Why Markieff Morris already feels comfortable with Heat. Also, Bam Adebayo’s moment is near
The three-point shot has never been more popular in the NBA, but veteran forward Markieff Morris is fine with taking fewer of them.
Morris, 32, is thrilled he’s getting more opportunities inside the three-point line in his first season with the Miami Heat after being used primarily as a floor spacer in the previous two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I’m finally back to basically where I had success at in the league early in my career,” Morris said in advance of the Heat’s matchup against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Wednesday night. “For me personally, the game has changed a lot from when I first came in to now. Over here, these guys are doing a great job of letting me just play my game, and they’re playing to my strengths.”
That’s playing as the roll man in pick-and-rolls and rolling to the basket or finding an open area on the court for a pick-and-pop opportunity. That’s working in the mid-post area or at the elbow. That’s sealing a smaller defender in the paint for an easy basket in transition.
It’s a similar offensive role to the one that the 6-9 Morris was used in earlier in his NBA career with the Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards.
“It’s not as if we’re inventing that part of his game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s who he used to be, particularly when he was with Washington. That’s who he was, a pick-and-roll, in the pocket and make plays from there. Post up, you can run offense through him there. You can use him in a lot of different ways offensively similarly to how we use Bam [Adebayo]. But he’s starting to get his legs. He’s really working diligently on his conditioning and you see the impact that he can make.”
In a floor-spacing role with the Lakers alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, a career-high 54 percent of Morris’ shots came from three-point range in 2019-20. That number remained about the same last season, when 53 percent of his shots were threes.
Through the first three games of the Heat’s season, only 32 percent of Morris’ shot attempts have been threes. Instead, 44 percent of his shots have come from midrange and 24 percent have come at the rim.
It’s a more similar shot profile to the 2014-15 version of Morris, when he averaged a career-high 15.3 points on 46.5 percent shooting from the field, 6.2 rebounds and a career-high 2.3 assists with the Suns. Only 15 percent of his shots came from three-point range that season, with 57 percent attempted from midrange and 28 percent at the rim.
“They’re just using me all over,” said Morris, who signed a one-year veteran minimum deaI with the Heat this past offseason. “The last couple years I’ve played, I’ve just been one-dimensional. A lot of threes, spacing the floor. But now I’m back to how I was when I was playing with Washington and Phoenix, being able to play all over the floor and just play my game.”
In a bench role with the Heat this season, Morris entered Wednesday’s matchup against the Nets averaging nine points while shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 2 of 8 (25 percent) on threes, 2.7 rebounds and one assist in 20 minutes through the first three games.
After totaling just 11 points on 5-of-16 (31.3 percent) shooting in the first two games, Morris turned in his best performance as a member of the Heat in Monday’s win over the Orlando Magic when he recorded 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, three rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 25 minutes off the bench.
“I think one thing about Markieff is we’re going to need him,” Heat point guard Kyle Lowry said. “We’re going to need him to make those midrange jump shots, play defense, grab rebounds and be a post presence. He has an ability to score the ball and he’s just going to continue to get better as we all figure out each other and as we play on the floor together.”
BAM’S MOMENT
The Heat announced Wednesday that the organization will honor Adebayo for helping Team USA win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with a halftime ceremony during Friday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets at FTX Arena.
As part of the ceremony, Adebayo’s Olympic banner will be unveiled alongside those of Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, who also won Olympic gold medals while with the Heat.
THE GARRETT PLAN
Spoelstra offered some clarity on the plan for two-way contract guard Marcus Garrett, who was assigned to the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, as part of his two-way deal on Tuesday.
“He’s had a really good month and summer,” Spoelstra said of Garrett. “Now the next most important thing is to get some playing time. Training camp [this week in Sioux Falls] will be really good for him. He gets those extra practices and reps with the details, but then also play some games. We’ll figure out how long. He’s going to be splitting time. So he’ll be going back and forth. But this will be really good for him.”
Players on two-way contracts like Garrett can be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games this season. The Heat’s other two-way contract player, wing Caleb Martin, remains with the team.
▪ With Garrett now heading to the G League, guard Victor Oladipo is the only other Heat player on the injury report for Wednesday’s contest against the Nets. Oladipo remains out as he continues to recover from May knee surgery.
The Nets’ injury report only includes star guard Kyrie Irving, who is ineligible to play because he is not vaccinated.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 12:26 PM.
