When the Suns traded for Marcus Morris, pairing him with his twin brother Markieff, many scoffed at the move as a gimmick. Even though I realized getting Marcus for just a second-round pick was good value, I still laughed at the deal as overly marketing generated.
Well, the joke is on us.
With more competent management put in place after the initial trade, management that has been unafraid to shake up the roster it inherited, the Morris twins are still in Phoenix. And they’re playing very well off the bench.
Morris is averaging 12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game, and Marcus is averaging 9.9 points and 5.9 rebounds in 23.2 minutes per game.
Together, they make the Suns better. When both are on the court, Phoenix’s net rating rises from 2.0 to 2.8.
In an article by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, the twins say they’re motivated to succeed in Phoenix so they can continue playing together, and their dedication to this plan makes it easy to pull for them.
But what’s a post about identical twins without a little humor related to not being able to tell them apart. So let’s end on this from Spears:The Suns still have problems telling them apart. Babby often addresses them individually as “Morris.” In uniform, Markieff wears No. 11 while Marcus wears No. 15. But when the brothers aren’t wearing their jerseys, media have often mistaken them when asking questions.
“I forgot which game one of them got hurt, Markieff or Marcus, but the other one ran to him,” Hornacek said. “Luckily he grabbed the ball on his way over to him for a delay-of-game call. If that happens early in the game, that’s OK. But if that happens late in the game, he has to leave his brother and go back on defense.”
