The Suns seem to want to repair their relationship with Markieff Morris, but Morris signaled that he has no intention to go back on his trade demand, tweeting Thursday that, “My future will not be in Phoenix.” The four-year, $32MM extension that Morris signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, so the Suns wield the hammer, but the power forward has told confidants that he won’t talk with Suns front office executives and will give only one-word responses to coach Jeff Hornacek, as John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported recently. While the tension rises in Phoenix, see more on the Suns and their Pacific Division rivals:
- Excel Sports Management was the party that broke off its relationship with Jordan Clarkson, but the Lakers combo guard was frustrated with the agency’s communication and felt he received conflicting information about marketing opportunities, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press first reported the split.
- Terrico White is confident that the past few years playing overseas have improved his game and his mental approach, and the 36th overall pick from the 2010 draft indicated to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that he had multiple NBA options for training camp before agreeing to a deal with the Suns. “My main focus is just getting on an NBA [regular season] roster, whether it’s with Phoenix or another team,” White said to Kennedy. “If I do make the team in Phoenix, I think it’s a great fit and I feel like I could bring a whole lot since I’m still young but I also have experience too. … My agent, Daniel Hazan, was talking to different teams and Phoenix had a better plan for me than other teams, so we decided to go with the Suns.”
- Whether the personalities of DeMarcus Cousins and Kings coach George Karl will mesh going forward has been the subject of much discussion this summer, but Karl’s desire for an up-tempo attack and the interior game of Cousins raise some on-court question marks, too. However, the way Karl used Carmelo Anthony at the end of their time together with the Nuggets provides a blueprint for a fast-paced attack that still gets the best out of Cousins, even though ‘Melo and Cousins play different positions, as Zach Harper of CBSSports.com argues, pointing to similarities in the way they get their shots.
Phoenix only has 12 legitimate NBA players. Morris to Boston who can afford to give multiple bigs in return. They signed Amir Johnson and David Lee, then drafted Jordan Mickey. Jae Crowder can sneak a few minutes at the four. So Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Zeller are expendable.
There’s fertile ground for trade ideas between the Suns and Celtics, since Ryan McDonough worked under Danny Ainge in Boston. Still, I’m not sure the Celtics would have to part with Sullinger, Olynyk or Zeller to get the job done here. A lot depends on whether the Suns can engineer a bidding war between interested parties, but Phoenix doesn’t appear to have much leverage, given what Morris continues to say.
Yeah, no way to gauge whether other teams have interest. If I’m the Suns I’d try to get Noah Vonleh from Portland. The Blazers need a front court scorer.
On the other hand, if I’m the Heat, I’d hope the Suns were desperate and I can try to pawn off McRoberts, Anderson and Chalmers off on the Suns. Get a better player and some luxury tax relief.
This clown wont come to Boston, nor do the Celtics want a clubhouse cancer like this in their locker room.