If Morris doesn't get moved, it would not surprise me if he is one of the top 3 scorers on this team.
On the Vipers? I don't think Morris will even get to play at all. McHale will play Parsons and Delfino at the 3, Martin and Lamb at the 2, Patterson and one of the rookies at the 4. Where are Morris minutes coming from?
How is Morris a bust? He is the 14th pick, so the expectation from the 14th pick shouldn't be that high. If he was a top 10 pick, that would be different. Plus he didn't have much playing time last season so you cannot say guys like Zoran is better because Zoran didn't play either and I doubt he would even make the Rockets last cut. I just think it isn't fair that Morris hasn't gotten the chance to really prove whether he's a quality impact player in the NBA or not. His brother got the chance to play with the Suns and did well. There are plenty of NBA players that never gotten to play much in their rookie year but turn out to be serviceable NBA players. We can never say a player is a bust until around his 3rd year in the NBA especially a player who's drafted in the mid teens. Until Morris gets the opportunity to showcase what he is capable of, nobody on Clutchfans can honestly label Marcus an automatic bust.
1) Solid player, good vet presence. Gives coach some experience to work with. 2) Contract does not hurt future flexibility. 3) In the likely event Martin is moved, Delfino provides either depth at the 2 or takes the pressure off of Lamb in case he is not ready to start. Granted, youth needs playing time to develop; but if that playing time is nothing but an exercise in repeated failure, then the development of young players suffers. There is a balance to maintain here. If you want to see a team evolve into a winner, you might need to make some bridge moves to attain that goal. That's what the Delfino signing looks like to me.
Watching Summer League, I think his confidence is shot and he is pressing, trying to hard to prove himself. He was fumbling and rushing shots and doing all sorts of things he didn't do at Kansas. He still reminds me very much of Mo Taylor at the same age - i.e. the Clipper years. I remember when the Clips drafted Taylor, Bill Fitch talked about him in the same way as the Rockets talked about Morris - a guy who was a 4 that they thought they could develop into a 3. Mo got fat as he got older - IIRC he wasn't the most dedicated to off season training but maybe it was just the natural result of getting older. I think if Morris isn't at least the quality of player of Mo Taylor - a pretty good scoring perimeter 4, it is a failure on the part of either Morris or the Rockets. He has the tools. I think he could still develop into something more, but maybe not. At this point, the second coming of Mo Taylor would satisfy. I like McHale generally, but I think they way he handled Morris wasn't his finest moment. Hopefully, lowered expectations this year will enable him to compensate and build up Morris a little bit.
Boy, I'd love a Mo Taylor. Say what you will about him, but - don't laugh - he seemed to have one of the sweetest shooting touches for a big man I've seen. The ball had the best rotation. I'm still skeptical though, b/c Mo was scoring like 18 ppg in his Clippers years. Yeah, that team sucked, but that's still a lot more success than Marcus had. Still have my fingers crossed though!!
Also, I'm just sort of curious now - why would the Clips have been trying to make Mo a SF when they would have had Lamar Odom at that time?? I believe you though.
Any hope I had that MM would become a serviceable NBA player went out the window with the summer league. The rookies showed why they were first round picks, MM (who actually has limited NBA experience) looked over matched.
I didn't think Marcus looked outmatched. I do agree he didn't look good, though. He seems like he doesn't know his strengths and weaknesses. He doesn't have a role, and doesn't excel at anything.
I don't know if I would blame it on his physical attributes. Carmelo Anthony is too small to be a PF and too slow to be a SF. But he gets it done because he physically abuses SF's and uses his speed against PF's, all while having a polished offensive repertoire. If marcus wants to succeed, he has to start molding his offensive game to suit his attributes - something which he didn't have to do in college. He could use both speed and power in college, whereas now he has to become a more cerebral player by picking out his strengths on a game-to-game basis. I think that's exactly the kind of adjustment that can be aided with more experience, a full training camp and hard work in the summer. Specifically on this team, McHale is of the opinion that the only question is: who can you guard? Marcus can guard small PF's and big SF's. That's plenty of opportunity. Unfortunately, losing Courtney Lee hurts his chances because our two best SG's are offensive specialists so McHale will look to pair them with a SF that can guard the best swingman. He should focus on one thing at a time. I think it's hard to make strides when you try to improve your "overall game", something which IMO rarely translates to real improvement. He needs to have a good post game, a good 3pt shot and better handles. Prioritize those 3 things, and work on one this season, another next season, and the last one season after. Luckily the guy seems to have a great work ethic. He seems to have the kind of personality that responds to praise better than criticism, I hope the coaching staff have looked into that. I think he would be surprised at how easily he can enter the rotation if he brings a 3-pt shot to camp since he already has a decent post game (against smaller Forwards) and a decent face up game (against bigger Forwards). Good luck to him. The coach IMO is not impressed with his skill set, but does place a tremendous amount of emphasis on hard work and he is a hard worker.
Sometimes its good to give a player a prototype to follow. As in - "Be like Carmelo/{proven player}". Its provides direction to adapt into. Sometimes its about working to a player's natural strengths. Let the player be themselves warts and all. Even though they might have skills VERY CLOSE to another position's and they're not getting overly "squeezed" into that position, sometimes they already have tendencies that can't adapt fully into that other role. Easy to second guess when tweeners don't show development, but I think (Marcus) Morris shoulda just been the tweener 4 he's always been. Just like Markieff but on another team. Jordan Hill and Patterson cut into his time at first. Then Camby later on in the "win now" mode. The 3 was occupied with Parsons, Budinger, and Courtney Lee in small ball lineups. Now even more forwards to compete with. Numbers crunch not helping him play his natural spot.
