Report: Suns have a higher-than-expected asking price for Markieff Morris
Markieff Morris has been upset with the Suns ever since Phoenix traded his brother, Marcus, to the Pistons this past summer. Morris immediately demanded a trade, later pulling back that request at the start of the season.
Reverting on his desire to get out of Phoenix seemed like only a public narrative, though. The Suns have struggled integrating Morris, who was supposed to be one of their best players, into their team all year. And now, as Phoenix does actually try to trade him with the deadline coming up in two days, the organization's asking price remains high, via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
Suns general manager Ryan McDonough has been pursuing a package that includes a younger player and a first-round pick, league executives said. The Suns are motivated to honor Morris' desire for a trade – and have no intention of bringing him back next season – but teams are starting to think the Suns could hold onto Morris past the Thursday trade deadline without a deal that brings back a player of value with a first-round pick.
The Suns could wait until the summer to move Morris when teams who have missed on free-agent priorities return aggressively into the trade market for the power forward. Morris' contract has three years, $24 million left after this season, which is still on the low end for a player of his talent – whatever the recurring issues with his attitude and professionalism.
Morris had been disgrunted enough that now-fired coach Jeff Hornacek was sitting him for entire games until the Suns ousted their coach at the beginning of the month.
Morris' numbers are down across the board from last year. Pick any category: points, rebounds, three-point percentage, field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage. It's all worse. And part of it has to be because of his attitude.
The Suns power forward recently got into a physical altercation with teammate Archie Goodwin in the middle of a game. The kerfuffle was caught on camera and blew up. Afterwards, he said addressing a situation with Goodwin that way was just him being a leader.
With the salary cap expected to rise extreme amounts during each of the next two years, Morris' four-year, $32 million deal is more than team-friendly as long as he performs as well as his talent allows him. But that said, unless he ends up getting shipped to the Pistons, he won't be playing with his brother on his next team, either. So, will he be happy leaving Phoenix no matter what? Or does he just long for a former, unrealistic situation? And if that's the case, should another team feel comfortable giving up more than a first-round pick for someone who could further implode?
