Through pretty much their entire basketball careers, Markieff Morris and twin brother Marcus Morris have been on the same team. Same youth teams, same Prep Charter high school in Philadelphia, then together in college at Kansas. They were selected back-to-back in the NBA draft in 2011, but a 2013 trade united them again on the Phoenix Suns.
Now they want to keep playing together, the twins told the Philadelphia Inquirer on a trip home.
One little problem: Their rookie contracts are close to ending and both will likely be restricted free agents next summer (unless they reach extensions in Phoenix, which is unlikely. Destinations could change.“Wherever we’re together, it’s home,” Markieff said. “We just go out there and have fun. The game isn’t the same when we’re apart.”
“It’s a unique situation,” Marcus said. “We’re just trying to do enough so teams can see us as players, as players, and as a tandem.”
“That was our dream growing up - it’s our life dream to play with each other in the NBA,” Marcus said. “We’re together now. We try to make the best of it. Hopefully, we retire together.”
It certainly is possible that next summer the Suns could come to a deal to keep both on new contracts, although that will really come down to how they both play this season and mesh with a changing team.
Markieff last season injected himself into the Sixth Man of the Year conversation (fourth in the voting) after averaging 13.8 points a game on a .564 true shooting percentage as he did a lot of damage near the rim. There will be interest in Markieff around the league as he continues to develop. There will be interest in Marcus, too, the brother who prefers to space the floor more (40 percent of his shot attempts were from three and he hit 38.1 percent of them). However Marcus is not yet as efficient as his brother.
Of course, the real question in all of this is if they would take a pay cut to stay together. That becomes the real test.