What Marcus Morris Brings to the Celtics
Marcus Morris is the newest member of the Celtics after being traded for Avery Bradley.
The Celtics needed to create space to bring in Gordon Hayward‘s max contract, and they did just that in trading Avery Bradley to Detroit for Marcus Morris.
It hurts to see Bradley go, but it had to happen for the Celtics. Hayward is a player that will take the team to the next level, and Boston was most likely losing Bradley after next season for nothing anyway. The Celtics needed to keep Marcus Smart, as his versatility and unique skill set is not easily replaceable. Jae Crowder also was a good player to keep due to his team friendly contract running until the summer of 2020.
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Everyone knew that the Celtics needed to get rid of one of their key role players, so Danny Ainge did not have a ton of leverage to start with. However, he was able to land a potential starter in Marcus Morris, who will be able to help the Celtics’ front court right away and possibly start a lot of games.
Offensive Versatility
Morris played small forward for the Pistons primarily, but has the size at 6’9″ and 235 pounds to play power forward. Morris has good mobility on the offensive end, and has a reliable three point stroke, shooting over 35% for his career.
Where Morris excels is in the mid range. This isn’t a key component of a Brad Stevens offense, but being able to score from more spots on the floor than Amir Johnson could will be very useful to the space of Boston’s offensive attack.
The Celtics will use Morris mostly at the power forward position, where he could bring mismatches for bigs that attempt to stay in front of him. Morris and Al Horford will provide great floor spacing that should help Isaiah Thomas and Gordon Hayward in scoring in the half court.
Defensive Versatility
Morris is a very good defender that will be able to switch on to every position on the floor, making the Celtics defense very hard to score on. While he isn’t a good rebounder historically, Morris could improve in that area if played in a power forward type of role. He plays with great energy, so I’m not ready to say that he won’t bring rebounding help just yet.
In lineups that Morris will typically be in, his teammates will likely be Thomas, Hayward, Horford, Crowder, and Brown. This is my best guess at what the starting lineup opening night. The Celtics will have plenty of length versatility on both ends that will keep teams from exploiting Thomas as much as they did last season. Opposing teams will have a hard time scoring lineups like this, and they’ll have a hard time stopping them as well due to the spacing and movement that they will have.
Toughness and Physicality
The Celtics front court lacked a brand of physicality last season outside of the starters with players like Zeller, Olynyk, and Jerebko. Morris comes in with a play style that is far more physical than the three mentioned before.
The Celtics identity is built on players with chips on their shoulders, and that play hard nose basketball. They have that in the back court and on the wings in Smart, Thomas, Crowder, and Brown, but didn’t have players like that up front. Morris will fit right in to the style, and hopefully inspire the Celtic bigs to play rough down low.
Next: Thank You Avery Bradley, for Everything
Losing Bradley hurts, and the Celtics will definitely miss his ability to make life difficult on opposing team’s best perimeter threat. However, Morris will be able to bring some much needed versatility in the front court, and Boston will replace Bradley’s stifling defense with versatility from their wings. The Celtics got a nice piece here from a guy that they were likely losing for nothing.