Reaction to point guard Monte Morris reportedly planning to sign with the Phoenix Suns

Reaction to point guard Monte Morris reportedly planning to sign with the Phoenix Suns

according to Sham chirania free agent guard Monte Morris plans to sign a deal with the Phoenix Suns the Suns lock in a reliable point guard entering his eighth NBA season Morris has averaged 10 points 39% 3point shooting and 3.8 assists over his career all right I like this this is probably the best case scenario if you’re dealing in reality for the Suns don’t you think Kell I mean you can’t just go out there and pick any point guard you want of all the names on the list and Kevin and I went through this earlier in the show too talking about a guy that’s still in his 20s 29 a guy that has experience in this league though and a guy that I don’t hate that 39% from three either I know he’s not going to be hoisting up a bunch but your initial thoughts on this one yeah this is about as well as a Suns could have done with this role and finding the right fit and what I mean by that is threading the needle here was going to be difficult because you could not bring in a point guard who is expecting to be having a prominent role on this team this is going to be a guy who some nights plays 9 Minutes some nights plays 26 minutes and when bradle the beer Deon Booker is injured we know that those guys aren’t going to play 82 full games this is someone who probably steps up into your starting lineup and now takes on a much bigger role that is something that Monte has done over the course of his career I think that he was looked at widely in Denver when Jamal Murray was taking his rise he was widely looked at as the premier backup point guard in all of the league he was someone who is Sixth Man of the Year voting uh in his history and that was just in his second NBA season when he got started with Denver here is the backstory he got traded to the Wizards in 2022 in the off season spends a year in Washington puts up pretty much the same numbers he always has but then from there was traded to Detroit he got injured only played six games for Detroit returned around January I want to say and then right around the trade deadline gets traded to Minnesota Minnesota is a team where behind Mike Conley for a number of years now even before on the got there they’ve had trouble at back a point guard they’ve tried jayen Noel they’ve tried Jordan mclaughin they’ve tried other guys so Morris seemed like a perfect fit for them but then he got there and he just wasn’t able to retain a consistent role the why I can’t really tell you right now is something that I’m going to feel better about once I go back and watch more of this but in the regular season he was still able to be effective but we saw him in that series he was out there occasionally against the Suns but very rarely so the why there what stage of his career is he at right now is he still in his prime is he fading a bit I’m not really sure but again we’re talking about a guy on the minimum who just two three years ago had established himself as the best backup point guard in basketball and Luke uh head numbing turnovers were a consistent theme of last year’s team uh Chris Paul’s assist turnover ratio is something we talked about a ton when he was here it was somewhere around like the three to four range here’s Monte Morris by season his assist to turnover ratio 5.71 4.81 4.41 4.27 5.43 and then this year in limited games he had 69 assists and only seven turnovers he takes care of the ball better than just about anyone on the team so again or in the league I should say so again we go to this role and how you’re only going to be out there on the ball just a little bit you need to not only maximize it but take care of it the um the drag and Bender rule is what I will bring up right now and here’s the drag and Bender there’s only one dragin struggled as an NBA player because what would happen is in a limited role where he was asked to just shoot threes play defense all that kind of stuff he would screw something up at least once or twice per shift that would negate anything positive that he did Monte Morris is the opposite of that where he is consistently taking care of the ball and doing things right that he’s just not really making mistakes I thing that I liked to see from him last year I saw it in that series when I was covering it and then just in some of the Minnesota games we were watching leading up to the series he can still hang defensively he was someone who went to a team known for a defensive identity and he got in there and impacted games in that kind of way not a breakaway Defender don’t give me wrong with someone that can hang on that end and you mentioned the 39% from three so this is someone who on the ball is going to generate assists while taking care of the ball off the ball he’s going to knock down threes and make good decisions and he’s going to play solid defense again if he can get back to the player that he was in Denver this is a home run but even if he isn’t that you’ve still got someone who theoretically should be a positive for you so again best case scenario I think for him especially at this point of in his career he gets to go to a team that desperately needs what he does and kind of Reet where he was at because it was a weird last two years for him you had me at mon Morris as the opposite of dragon Bender like I appreciate everything you said after that but when you said Monte Morris is the opposite of drag and Bender that’s really that’s all I needed I’m sold um I tell you it the roster feels more complete right now with this move that just happened in the last what five six minutes um because For the first time in a while they have a a just a true point guard but also everything you just said I think is such a big part of this equation they don’t have to lean on him a ton but now Mike buen holer has options now I made this analogy the other day it before it was like it’s like running a restaurant and asking your Chef to also make the deliveries like that’s essentially what they were doing with Devon Booker like can your Chef Drive yeah he can he could drive a car he could deliver what he just made but why are you doing it that way why not just have somebody else that can run your deliveries now you have somebody who can do a lot of those things like you said even whether if it means Devon Booker or Bradley Beal’s out and they need somebody to step in or just simply to give them a little bit of a rest from that responsibility during the game uh this look I know I know adding buen holer to replace Frank vogle that whole move is probably the most significant move they’ll make this off season but this one feels big because you also went out and got a guy that is still young in this league and can still do I mean the profile you just read right there that he can hit some threes if he has to that he does not turn the ball over that just by the nature of the fact that he is coming to Phoenix and taking this deal he knows he’s not the guy or expected to be the guy or he can’t expect to be the guy or even the second guy or the third guy that to me says he’s okay with this role and he’s probably embracing it I think that for him too again I’m really going to focus on this the league is a weird place man because you can just kind of float around for a couple of years we were talking about Kelly UB on our show yesterday he goes to Phoenix finally finds a situation after Washington where he’s doing what he was doing well in Washington but on a team where he’s impacting games and they’re winning games and then he gets traded and then he’s on Golden State and then he’s on Charlotte and it’s looking like if this continues for another year or two he is not going to have a job in the NBA anymore he goes to Philly and he looks like a playoff caliber wing and sometimes you just need to find that reset in your career and find that space where you can be valued and I have no doubt that Phoenix is a for him yeah so this is I mean now without knowing what happens with Damen Lee Andor Josh aogi it’s not like the roster is complete necessarily but now it kind of feels like if the season started tomorrow I’m I’m ready to see what this team can do and when you look at at the guys that were available realistically when you’re talking about Kyle Lowry and you’re talking I mean Chris Dunn’s gone you’re talking about some of these other players we were running through the list earlier I mean to the point where Kevin had to bring up Pat Bev’s name name earlier in the show uh Dennis Smith Jr some of these other guys like the the list of realistic options for the Suns Monte Morris I think was probably at the top of every Sons fans list interesting uh difference between last year and this year in the off season remember last off season they were looking for athleticism Youth and Young guys who could develop into more they were looking at kabat’s deop udawat Nai for me to again use the career parallels and that kind of thing those were guys that had developed their skills on these kind of iffy okay teams and they were moving to a contender to really prove themselves Jordan Goodwin was another guy on the trade market that we got excited for all of those guys did not pan out including Drew Eubanks including Josh aogi and look at what they’ve done now they’ve signed a guy who has over a decade in the NBA and then a guy who has a really stacked resume as a backup point guard like they have moved away from this potential and and a lot of what helped with that Luke is their ability to draft two guys as well so the youth and athleticism that they were looking for they get it through the draft and now in Fr agency they were more focused on Veterans I think there was a clear intention here with the guys that they were targeting yeah and and you know the fact that they were able to condense a lot of those free agents they picked up last year that didn’t work out they essentially condensed them into Royce O’Neal I mean this this does I don’t want to go down the same path a lot of people went down last year where it’s like oh the sun’s roster is going to be outstanding because there were a lot of question marks I feel like there are less question marks individually on the roster right now what they can do collectively together within the scope of trying to win a champ Championship I understand that’s still a huge question mark but if you just go up and down the roster now I feel like there are less significant question marks thanks for watching wolf and Luke tap to see more and click the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports

Luke Lapinski and Kellan Olson react to the report of the Phoenix Suns signing point guard Monte Morris.

Video: Jeremy Schnell and Ed Cole/Arizona Sports
Photo Credit: David Berding/Getty Images

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