CLEVELAND – There is already an NBA buyout success story in the Morris basketball family.
In 2020, the “bubble” year, Markieff Morris was bought out from his contract with the Detroit Pistons, signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for the veteran’s minimum, played consistent minutes off the bench and won a championship.
There are stories like Markieff Morris’ out there, but they are not common. For as much interest as the NBA buyout market draws each March, on the heels of the froth-at-the-mouth trade deadline, which has millions of fans refreshing their phones every few seconds in early February to see which blockbuster deal was hatched, seldom do players bought out from their contracts by one team wind up making a significant impact on the eventual championship roster.
More commonly, buyout players (they’re actually free agents, signed to new deals before a deadline that must be met to be eligible for the postseason) make little impact at all.
That’s the direction Markieff’s twin brother, Marcus Morris Sr., was headed as a buyout guy with the Cleveland Cavaliers, until he arrived at the arena Tuesday night for Game 5 of this first-round playoff series with the Orlando Magic. Through the first four games, Marcus Morris had logged nine total minutes — all in garbage time. His biggest contribution to the Cavs in the playoffs was, while sitting next to Tristan Thompson on the bench, engaging in as much heckling of the Magic players as possible.
“It was funny — the first four games I was like, ‘Damn, am I even going to play in the playoffs?’” Morris said.
Morris is in his 13th NBA season and this is his seventh playoff run. But it’s the first postseason in which he entered without a rotation spot on his team. The first playoffs he ever played in was against the Cavs, as a member of the Pistons; he and the rest of us can still remember him drilling LeBron James in the back during that hard-fought first-round series in 2016 in which the games were much closer than the sweep would indicate. He’s been as far as the conference finals, twice, including against the Cavs as a member of the Boston Celtics in 2018. The fewest minutes per game he’d ever averaged in a playoff series coming into this postseason was 22.8, last year with the Los Angeles Clippers in a first-round loss to the Phoenix Suns.
Morris was traded twice this season and ended up with the San Antonio Spurs in late February. The Spurs bought out a portion of what was left on his $17 million contract for the season, and he chose to sign with the Cavs, in part, so he could play in the playoffs. For Cleveland’s part, coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, the team was “scouring the Earth to see what’s available” when engaging Morris — first signing him to a 10-day contract and then for the rest of the season. Morris appeared in 12 games for the Cavs and averaged 5.8 points. He was watching, and talking trash, through four playoff games, until an injury to Jarrett Allen and a shooting slump too bad to ignore for Georges Niang forced Cleveland to look at Morris.
So when he showed up at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Tuesday to get ready for pivotal Game 5, with the series tied at 2-2, the Cleveland coaching staff told Morris to “stay ready.”
“I’ve been ready,” Morris insisted.
He proved it, scoring 12 points off the bench, with two 3s and three rebounds in 26 minutes in a 104-103 win over the Magic. Six of his points came in a nip-and-tuck fourth quarter, on 3-pointers. His point total was the second-most points any Cleveland bench player has scored this entire playoffs.
“I knew that I could help in some type of capacity,” he said.
There were several important changes the Cavs made for Game 5, and most were related to Allen’s bruised rib that forced him out of the lineup for Game 5 and is clouding his status for the rest of the series. Cleveland had to go small, switching to the 1-in (Evan Mobley), 4-out (four guards) style the Cavs used to carpet bomb the NBA for December, January and the first part of February. Then, Mobley was injured and Allen was in the middle.
Game 5 was the best offensive performance for the Cavs in this series. They attempted 37 3s and made 13. They eclipsed 100 points for the first time. Donovan Mitchell was closer to the best version of himself (though not quite all the way there; he scored 28, 14 in the fourth quarter, but was still 1 of 7 from 3), and Darius Garland gave the Cavs more than he has this series.
Cleveland chose to start Isaac Okoro, a reserve wing, in Allen’s spot. The rotation was going to look different. Morris may have seen time regardless. But the Cavs chose to give Niang’s minutes to Morris, after Niang had shot 5 of 22 from the field and 1 of 11 on 3s through four games. At one point in Game 4, before garbage minutes allowed Cleveland to catch up a little, the Cavs reserves were being outscored by their Orlando counterparts, 38-4.
So as Game 6 approaches, back in Orlando, where the Cavs were downright rotten last weekend, there are a few items Bickerstaff has to give great consideration. Playing smaller seemed to help mitigate what the Magic had done so well defensively, and, without Morris, Cleveland wouldn’t have won Game 5. He needs to return for Game 6.
“He came in with the gritty mentality that we really needed, and he hit some big shots,” said Garland, who scored 23 points, adding five assists. “Hopefully he gets some more burn and see where it goes.”
Bickerstaff was an assistant coach in Houston in 2011 when Morris began his NBA career there.
“We knew what he’s capable of,” Bickerstaff said. “He’s just a guy you trust. And he’s been through these battles before. He’s tough as nails. He’s not afraid of s—.”
Cleveland fans remember Morris’ fearlessness, and until now, probably reviled it. They remember the shot into James’ back, and his jawing with Kevin Love during past playoff battles with Cleveland. Mitchell said he’s competed against Morris in the playoffs when Mitchell was starring for Utah and Morris was with the Clippers.
“It’s great to see him doing this on our team, because he got me a couple of times in Utah,” Mitchell said. “That’s why we brought him here.”
Morris said he watches past footage of himself in playoff games to prepare for each upcoming postseason he’s about to enter. So he’d glanced at those previous runs against Cleveland. Now 34, with some gray in his beard, Morris said, “I remember me playing well.
“I remember going up and down with King (James),” Morris said. “I looked so much younger. I was like, ‘Damn, can you get down to that weight?’”
Morris has been well liked by Cavs patrons since signing here. The good people of northeast Ohio love a player not afraid of dirty work, so long as the dirtiness is being projected onto the other team. Morris’ reputation as a potentially dirty player typically follows him, and even he knows he had a previous track record for controversy against past Cavs teams.
That’s why, he said, when the reaction was so warm to him signing with Cleveland, and again when he peeled off the warmups and checked in Tuesday, and certainly when he drained this two critical 3s in the fourth quarter, the support meant such a great deal to him.
“S—, I ain’t the most lovable guy around the league, you know what I’m saying?” Morris said. “So for a city like this to take me in and to actually push for me to play and want me to play — it felt really good.”
The Cavs’ track record in the buyout market is not great. In 2017, Andrew Bogut played for Cleveland for about one minute before breaking his leg in his first game. Last year, Danny Green joined the Cavs after a buyout and couldn’t help in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the player they bought out of his contract, Love, went to the Miami Heat and became a starter for them all the way through the Finals.
Morris can write the next feel-good chapter of the family’s newest buyout success story Friday, a story the Cavs are thrilled to be a part of.
(Ron Schwane/Associated Press)
