Clippers striker Marcus Morris visited the garden for Sunday morning in Kristaps Porzingis ’two-year trade. Morris has now been added to the Porzingis trade analysis.
Thank you, Immanuel Quickley.
This was Morris ’first visit to the garden since he split west last February and came on as a Clippers bench player, supporting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Morris had been the No. 1 scoring option during the 2019-20 Knicks debacle.
While the Porzingis Mavericks are on a dangerous slide, Morris ’presence is another symbol that Porzingis’ overproduction two years ago is not the disaster as previously reported.
With the season off, the Knicks front office debated vigorously over whether to change Morris or keep him and try to re-sign him.
Looks like they made the right call, handing Morris over to the Clippers for the 27th pick. He became the 25th pick and became Quickley. The novice feeling makes the organization wonder if they have the starting point of the future, if not the present.
The Knicks would not have had the upper limit to sign Morris with a $ 15 million one-year deal in the summer of 2019 without changing Porzingis.
That the narrative is changing is surprising, given the failures of goalkeeper Dennis Smith Jr., whom the Knicks have decided to put in the G-League bubble with coach Tom Thibodeau who is currently of no use to the national team. of the 2017 Mavericks lottery.
Still, even with Smith’s demise, the trade looks so much better. The Porzingis Mavericks have lost five in a row and eight of their last 10 games have fallen to 8-12.
If the season ended today, the Knicks would be ranked eleventh in the lottery courtesy of the Mavericks. The Mavericks gave the Knicks an unprotected selection in 2021 and a first round in 2023. The Knicks entered the No. 8 tie on Sunday, but there is still a chance they will have two lottery selections for the 2021 draft.
The alarming part of the Mavericks ’loss is that Doncic looks fed up and wonders if his teammates want to win.
“Terrible,” Doncic said. “It simply came to our notice then. I never felt that way. We have to do something, because that doesn’t look good and we have to speed up and talk only to each other and play better than that. Above all it is effort. … I would say that right now it seems that we don’t care, honestly, if we win games or not ”.
When the Porzingis trade was done, some privileged people in the league were slightly concerned, as they knew the egos of Doncic and Porzingis. The Mavericks weren’t on Janis Porzingis ’wish list he gave Steve Mills, perhaps knowing the Mavericks already had the franchise’s face.
The Porzingis brothers had problems in the eyes of general manager Steve Mills and Knicks, Scott Perry, and tried to reduce their losses before he became a restricted free agent.
The extra boundary space provided by the trade did not stop its two big fish: Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. But it did reach Julius Randle and Morris. They didn’t make a perfect forward tandem last season, but Randle played much better once Morris was sent off in February.
This season, Randle has exploded, earning a major All Star consideration for pushing the Knicks with 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 has gone the opposite way. “The G-League is a very valuable tool,” Thibodeau said Sunday before facing the Clippers. “It is seen that it is increasingly used by virtually all teams in the league. You get a lot out of practice, but playing time is important. I think it will be great for him. His attitude has been very positive. “
Smith, the Knicks say, requested the move. Ironically, The Post reported that former player development manager Craig Robinson wanted to put Smith in the G-League last season, but Perry rejected the idea. According to sources, Perry feared Smith’s representatives would get angry.
Smith has been relegated to two cameos in junk time since returning from a quad injury in the first week of January. Earlier this week, Thibodeau mentioned his guard options but did not mention Smith.
When Thibodeau was hired, he promised to use the G League more liberally. Now Smith is going to the bubble where other teams can see him play and maybe increase his commercial value.
Meanwhile, Porzingis, who is 25 years old and missed the first nine games after knee surgery, averages 18.6 points, eight rebounds and less than one assist per game. The Latvian 7-3 has never been as good as it had been announced when it came out of the 2015 draft.
With the novice lottery selection, Obi Toppin, can hardly become a prominent vanguard, the Knicks look to Randle with a new lens, not as a commercial bait. The question is how Dallas sees Porzingis now.