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OKC Thunder: The talent and fit of Markieff Morris

By Stephen Dolan

WASHINGTON, DC -  NOVEMBER 16: Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris #5 warms up prior to the game against the Brooklyn Nets on November 16, 2018 at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC -  NOVEMBER 16: Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris #5 warms up prior to the game against the Brooklyn Nets on November 16, 2018 at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Bad News

It’s a question as old as news itself: Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

I tend to lean toward finishing with the good news. It leaves you happy – leaves a good taste in your mouth. And when it comes to the OKC Thunder, I like to feel happy.

I’m telling you this because there’s a chance this page will make you feel down about Mr. Morris, but I want you to know that if you just keep going, there’s good stuff coming – there’s lots of good stuff.

First, I’ll get the negatives on the offensive end out of the way. He’s not quite as good of a shooter as Patterson, historically. That’s about the only down-side. For a player that will be playing along-side Nerlens Noel a lot, that’s not ideal.

But even this isn’t as big a deal as it seems (more on this later).

The Defense

For all the things Morris is going to add to this team offensively (again, more on this later), he’s going to give some of them back on the defensive end – at least, that’s what the film says for this season.

Keef lacks focus sometimes on the defensive end. Not that Patterson is an all-world defender – he’s not – but we can always count on him to be in the right place, and to not get lost. Actually, he’s one of the more vocal players off of the OKC bench, occasionally directing switches and rotations verbally.

Morris, on the other hand, has gotten lost kind of a lot this year.

In this play, he stops the initial penetration, but then when Russell Westbrook is picked up by Bradley Beal, he fails to find the next person to guard, or to even attempt to find them. And it’s not like Jerami Grant was hard to see, right in front of him. And then that challenge on the shot…

Here’s something I found repeatedly in going through the film on Morris. He has a habit of hedging in pick and roll defense without ever actually deciding whom to guard. Here you see him really guard nether of Russ or Grant, allowing scores for both of them

Now, of course, Kelly Oubre should probably take the brunt of this failure – either he or the defensive scheme. The Wizards seem to play a lot of drop coverage, so it’s on Oubre to recover in a timely manner. But in order for Oubre to recover, Morris has to at least slow Russ down. Instead, a full sprint to the rim.

This next one is much the same. Morris is so worried about the dump-off and the drive, that he actually guards neither. And his brother scored on him. Ouch.

On this one, Morris completely fails to hedge on the dribble hand-off, which is bad enough. But after that, he shows absolutely no urgency to get back into the play. Kyrie gets a layup.

Keep in mind, this is a big game and one that actually wound up going to overtime. In this one, Morris does make the correct, on-time rotation, but gets blown by. Closing out without getting beaten is one of the hardest things in basketball, so that wouldn’t be that big of a sin.

The bigger problem is that after getting beaten, he does not pursue, forcing Jeff Green to help, and then doesn’t try to pick up Jeff’s guy. Dunk.

His focus and effort this season haven’t been consistent – unless consistently bad. And his peripheral vision seems questionable at best. Here he closes to the corner without noticing that Marcus Smart has already left the corner.

And below is an example of his nonchalant attitude on rebounding, as he walks back into the play and then… Well and then he does something worse.

His effort on rebounding has been a huge negative, and that was noticed by Zach Lowe earlier this season.

"Morris’ defensive rebounding rate is 5 percentage points lower than we would expect based on his size and his position upon the release of all shot attempts, the 16th-worst figure among 193 defenders who have been on the floor for at least 500 rebounding chances, per Second Spectrum. Morris is unplayable at center, which is a problem considering the state of Washington’s actual centers. Some bigs never develop into high-volume 3-point shooters. Playing next to two star guards quashed Morris’s nascent passing. His regression everywhere else is more disappointing."

It’s worth wondering how much of this is due to a lack of focus and effort that will carry over, and how much of it is due to playing for a bad team, in a depressingly disappointing season, with an almost legendary lack of chemistry.

I mean, Dwight Howard is on this roster, for goodness sake. So, the hope for the OKC Thunder would be that, much like with Dennis Schröder before him, Markieff Morris’s defensive reputation and effort can be redeemed by simply moving to a better situation, and by playing in games that matter.

Ok, reader. You made it through the dark times, to the end of the tunnel. It’s getting really bright right now.

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