Marcus Morris heading to the Los Angeles Clippers was a surprising move to many, and the veteran forward is receiving mixed reactions to his trade. It was believed that Andre Drummond was the one to join the Clips before the trade deadline, but in the end, Morris ended up arriving at the Staples Center.
Just like people are celebrating this move, others aren’t so happy with it, including Bill Simmons, who tried to explain why adding Marcus was anything but a good move for the Clippers. Discussing the moves we saw before the trade deadline struck, Simmons didn’t hesitate to speak his mind about this one.
Bill Simmons: As somebody who has Clippers season tickets and is really rooting for them to get to the Finals, I hate this trade for them. I watched Marcus Morris on the Celtics for three years. I think on the right team he has a purpose and has real value. He is a ball stopper. The ball goes to him, and it stops. And if you watch the Clippers really carefully, George is a ball stopper in a lot of ways, Kawhi is a ball stopper, although he’s Kawhi. The Lou Williams “give the ball to him and Harrell sets a pick”, that’s a ball stopper. It’s a team where nobody’s moving ever, and now you’re adding a guy who’s basically a statue. And if you throw him the ball, he’s gonna take seven seconds to decide what to do. So now I have Kawhi, Paul George, Harrell, Lou Williams, all standing in different spots while Marcus Morris is deciding what to do.
The flip side though would be like, “Well, he’s a good open three-point shooter”. He was never comfortable with that in Boston. The problem with having a guy like Marcus Morris is: With a minute left, down one in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, he’ll think he should shoot. He’ll be like, “Actually Kawhi, I’ll take this”. That’s why you can’t have a guy like this, I don’t like the trade.
Ryen Russillo: I can’t believe that we agree, and you had such a bad time with Morris you added an extra year to his Boston run. He was only there two years.
Bill Simmons: Honestly, it felt like three.
Perhaps that’s the way things look right now, but you could see this as a move for the playoffs more than anything. Morris can shoot from deep, is a great defender that brings valuable things to that already scary Clippers defense.
Offensive issues can be fixed along the way, but this team landed a very good player to help them claim that longed-for NBA title.
