Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris will stick together for a while. (USATSI)
The Morris twins haven't been separated on the basketball court much in their life and they're not about to go back to it again. After spending the first season and a half of their respective careers in the NBA apart, Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris found themselves both on the Phoenix Suns in the 2012-13 season. As of right now, the plan is stick around there for the next five years, at least.
The Suns announced on Monday the team has agreed on contract extensions for both players. The Markieff Morris deal is believed to be worth four years, $32 million while the Marcus Morris deal is four years and $20 million. Both players have one more year on their respective rookie contracts before the new contracts kick in. From the Suns:
The Phoenix Suns have signed forwards Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris to multiyear contract extensions, the team announced today.
"We are particularly pleased to have reached extension agreements with Marcus and Markieff before the start of training camp," said President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. "There is an extraordinary bond between these twin brothers; they make each other better players and better men. We take pride in their growth and look forward to their bright futures."
"We are excited to be able to extend the contracts of Marcus and Markieff," said General Manager Ryan McDonough. "They have had great success playing together at every level of basketball, including last season with the Suns. They have made great strides over the past year and we feel like they will continue to grow and improve. They are just entering their primes and we think they will play the best basketball of their careers over the course of the next five years."
Markieff started his career with the Suns when they drafted him with the 13th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He started to work his way into the starting lineup his second season when he started 32 of the 82 games he played in, averaging 8.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 22.4 minutes. In 2013-14, he made a big leap with averages of 13.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in 26.6 minutes. He finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
Marcus was drafted 14th in the 2011 draft by the Houston Rockets. He barely got off the bench in his first season, playing just 126 minutes in 17 games. He was averaging 8.6 points and 4.1 rebounds in 21.4 minutes in the 2012-13 season before he was traded to the Suns in February for a second round pick that ended up being Isaiah Canaan. In his first full season with the Suns in 2013-14, he averaged 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.0 minutes while making 38.1 percent of his 3-pointers.
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Report: NBA lottery reform gaining support, could come this season
The NBA rewards failure.
The league’s draft lottery was designed to curb tanking, and it might have worked. The worst team has only a 25 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick.
But it probably hasn’t worked effectively enough.
Every year, teams still tank. No, the worst team doesn’t automatically get the No. 1 pick or even enter a coin flip to determine the first and second selections. But it gets the best odds of the No. 1 pick and is guaranteed a top-four pick. That’s a pretty decent prize.
So, reformers have discussed change.
The “wheel” – where teams rotate through each pick in a 30-year cycle – has gained some support. But that’s a long time to commit to a plan, and teams can face near-certain gloom if they’re struggling when they’re nearing guaranteed low picks.
The NBA’s competition committee also proposed increasing the lottery from the top-three to the top-six and flattening the odds. That could happen.
Zach Lowe of Grantland:
there appears to be broad support among the league’s 30 teams for the NBA’s proposal, per several sources. Ownership groups could vote on it as early as this season, and a powerful distaste for Philly’s multiyear tanking adventure is driving the reform movement.
More than two-thirds of NBA teams – the Hawks, Celtics, Nets, Bulls, Kings, Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Knicks, Warriors, Jazz, Rockets, Pelicans, Clippers, Lakers, Heat, 76ers, Timberwolves, Suns, Magic and Raptors – have traded or traded for a future draft pick that could fall in the lottery. Presumably, these 21 teams made those trades while projecting picks based on the current system.
To change the system on the fly seems problematic, but if everyone favors it, I guess it’s fine.
Of course, not everyone favors it. The 76ers sure don’t.
But the rest of the league apparently resents their tanking so much, it will change the rules on the fly.
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