Morris Signing Gets Marks Closer (But Not There Yet) To Properly Balancing Nets
Like with the additions of veterans Blake Griffin and Paul Millsap the last couple of seasons, the Nets’ signing of free agent forward Markieff Morris, as reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania on Tuesday, would have been way more impactful had it occurred two years earlier.
Of course, there was no way Brooklyn General Manager Sean Marks could have obtained the rugged 6-foot 9 floor spacer for the reported nonguaranteed one-year contract back then. As such, Morris can now be viewed as a low-risk flyer who, if he’s healthy (he missed 58 games last season with a neck injury stemming from an on-court altercation with Denver’s Nikola Jokic) and has enough juice in his nearly 33-year old body, can be a small-ball 5 against certain teams, thus allowing Ben Simmons to guard the opposition’s primary scorer while Kevin Durant gets tasked with a less stressful assignment.
Morris’ trademark toughness is certainly an attraction for Brooklyn, but let’s not kid ourselves. He hasn’t been all that good in the last two seasons, to the point where he was demoted out of the rotation by playoff teams in Los Angeles and Miami. The Heat gave him a whopping three minutes of run over 18 playoff games last season.
Morris was a respectable 34.5% career three-point shooter before the Lakers secured him on the buyout market following his release from the Pistons in 2020. He’s gone 91-for-287 (31.7%) since. It’s quite possible that he’s as washed as Griffin and Millsap were when they first donned Brooklyn uniforms (though to be transparent, I refused to acknowledge it those times—that’s what I get when I sideline my typical skepticism in favor of rose-colored glasses.).
In any event, for all of Marks’ attempts to bring in bigger bodies (who can also shoot) this offseason, the Nets are still short a legitimate 5. Morris is not the player you want guarding Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid or Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in big spots. The same goes for Simmons and second-year center Day’Ron Sharpe isn’t a legitimate option either.
Brooklyn is currently counting on Nic Claxton for those matchups, but with Simmons also expected to supply major minutes, that would result in the Nets again resorting to utilizing two non-shooters on offense. Nets fans are still reeling from watching Boston’s defense take advantage of similarly poorly-spaced lineups by sending extra men at Durant and Kyrie Irving to limit their effectiveness during the Celtics’ four-game sweep in the first round of the playoffs.
With Sunday’s signing of Yuta Watanabe, the former Raptors forward who played on Brooklyn’s Summer League team in 2018, the Nets now have 15 players under a standard NBA contract plus guard Alondes Williams on a two-way deal. They can add another two-way player (David Duke Jr. will re-up, per NetsDaily.com’s Chris Milholen) and three “Exhibit 10” training camp contracts.
Here’s a look at where the Nets stand (obviously certain players can play multiple positions):
Starter Backup1 Backup2
Guard Irving Patty Mills Cam Thomas
Guard Joe Harris Seth Curry Edmond Sumner
Forward Durant Royce O’Neil Kessler Edwards
Forward Simmons T.J. Warren Watanabe
Center Claxton Morris Sharpe
Marks does have some flexibility should he decide to add another true center since, like Morris, Watanabe’s deal for this season isn’t guaranteed. and Sumner’s guarantee through the preseason is only $250,000. The Nets have yet to dip into their $6.5 million taxpayer midlevel exception. The problem, though, is that I don’t see anyone still on the market worthy of such an investment and training camp is less than a month away. Bringing in a rim runner like Tristan Thompson or Hassan Whiteside doesn’t solve the underlying issue. The best unemployed floor spacing centers, not including former Nets Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, who were deemed unplayable in the Celtics series by Head Coach Steve Nash, making their returns unforeseeable, are DeMarcus Cousins and Meyers Leonard, each of whom has a level of toxicity that would make signing them problematic.
That means that the Nets might have to wait this out for a bit. Trades are always on the table, especially now that, in my view, they should be better positioned on the back end of the bench than they were at the end of last season. If you recall, Marks had struck out on virtually all of his offseason depth pieces (Millsap, DeAndre’ Bembry, Javon Carter, and James Johnson were either traded or waived) save for a tremendous first half performance by Mills. Last year’s squad was woefully undersized all over the court and didn’t roster enough players who warranted respect from behind the three-point arc. With reasonably good health, this year’s crop of Warren, O’Neil, Morris, and Watanabe has the potential to be far more bountiful given their size and shooting efficiencies.
However, finding the right balance has been elusive for Marks since the days where he would simply look to add talent and “let Kenny (Atkinson) sort it all out.” If he can round out that donut hole in the middle—because Morris isn’t enough—he may finally get it right.