Boston Celtics: Can Marcus Morris Adjust to a New Role This Season?

3) Recognize mismatches

Thought Morris will have to cede some his tougher shots to his more talented teammates and be willing to make the extra pass, the 6-foot-9 forward is still a tough player to deal with one-one-one against the right match-ups.

As other teams trend small, and switch more screens on defense, the ability to score in the post and in isolation only gets more valuable at the wing or forward position. If teams are going to switch an Irving-Morris screen, for example, Morris has to be able to punish the smaller to defender to defer the opponent from relying wholly on that defensive strategy.

This season, the key for Morris will be using his basketball IQ to quickly decide whether he has the best match-up advantage or a teammate has a better situation to exploit. If Philadelphia’s Dario Saric is guarding Morris and Ben Simmons is guarding Irving and the defense switches the pick-and-roll, Morris needs to immediately recognize Irving will have the bigger advantage and make sure the ball finds its way back to him right away.

The above video is the perfect example of a play where Morris needs to recognize the best match up on the floor this season.

In this example, Morris has Terrence Ross of the Orlando Magic guarding him at the top of the key; Ross is by no means a strong defender, but Kyrie Irving’s defender is also in the way providing help and there’s a glaring mismatch on the court–can you see it?

While Morris forces up a decent look at a 12-foot fadeaway over Ross, Jayson Tatum was alone in the corner with the whole side of the floor to himself for a one-on-one with Elfrid Payton. BIG advantage Celtics.

Morris is a confident, tough player in isolation, post ups, and late shot clock situations. But Boston has a lot of really good options, so Morris will have to adapt by knowing when to be aggressive and when to give way to the Celtics star trio.