Markieff Morris surprisingly declared “I want to be here” as he addressed reporters at Suns media day earlier this week, declining to otherwise address his tumultuous offseason relationship with the team. Morris had demanded a trade in August, weeks after the team dealt his twin brother to the Pistons. Morris had said even as he made his trade demand that he would show up for camp, but it’s a bit surprising to see him seemingly put his frustration with the Suns behind him after not backing down in early September, tweeting that, “My future will not be in Phoenix.” That remark earned Morris a $10K fine from the league.
The former 13th overall pick had indicated that he planned not to talk to the Suns front office and to answer coach Jeff Hornacek only with one-word responses, but he appears to have changed that stance after making his media day declaration. In any case, he’s due $8MM this season in the first year of a four-year, $32MM extension that he signed at the same time his brother inked a four-year, $20MM extension with the team in the hopes that the pair would be together for the long term.
Here’s more from the week that was…
Free Agent Signings
Eastern Conference
- The Sixers signed J.P. Tokoto, T.J. McConnell, Jordan McRae and Christian Wood.
- The Raptors signed Anthony Bennett.
- The Hawks waived the retiring Jason Richardson.
- The Heat signed John Lucas III.
- The Heat signed Tre Kelley.
- The Bulls signed Marcus Simmons and Jake Anderson.
- The Cavaliers signed Michael Dunigan.
- The Hawks signed Arsalan Kazemi.
- The Bulls signed Stefhon Hannah.
- The Pacers agreed to a deal with Kadeem Jack.
Western Conference
- The Grizzlies signed Yakhouba Diawara, Ryan Hollins, Michael Holyfield, Lazeric Jones and Daniel Nwaelele.
- The Spurs signed Rasual Butler and Deshaun Thomas.
- The Warriors signed Ben Gordon.
- The Nuggets signed Mike Miller.
Overseas
- Michael Beasley signed with Shandong of the Chinese Basketball Association.
You can stay up to date on all of the signings with Hoops Rumors’ free agent tracker.
Waivers
- The Sixers waived Gerald Wallace.
- The Nuggets waived Kostas Papanikolaou.
- The Blazers waived Mike Miller after reaching an agreement on a buyout.
Contract Options
- The Rockets reportedly intend to exercise their team option to keep center Clint Capela on his rookie scale contract for the 2016/17 season.
- The Raptors exercised their team options for 2016/17 on the rookie scale contracts of Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira.
- The Trail Blazers exercised their rookie scale team options for the 2016/17 season with C.J. McCollum, Mason Plumlee and Noah Vonleh.
- The Wizards exercised their team option on Otto Porter‘s rookie scale deal for 2016/17.
D-League News
- Second-round pick Andrew Harrison will sign with the D-League affiliate of the Grizzlies.
- Heat assistant Dan Craig was officially named as head coach of the franchise’s D-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Miscellaneous News
- Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is taking a leave of absence from the team in order to focus on his recovery and rehabilitation from back surgery. Luke Walton will act as interim head coach.
- The Bucks signed John Henson to a four-year contract extension.
- The Bucks hired longtime NBA executive Rod Thorn as a special consultant.
- The Lakers hired Hall-of-Famer James Worthy to work with the team’s coaching staff.
- Cavaliers swingman Iman Shumpert will miss the next 12-14 weeks because of a wrist injury.