Marcus Morris has been on a hot streak for the Detroit Pistons for almost a month, and it’s time the basketball world takes note.
In the late stages of last season, the Detroit Pistons made a blockbuster trade for Tobias Harris. The Pistons upgraded at the power forward position over Ersan Ilyasova, departed for Orlando in exchange for Harris, but the trade had another unexpected effect: It seemingly energized Marcus Morris.
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Morris went on a torrid shooting stretch over the last 25 games of the season, a stretch in which the Pistons went 16-9 and forced their way into the playoffs. Over those 25 games, Morris averaged 15.5 points per game, shooting the lights out at a clip of 47 percent from the floor and 45.9 percent from long range.
That’s truly outstanding, above all of his career rates, but he’s taken that production and increased it in almost every way. Morris got off to a slow start over his first 13 games, but over the past 13 games he’s been incredible. Starting with a November 19th loss to the Boston Celtics, Marcus Morris has averaged 15.8 points per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range.
He’s been tremendously efficient over that span as well. His true shooting rate is 58.1 percent which would be the highest TS percentage of his career. He also has a +10.9 net rating, which is an impressive clip considering the Pistons have gone just 7-6 over those 13 games.
Marcus Morris’ absolute value has been notable over this stretch as measured by his on/off numbers. The Pistons have a -4.9 net rating when Morris is off the floor, but as mentioned above they are outscoring their opponents by 10.9 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor. That’s a 15.8 point swing, an absolutely remarkable rate.
Morris is scoring efficiently in every way he gets the ball with any regularity. He’s converting in transition in the 87th, scoring an impressive 1.341 points per possession. He is also an effective iso scorer, in the 84th percentile with 1.065 points per possession.
He is also perhaps the Pistons’ most reliable spot up shooter, scoring 1.301 points per possession which is in the 93rd percentile league-wide. Morris is shooting exactly 50 percent on spot ups this season, and his adjusted field goal percentage (essentially Synergy’s equivalent to the more commonly used effective field goal percentage) is an impressive 65.3 percent.
Marcus Morris’ contributions don’t stop on the offensive end. He has also become one of the Pistons’ most reliable defenders. Opponents are shooting 5.9 percent worse than their season average when Morris is defending, and that rate is best on the team.
In addition, when Morris is defending spot up shooters, opponents are scoring just 0.857 points per possession, and when he defends the pick and roll ball handler, he yields just 0.714 points per possession.
Related Story: Explaining Marcus Morris' three-point shooting surge
On a Detroit Pistons team with a highly regarded starting five unit of Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tobias Harris and Andre Drummond, it’s time for Marcus Morris to get his due.
Video courtesy of our friends at 3 Ball.