I'm not so sure about Marcus Morris

I concede he's a legit NBA quality bench player. I am not convinced he is starter quality. There is definitely a space for him right now on a team full of rookies trying to win every game and get a top playoff seed.

This guy has had a career full of drama. He's gone after fans on Twitter. I won't bring up the court case, since he was found innocent. I admit ignorance. I don't know that much about him. But if you look around, he comes off as a volatile hothead.

Here he pushes Paul George after a game:



Maybe everyone is familiar with these sorts of incidents. I won't go crazy here. There was a game where he was yelling at Hornacek in front of everyone. Maybe Jeff Hornacek deserved it. I don't have time to investigate all these sordid rumors and speculations.

He seems to be in the Brandon Bass tweener category, not a small forward and not a power forward but somewhere in the middle.

Before the season he sounded like he expected to start and become a big part of the team. Maybe he will. I imagine the best basketball teams are able to adjust to most opponents. You needed someone to deal with Dwight Howard back when he was good. You still need specific kinds of players to slow down LeBron James or he'll eat you up alive. Baynes. We all love him because no Celtic fan has missed that Danny has had difficulties in the past finding us quality centers. Baynes makes us think wow, we haven't had a real center in what feels like eons.

There are different types of players and it's nice to have versatile guys to defend and/or contain. So maybe Marcus Morris is a form of answer.

To me in my opinion he doesn't look anything special. He is Jae Crowder for power forward, can hit threes and offer defense. He does not have anything special for assists to turnover ratio. He does not seem to be Mr. Dynamic.

He's good. I just don't want to see any complaining from him if he doesn't get the minutes he expected.

He's not great?

He is a Celtic and thus I must root for him. I'd rather say I was wrong and he becomes another example of the Stevens' Effect or maybe he is very good on his own and I am underestimating him.

I sort of now expect nothing from Yabusele. Ojeleye seems like he could fill some type of role and it's the Morris role? Semi looks faster and a better fit. I wasn't impressed with him either, but we do need depth for big, and now all of a sudden I am impressed with Ojeleye. But Morris is proven, so I understand and agree that he deserves a place in the rotation. But he doesn't blow me away. I don't think he's indispensable.

Tatum, Baynes, Horford and Theis is four guys. Five is too many for a bigs rotation. Although with Hayward injured, Tatum plays more small forward opening up time for Morris.

Morris has the edge over Theis and Tatum for NBA experience. I just don't see him as a long-term member of the team. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I see a logjam somewhere down the road with Morris at the bottom of the pecking order. I respect that people like his game. I think he is a good backup like Crowder who God bless them for having a lot of confidence, but I don't think they are as good as they think.

He is on a cheap contract, however. So I also admit to be complaining pretty much about nothing. I want Morris to not complain about anything either no matter what. If he turns out good to great and a member of the next title, I will gladly admit I was wrong and guys like Beat were 100% correct with their analysis.

If you want to merge this, I don't mind.

Marcus Morris has his strengths and weaknesses.

He can be a starter or he can be a bench player.
It doesn't matter.

What he brings to the table for the Celts is similar to what James Posey gave the 2008 Celtics champion team.

Whether Celtic fans like or don't like Marcus Morris, the one thing everybody can agree on is he's cheap.
Morris will only cost the Celts 5m this season and 5.375m next season.
That's a bargain in today's NBA.

I think Celts are better off having Marcus Morris this season and next season.
When he becomes a free-agent, Jayson Tatum will be a legit starter.

To be fair, yeah, we can all agree that he has had a bit of a checkered past. But I don't think that should necessarily define him. If he can buy into the team aspect and keep himself out of trouble, then that is all that should matter. I'll give him a clean slate.

Morris is going to be a key contributor to this team going forward. We needed another veteran presence from someone who isn't too old (don't quote me on this but I think Morris is 27). He can handle the ball, pass, score, grab rebounds, defend. We need this.

Tatum, Theis, and Semi appear to be the best of the bunch in terms of rookies. They are producing now. The other rookies aren't going to get the minutes. I think Morris just solidifies our rotation.


KJ

Morris has never been an NBA star, but he has been a pretty consistent NBA player to date while doing much of what he did last night. With Stevens, he may even get better over time-everyone else does.

I will be very happy with him if he can replicate his consistency while with the Cs. If he gets out of control and/or gets selfish he will be very easily and quickly be moved. Stevens and Ainge will not keep a disgruntled player.

If we thought that Crowder had a great NBA contract, Morris has an even better one. Basically, $5 M for what he can (and, will do) for the next two years might be the best contract of anyone in the league who is not a rookie or a first year NBA player.

He's played 1 game this season.  Give him a dozen games or so and see what happens. Some wanted to trade him when he hadn't played 1 minute yet. He does what he does and does it quite well.   

He started every game he played for the Pistons the past 2 seasons....159 of them
Over 30 mpg and averaged 14 +PPG to boot.  

Would not surprise me if he starts here down the road too. He has defended Bron pretty well in the past too and come playoff time that could be huge.

Regardless he adds depth and you can never have enough  of that.

beat

Nope, Morris IS a quality NBA starter. check out his career numbers folks.
Ainge was lucky to get him in the Bradley Salary dump to be honest.

Our Bigs rotation is Horford, MORRIS, Baynes and Theis for now, we finally have everyone healthy now.

kdp59 wrote:Nope, Morris IS a quality NBA starter. check out his career numbers folks.
Ainge was lucky to get him in the Bradley Salary dump to be honest.

Our Bigs rotation is Horford, MORRIS, Baynes and Theis for now, we finally have everyone healthy now.

well let's not forget we are still ONE big player short of what we thought we would have.
Hayward......and he was going to be 20% of the starting line up too.

beat

PS  I have no clue how far this team can go...that said let's say everyone stays healthy.  And we get a top pick out of the lottery. Another pretty good player.
Hayward is back to full strength.  Look at what that team could be.  Sorting out minutes will be a most wonderful difficult problem to have.  Of course with our GM looking a couple years down the road.........this is a pipe dream too.

And here are Morris's career numbers

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/morrima03.html#all_per_poss

Seeing the way this team has gelled and I realize we will be playing even better later, with Hayward this team would have had enough firepower and defense to compete/topple Golden State. Without him, we still have a great defense, but not sure if we have enough firepower/offense to keep up with Golden State in a 7 game series.

You guys have won me over, so I am more relaxed with Morris going forward.

Danny has decisions to make with Smart and Baynes. Solid players with cheap contracts are valuable. Crowder was a big selling point to get Kyrie. As long as Morris acts professional like Humphries and Bass, Brad will give him every opportunity to become a major cog in the rotation.

His stats look good for the "3 and D." My concern is with his mediocre assist to turnover ratio.

I do need to give him at least 12 games as suggested.

I also don't think we are missing firepower as long as Brown and Tatum have truly emerged. Al Horford has emerged as a shooter!

We need better stats from Rozier. He doesn't have to be lights out as he was in the first games, but we shall see.

While Hayward recovers, we will finally see if Smart has any hope at shooting well.

Another shooter would help if only for depth. I think we need another beast to help protect Baynes and Horford.

I liked the Sacramento game because it was an easy win and allowed our stars to rest.

The big key is to be healthy at the right time. Danny will also have the trading deadline and then the late season scrap heap to seal up any flaws.

Danny is the harshest judge of all of us. He breaks up top seeded teams if he thinks it's fool's gold. We'll know how close Ainge thinks we are to winning it all by his moves or lack of such this regular season.

I am a homer, but I do think the team as is could steal a title. This is what Stevens does even with college teams. He competes within seasons. He takes it one season at a time and it always seems fresh, inspirational and consistently produces miracles.

Phil Pressey wrote:You guys have won me over, so I am more relaxed with Morris going forward.

Danny has decisions to make with Smart and Baynes. Solid players with cheap contracts are valuable. Crowder was a big selling point to get Kyrie. As long as Morris acts professional like Humphries and Bass, Brad will give him every opportunity to become a major cog in the rotation.

His stats look good for the "3 and D." My concern is with his mediocre assist to turnover ratio.

I do need to give him at least 12 games as suggested.

I also don't think we are missing firepower as long as Brown and Tatum have truly emerged. Al Horford has emerged as a shooter!

We need better stats from Rozier. He doesn't have to be lights out as he was in the first games, but we shall see.

While Hayward recovers, we will finally see if Smart has any hope at shooting well.

Another shooter would help if only for depth. I think we need another beast to help protect Baynes and Horford.

I liked the Sacramento game because it was an easy win and allowed our stars to rest.

The big key is to be healthy at the right time. Danny will also have the trading deadline and then the late season scrap heap to seal up any flaws.

Danny is the harshest judge of all of us. He breaks up top seeded teams if he thinks it's fool's gold. We'll know how close Ainge thinks we are to winning it all by his moves or lack of such this regular season.

I am a homer, but I do think the team as is could steal a title. This is what Stevens does even with college teams. He competes within seasons. He takes it one season at a time and it always seems fresh, inspirational and consistently produces miracles.

Wouldn't worry to much about the A/TO ratio. He's not ever going to be a primary option and as long as it's not more TO's than assists I'm fine with that.

Just imagine if GH was healthy and getting a top pick to boot next summer.

Not writing off this season but next year could be really special.

beat

beat wrote:

Phil Pressey wrote:You guys have won me over, so I am more relaxed with Morris going forward.

Danny has decisions to make with Smart and Baynes. Solid players with cheap contracts are valuable. Crowder was a big selling point to get Kyrie. As long as Morris acts professional like Humphries and Bass, Brad will give him every opportunity to become a major cog in the rotation.

His stats look good for the "3 and D." My concern is with his mediocre assist to turnover ratio.

I do need to give him at least 12 games as suggested.

I also don't think we are missing firepower as long as Brown and Tatum have truly emerged. Al Horford has emerged as a shooter!

We need better stats from Rozier. He doesn't have to be lights out as he was in the first games, but we shall see.

While Hayward recovers, we will finally see if Smart has any hope at shooting well.

Another shooter would help if only for depth. I think we need another beast to help protect Baynes and Horford.

I liked the Sacramento game because it was an easy win and allowed our stars to rest.

The big key is to be healthy at the right time. Danny will also have the trading deadline and then the late season scrap heap to seal up any flaws.

Danny is the harshest judge of all of us. He breaks up top seeded teams if he thinks it's fool's gold. We'll know how close Ainge thinks we are to winning it all by his moves or lack of such this regular season.

I am a homer, but I do think the team as is could steal a title. This is what Stevens does even with college teams. He competes within seasons. He takes it one season at a time and it always seems fresh, inspirational and consistently produces miracles.

Wouldn't worry to much about the A/TO ratio. He's not ever going to be a primary option and as long as it's not more TO's than assists I'm fine with that.

Just imagine if GH was healthy and getting a top pick to boot next summer.

Not writing off this season but next year could be really special.

beat

next year the title is ours and Brown and Tatum will both take another step up....our biggest challenge may be 76ers, Embid and Simmons absolute studs

Cow,

The 26ers biggest problem is coaching and poor management. They'll shoot themselves in the foot before they become a legitimate threat in the east.


KJ