The Suns gave Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris the chance to decide how to split $52MM in extension cash this fall, and Marcus tells Rolling Stone’s Jeff Allen that has no qualms about the uneven split that sets him up to make $5MM per year while his twin brother gets $8MM.
“Keef played really well last year. Coming off the bench he was a potential Sixth Man of the Year candidate. So I think he deserved for his number to be higher than mine,” Marcus said. “He’s one of the great power forwards in the league. If he was by himself he would’ve gotten way more than that. I just wanted personally for his number to be higher. We look at it as a number for the household, you know? $13MM a year for our family. Whatever it broke it down to, we didn’t really care.”
The brothers took the long-term deals rather than go for a chance to hit free agency in 2016, when the salary cap is expected to shoot up, to give themselves a better chance to continue to play together, Allen writes. There’s more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:
- Isaiah Thomas insists his decision to change agents isn’t an indication that he wants to be traded, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Many executives reportedly expect the Suns will deal one of Thomas, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic.
- Rudy Gay calls the pair of trades that he was a part of in 2013 “a shock to my system” that spurred him to make drastic changes on and off the court, as he says to Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. The Kings have been the beneficiaries of a player who’s become a bargain, Beck argues.
- Steve Kerr‘s coaching has helped Klay Thompson continue to improve even after the shooting guard signed his extension with the Warriors in October, as Chris Mannix of SI.com explores.