2:37pm: The Lakers have officially re-signed Morris, the team confirmed (Twitter link via Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group).
11:29am: Free agent forward Markieff Morris is sticking with the Lakers, announcing (via Twitter) his intentions to “run it back” with the defending champions. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links), Morris is signing a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the club.
Morris was said to be receiving interest from both Los Angeles teams and was reportedly considering reuniting with his twin brother Marcus Morris on the Clippers. The Raptors were also said to have interest before they agreed to a deal with Aron Baynes.
Although the Clippers had the financial flexibility to make Markieff a slightly more lucrative offer, it’s not clear if he took less to remain with the Lakers, or if the Clips were also offering the minimum.
After starting last season in Detroit, Morris was bought out and joined the Lakers for the stretch run. He played a limited role (14.2 minutes per game) in 14 regular season contests for the club, but actually saw his playing time increase to 18.3 MPG in the postseason.
He appeared in all 21 of the Lakers’ playoff games en route to their championship, averaging 5.9 PPG and 3.0 RPG with a .449/.420/.778 shooting line.
With a commitment from Morris in place, the Lakers now project to be about $4.5MM below their hard cap with 12 players on the roster, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who tweets that the team should be on track to add two more minimum-salary players to the mix. Marks’ projection assumes the team keeps Alfonzo McKinnie after acquiring him from Cleveland and waives Jordan Bell.
By virtue of re-signing with the Lakers on a one-year deal, Morris will have the ability to veto any trade that involves him in 2020/21, as Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report observes (via Twitter).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Welp clippers are done. Where do kawhi and pg go next year? Nets?
Most attractive spots with cap space next year are Lakers, Mavs, Heat, and Raptors.
If Giannis stays in Milwaukee, I can see one of the two (probably PG) joining the Lakers. Wouldn’t surprise me if Kawhi wanted to rejoin the Raptors even though Cali is home. The Eastern Conference isn’t as rough and he’s familiar with the organization and won a championship there. It would be a weird twist, but crazy things happen in the NBA offseason.
Lakers don’t want pg.. we want players that want to win not players that make excuses why they don’t perform well.
Y’all just picked up Trezz, who seems to be the catalyst of LA’s chemistry issues last season. Y’all would definitely take PG
Pg and kawhi were catalyst of chemistry issues..diva behavior and clippers allowed it.. that’s why they imploded.. see the difference between ad and Lebron and kawhi and pg.. lakers had more new players last year to incorporate and it was seamless.. Ad and Lebron put in the work but also were held accountable by eachother.. kawhi and pg not so much
Kawhi on heat would be nasty now that team could beat the lakers
Kawhi and the Heat are total opposites. They’re all about being in the best condition and playing the most grueling basketball. Kawhi likes to load manage. Also, Uncle Dennis likes to call the shots and it would never happen with Pat Riley. It would never work.
Lakers – Morris deal = good value for money.
Clippers – Morris deal = 4 year overpaiment.
He’s basically as good as his brother but makes 1/8 the money.
Absolutely that was a bone head signing 64 million 4 years
Exactly. Marcus is slightly better but giving him 64 million was nuts. Lakers will always run LA.
Schroder Bron KCP Caruso Kuzma AD Harrell Gasol Morris Mathews
That’s a solid 10 man rotation all set now to get to training and building chemistry
The defense won’t be as good without Bradley and Green.
Except the added gasol who rates the same if not better than Dwight and Mathews rates the same as green and on a vet minimum
That Rockets kid is just hating life right now and chimes in to try to put down any team to make himself feel better. The truth is that this is just the latest in a series of good moves for the Lakers this offseason as they look to defend their championship.
Agreed. The guy is talking when his team hasn’t made the finals this decade…
Agreed!
lol gasol is slow af..no one cared about him till lakers fans like always hyped him up
That’s priceless . Harden Westbrook talking about defense.. lakers won without Bradley. His name is Kcp which we resigned.. gasol is an upgrade on mcgee.. Mathews is same as green but 1/5 the cost.. Schroeder is better defensively then rondo.. lakers bench can bench could lock up a playoff spot in east
Excuse me! Shouldn’t you be worried about harden and Westbrook! Instead about us?
Don’t bother, there soon may be no Hardin or Westbrook in Houston to worry about.
Yes, and midget ball with no D is still a failure.
Add Boogie next
thats what im sayin! get Boogie on a vet minimum. they can rotate Harrell, Gasol, Cousins at the 4/5 along with AD to keep everyone fresh after the short offseason. the rotation should be deeper to encourage some kind of load management.
I want boogie back as well.. gives him time to get right physically.. Why not add korver as a sharpshooter as well on minimum..with this roster, of it was 82 game season, theyd challenge for best ever record..
Lakers are THE winner of the offseason in my opinion (with Suns, 76ers, Blazers and Hawks as strong contenders).
Before last season I had the Lakers, Clippers and Bucks basically on the same level. Now I see the Lakers more in their own category.
This may be lebrons best roster ever, more star depth than heat days and ad is much better than wade and bosh. I think injuries are they only foe at this point.
Plus who knows when James will be done…the guy is a freak of nature. When he does eventually retire, the Lakers will likely get another superstar to pair with Davis, who will take over as the face of the franchise. I would say Davis is already the co-face (that’s a term, right). Other than one freak injury, James hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down. He was flat-out dominant last season.
I think the transition will be seamless as lebrons next contract will be less to allow the team to add additional superstar. Could see lebron doing 3/60 after this year he will opt out to create flexibility to add another star. Lebron will stack rings maybe 2/3 more as he fades into sunset
This might be the longest prime in the history of sports. This level for such a long time? Even someone like Federer had a period in between where he didn’t win anything for years.
An the thing is: This could go on for another 2-3 years. Something like 18 years on an MVP level…
I agree. The 2016-17 were probably the deepest team LeBron had until now: LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Tristan, J.R., Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, Deron Williams, Frye, Korver. Problem was they played against arguably the best team of all time in the Finals and D-Will completely collapsed.
But I’d prefer this Lakers roster.
Hahaha Clippers signed his twin for how much?
In the west
Lakers get better
The 7 other playoffs teams get worse
Blazers get better
I agree this may be the best roster LeBron has had even better than his days in Miami. The Western Conference is without doubt the harder conference but unless they suffer some catastrophic injuries I don’t see them having problems going through this conference on route back to the finals.
Good pick up for the Lakers but still does not make them the overwhelming. Lakers defense is weaker and now they have to juggle around lineups so as to satisfy players playing time. Harrell will probably be angry that he will have his minutes cut down . Wonder how their lineup and rotation will be. Still Clippers are equal to them .
Oh lord the Clippers hype cheerleaders are doubling down for 2021.
This guy has low iq lol
Schroder > rondo both defensively and offensively
Gasol > mcgee
Mathews = green both same defensive win shares
Brought back kcp and kief both were instrumental in playoffs for lakers.
Lost Dwight who was a non factor this year in a bench role and replaced him with harrell….lol lakers aren’t worse defensively that narrative is close to true. Bradley didn’t play playoffs and they were just fine. Low iq casuals like dxit90a in full force
Isnt* close to true
Agreed.. gasol is better defensively than mcgee.. Mathews and green are awash.. the real thing with green is offensively he’d have a good game then go cold next 3 games ..Kcp they won ring with as starter over Bradley.. starters haven’t lost anything.. the real difference is the bench.. the lakers would go in funk when lebron went to bench.. now they have a bench 1-5 that could probably make eastern conference playoffs.. can you imagine them resigning cousins and then maybe adding korver.. that’s 12 deep
I think Howard was good as a role player for the Lakers. The knock on him is that he consistently commits stupid fouls, though. Sometimes that kills team momentum.
Overall, the Lakers have improved and they don’t need Howard. Howard still did well for them.
Haha funny LA guy we have here. Try arguing without saying insults . That is what low IQ people do.
Back to what you said Gasol currently is not better than McGee in defense . Did you even see Gasol defense in pick and role? I guess you will find out soon. McGee and Dwight are rim protectors and more athletic than Gasol.
Don’t get me started with Harrel defense. He is horrible as seen in the playoffs . Schneider is an average defender . Rondo is a bit better than him in defense in the playoffs. Rondo knows how to pressure guards and to steal the ball. He is also proven in the playoffs and Schneider is not . as between Mathews and Green . Green is more valuable than Mathews due to his playoffs experience.
Regular season stats is a false indicator of a player it’s all about the playoffs when the pressure is on.
Time will tell if am right or you are.
Btw not an LA clipper fan . I just wrote how I see it.
To your points.. gasol is better than mcgee defensively.. pick and roll defense, we have Ad who’s a rim protector.. mcgee was playing 16 mins a game.. mcgee was in playable in a lot of spots..you forget that vogel is a defensive minded coach and his schemes make the lakers solid defensively.. look at all his past teams… rondo gets steals but isn’t a good defender.. he was bad the last 2 regular seasons.. just stepped up during playoffs..Schroeder is a pest defensively.. you forget, the bench will run teams off the floor going against 2nd units. The numbers show that Mathews and green are awash defensively.. but Mathews comes at 1/5 the cost and green goes cold for games offensively.. lakers biggest Achilles was when lebron went to the bench.. lakers now are 10 deep.. Harrell is a dawg.. lakers also got younger.. in Vogel’s schemes, they will be as good defensively..lakers have the depth to rest lebron and Ad keeping them fresh for playoffs..
Rondo and MGee were very good for the Lakers overall, and I hate to see them go…the Lakers replaced them well, though.
McGee, too.
Everyone’s defense gets better playing with LeBron and AD, I’m sure Harrell will benefit from playing fir a good coach with better teammates. BTW it’s Schroder not Schneider
Thanks for the correction . We will find out soon who is right.
Who is Schneider? Are we talking about a 70s sitcom?
I disagree about the lakers’ defense got weaker. They still have caruso & kcp. Those guys were very good defensively, especially during the playoffs. Rondo was replaced by schroder. Green was replaced by matthews. They still have horton-tucker, maybe this is the year, he could be in the rotation. Lakers also signed mckinnie, he could prolly be a good defender, too!
As of this point, things are really looking good for the lakers with the pieces that they added, its too early for that comment “they got weaker defensively”.
The Lakers have 2 of the 5 best players in the league just as last year. Most everyone not a Lakers fan said the Clippers and bucks were better because of the supporting cast. In my mind they are the favorites this season just like last season.
Whoa boy! That was a weak presentation of a very good Lake Show off season and that last sentence about the Clips being their equal was a DOA closing argument.
Markief is my sleeper pick for MVP this year
I like the re-signing, but how deep is that sleep?
I don’t see how Harrell will be angry if he gets less minutes. He is playing for the defending champions, going for his first ring, and joining a team which has much better chemistry and comradeship than the Clippers. GO LAKERS!
Harrell was a team guy for clippers.. he was the heart of that team.. he’s a huge loss for clippers.. ibaka is a good pickup for clippers but they have only brought in ibaka and kennard..They lost Harrell, green,jackson and shamet.. They have gotten much worse.. their depth is gone..
Clippers bench
Ibaka
Lou
Luke Kennard
Ouch good one
Loaded lakers, wow…
Imagine this:
The Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis have yet to agree to a contract this offseason.
However, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Davis may have a good reason for waiting to sign his deal.
Windhorst believes that Davis may be waiting to sign to give the Lakers an opportunity to recruit Giannis Antetokounmpo next offseason.
If Davis decides to sign a one-year deal with a player option for the 2021-22 season, he and LeBron James could both opt out and recruit Antetokounmpo to the Lakers, according to Windhorst.
Windhorst suspects AD is taking his time to decide what contract he chooses is because of Giannis. If Giannis doesn’t sign supermax he thinks AD will sign a 1+1, both him and Lebron will opt out next offseaon and recruit Giannis to the Lakers
link to lakersdaily.com
Makes sense now why AD would hold off on signing.