay cut to be on the same team as his brother, wasn’t told about the trade before it happened, and he’s acting like everything is fine and dandy? Via azcentral.com:
“I want to be here,” Morris said while wearing his Suns No. 11 jersey for media day.
“I’m looking forward to the season, not really trying to look at the past,” Morris said. “I don’t really want to talk about what I did in the summer. I really want to look forward to this up-and-coming season. Glad to be back with my teammates and glad to be back with the team.”
When asked about his discord with the front office, Morris said, “It’s between us and we’re going to deal with it.”
Well, alright, if Markieff Morris says that he’s putting it behind him and he’s ready to play basketball, I guess that’s true. Fast forward to the current point in the season and now Markieff Morris is also perfectly fine with taking a bench role for the team. Via Paul Coro of azcentral.com:
“It’s cool,” Morris said to Coro of the change. “Me and Coach talked about it. Try to catch a rhythm with the second unit. Whatever’s good for the team is what I’m good with. It is what it is. Jon and Mirza (Teletovic) have been playing really well. If you ask me if I deserve it, I haven’t been playing too well. I’m with whatever the team wants.”
Morris is no stranger to this sixth man role. He played the sixth man behind Channing Frye a couple seasons ago and almost won the Sixth Man of the Year award. However, you don’t often see a player who was openly upset with his team in the off-season all of a sudden do a 180 like this. This speaks a lot about the maturity and the professionalism of Markieff Morris. He knew that what he did in the off-season was wrong and he is adamant about turning that around. This comes as great news to the Suns too, because if they want a shot at making the playoffs they’re going to need Morris’ services as a stretch-four. With the way the league is going, a player like Morris is in demand, and having him play a role that he’s familiar with can help the team. Add in the fact that Jon Leuer is playing some fantastic ball for the Suns and you have a formidable front court with Tyson Chandler, Leuer, Morris, and Alex Len.
The Phoenix Suns are currently 8-12 and 1.5 games back from the eighth seed Houston Rockets.
H/T: NBA Reddit, Bright Side of the Sun
