Markieff Morris signed a deal with the Detroit Pistons this summer, becoming the second Morris brother to play in the Motor City. Here’s his outlook.
Markieff Morris signed a two-year, $7.4 million contract on July 6, giving the Pistons frontcourt depth and bringing another one of the Morris twins to the Motor City. Here’s a preview on what he’ll bring to the bench unit.
Morris, who turns 30 on Sept. 2, was born in Philadelphia and is 6-foot-10, 245-pound forward. Coming out of APEX Academies in the 2008 recruiting class as the 49th-ranked recruit, Markieff joined his brother as a four-star power forward going to Kansas.
Markieff’s college career began in 2008-09 and started slowly averaging 4.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1 assist, .4 steals, .7 blocks in 15.6 minutes per game. He played in 35 games, starting seven games. He shot 44.8 percent from the field, 65 percent from the free throw, and a pitiful 18.8 percent from 3-point range.
Next year he started to work on his outside game improving from 18.8 percent up to 52.6 percent from distance on still a limited number of attempts. Morris improved in every category averaging 6.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 steals, 1.0 blocks in 17.6 minutes per game, playing in 36 games but only starting in 2 games.
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Entering into his junior season, Morris had a career year in nearly every category. Starting 35 of the 38 games he played in, he averaged 13.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.4 assist, 0.8 steals, 1.1 blocks in 24.4 minutes per game. His shooting percentages were all up as well as he shot 58.9 percent from field, 42.4 percent from three, and 67.3 percent from the free throw line. Following the season, the Morris’ twins each declared for the 2011 NBA draft.
The 2011 draft was dominated by Kyrie Irving who was the number one selection to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Markieff Morris went to the Phoenix Suns at pick number 13, one pick before his brother Marcus Morris at 14 to the Houston Rockets. Markieff was the fourth PF off the board and was a promising stretch-four coming out of college.
The Pistons drafted Brandon Knight eighth overall in this particular draft.
It was a talented draft with plenty of depth with notable selections. Notable selections include Jonas Valanciunas at 5, Kemba Walker at 9, Jimmer Fredette at 10, Klay Thompson at 11, Kawhi Leonard at 15, Nikola Vucevic at 16, Tobias Harris at 19, Reggie Jackson at 24, and Jimmy Butler at 30.
Markieff was drafted into the Phoenix Suns who were led by Steve Nash and Grant Hill. Marcin Gortat led the scoring at 15.4 points per game for the Suns in the lockout-shortened season. The Suns finished 33-33 and finished 10th, three games out of the eighth-seeded Utah Jazz and one game behind his brother in Houston.
Markieff’s stats in his rookie year were 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.7 blocks in 19.5 minutes per game where he primarily came off the bench starting only seven of the 63 games, he played in. Over the next three seasons, Marcus played in 82, 81 and 82 games going from 8.2 ppg up to 15.3 ppg.
He completely evolved his game becoming a staple of the Suns heading into 2015-16 season. That offseason Morris demanded a trade. Morris had legal troubles and, during the season, fought his teammate, Archie Goodwin during a timeout.
On Feb. 18, 2016, Markieff was traded to Washington for DeJuan Blair, Kris Humphries, and a protected 2016 first round pick that became Georgios Papagiannis.
The Wizards send DeJuan Blair, Kris Humphries and future first-round pick to the Suns for Markieff Morris, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 18, 2016
In Morris’ two full seasons in the nation’s capital, he started all 149 games he played in. In the first season, Markieff’s stat line was 14.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.6 blocks in 31.2 minutes per game while shooting 45.7 percent from the field, 36.2 percent from three, and a career best 83.7 percent from the free throw line.
In Washington’s 2017 playoff run, Morris averaged 12.1 ppg and 6.3 rebounds while starting all 13 games before losing in seven to Boston in the second round. In 2017-18 Markieff’s stat line then was 11.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks in 27 minutes per game and shot 48 percent from the field, a career high 36.7 percent from three, and 82 percent from the free throw line. Washington snuck into the playoffs as the eight seed and lost in six games to Toronto, and Markieff started all six games and averaged 9.8 ppg.
Markieff Morris is now in Detroit and is looking to get his career back on track after an injury riddled 2018-19 season. His scoring and rebounding will be a great pair with Derrick Rose to command the second unit.