Clippers striker Marcus Morris visited the Garden for Sunday’s matinee on Kristaps Porzingis’ two-year anniversary. Morris has now been added to Porzingis’ commercial analysis.
Thank you, Immanuel Quickley.
This was Morris’ first visit to the Garden since he was traded west last February and arrives as a reserve player for the Clippers, supporting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Morris had been the number one scoring option during the 2019-20 Knicks disaster.
While Porzingis’ Mavericks are on a dangerous slide, Morris’ presence is another symbol that Porzingis’ blockbuster two years ago is not the previously reported disaster.
With the season lost, the Knicks’ board vigorously debated whether to switch Morris or keep him and try to hire him again.
They seem to have made the right choice, handing Morris to the Clippers for the 27th choice. This became the 25th choice and became Quickley. The feeling of newcomer makes the organization wonder if they have their starting point for the future – if not the present.
The Knicks would not have the upper limit to signing a $ 15 million pact with Morris for a year in the summer of 2019 without negotiating with Porzingis.
It is surprising that the narrative is changing, considering the failures of playmaker Dennis Smith Jr., which the Knicks decided to place in the G league bubble with coach Tom Thibodeau currently having no use in choosing the 2017 Mavericks lottery.
However, even with Smith’s death, trade looks much better. The Porzingis Mavericks have lost five consecutive matches and eight of their last 10 games, dropping to 8-12.
If the season ended today, the Knicks would be ranked 11th in the lottery, courtesy of Mavericks. The Mavericks gave the Knicks an unprotected choice from 2021 and one from 2023 in the first round. The Knicks entered Sunday tied for eighth place, but there is still a chance that they will have two choices in the lottery for the 2021 draft.
The alarming part of the Mavericks’ defeat is that Doncic seems fed up, questioning whether his teammates want to win.
“Terrible,” said Doncic. “There is really not much to say. I never felt that way. We have to do something, because this is not looking good and we have to go ahead and just talk to each other and play a lot better than that. It is mainly effort. … I would say that now it looks like we don’t honestly care whether we win or not. “
When the Porzingis exchange was made, some members of the league were a little concerned, knowing the egos of Doncic and Porzingis. The Mavericks were not on Janis Porzingis’ wish list that he gave Steve Mills – perhaps knowing that the Mavericks already had their face in the franchise.
The Porzingis brothers were a problem in the eyes of Steve Mills and Knicks GM Scott Perry, and they tried to cut their losses before he became a restricted free agent.
The extra space provided by the trade did not yield his two big fish – Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. But it brought Julius Randle and Morris. They didn’t make a perfect attack last season, but Randle played much better after Morris was released in February.
This season, Randle exploded, earning great consideration from the All-Star as he led the Knicks to a 9-11 start after 20 games entering the Clippers’ game. Randle, 26, averaged 22.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and six assists.
Smith’s journey followed the opposite path. “The AG League is a very valuable tool,” said Thibodeau on Sunday before taking on the Clippers. “You see that it is used more and more by virtually every team in the league. You earn a lot from practice, but playing time is important. I think it will be great for him. Your attitude has been very positive ”.
Smith, say the Knicks, requested the change. Ironically, The Post reported that Craig Robinson, a former director of player development, wanted to put Smith in the G League last season, but Perry rejected the idea. Sources say Perry feared that Smith’s representatives would be irritated.
Smith has been relegated to two cameos at the junk hour since returning from a hip injury in the first week of January. Earlier this week, Thibodeau mentioned his options at the point guard, but did not mention Smith.
When Thibodeau was hired, he promised to use the G League more freely. Smith now goes to the bubble where other teams can watch him play and maybe his commercial value will increase.
Meanwhile, Porzingis, who is 25 and lost the first nine games after knee surgery, averages 18.6 points, eight rebounds and less than one assist per game. Latvian 7-3 was never as good a passer as announced in the 2015 draft.
With the newbie picked in the Obi Toppin lottery hardly a sure thing to become a powerhouse highlight, the Knicks are looking at Randle through a new lens – not as commercial bait. The question is how Dallas is seeing Porzingis now.