Marcus Morris Should Have a Career Year With the Boston Celtics

If Marcus Morris lands a spot in the tarting lineup, he should have a career year for the Boston celtics

The Boston Celtics still do not know who will be starting in the front court next to Al Hoford, and Marcus Morris will be considered heavily. He is the player they got back in the Avery Bradley trade, and he should have no problem fitting into the starting lineup.

There is a good chance that the Celtics will go for a more traditional big with more size, and both Aron Baynes and Ante Zizic will have an opportunity to provide that.

That being said, both those players are more limited than Morris, and he has a skill set that will be complimented phenomenally playing with the starting unit.

Morris is a stretch forward with a post presence. Other than Horford, the Celtics have never had another player that can do that. He is undersized, but he is coming in at the same height as Amir Johnson, with a chance to be more of a threat on the inside on top of his shooting.

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The biggest upside the Celtics can get from any lineup is if they are able to accommodate size problems with Morris starting.

Not only do the Celtics do a phenomenal job of getting their forwards looks from three, they now have multiple players that will draw all the attention from the defense, leaving Morris out there to run wild with mis matches on pretty much any possession.

Isaiah Thomas killed teams by driving to the inside, forcing them to respect him, and dishing out to three point shooters. One of the great strengths of this team was getting open looks that way. Teams had no choice other than to follow Thomas, and that is why they have players like Horford and Jae Crowder getting so many open looks.

Morris should have no problem hitting a career high in three point shooting, and with three other players in Thomas, Gordon Hayward and Horford drawing all the attention of the defense, Morris will be in a great position any time he can do some damage.

Morris’ ability to do some damage on the inside will help too. Teams will be forced to make compromises with Morris, because they will suffer more if that is done on other players. If Morris and Stevens are able to identify how Morris needs to attack, he will have more easy baskets than anyone on the team.

The players around Morris will open everything up for him, and his offensive arsenal is exactly what the Celtics want out of their forwards. When you compare what he will have here to anything he has played with in the past, and it would be shocking to see much regression from him in any way.

Morris has spent most of his time on bottom dwelling teams, or on a Detroit offense that does almost nothing to compliment their shooting.

The key for Morris will be getting comfortable, and not being a liability on defense. If Morris gets the minutes he needs, then he will easily succeed with the Celtics. To get those minutes he has to be a presence on defense, and cannot be a move back wards from Johnson.

The Celtics have enough offensive options that they will sacrifice what Morris brings on offense if Zizic or Baynes have that kid of impact on defense.

The Celtics know that they will be a great offense with or without Morris. The question is whether or not they can be a great defense with Morris on the floor. If they are satisfied with the balance with him in the lineup, then Morris should be an easy choice to start next to Horford.

It is not as if Morris will suddenly become a 20 points per game player, but he could be one of the most improved players in the league by bringing his three point shooting up around 40 percent, and his overall shooting up around 45 percent.

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If Morris is able to get comfortable, everything will get easier for him and with the way the Celtics generate open looks, they could be using Morris more than people are anticipating right now.

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