While the Thunder entered the All-Stat break with a loss to the Pelicans, the team will start the second half with an added boost. Oklahoma City agreed to terms with veteran big man Markieff Morris, which should fortify the team’s frontcourt.
Morris, who spent most of the season with the Wizards, has not played since December, when a neck injury forced him to the sidelines. While his role and performance were inconsistent in Washington, Morris averaged 11.5 PPG and 5.1 RPG in 34 games. Morris figures to serve as a primary backup at the four in Oklahoma City.
Brett Dawson and Fred Katz of The Athletic examined how Morris will fit in with the Thunder’s current roster. Katz compared Morris’ potential fit to that of Enes Kanter with a more capable perimeter game. While it remains to be seen how Morris settles in, at least one new teammate is excited by his arrival.
“We’re good,” Paul George said. “We’re a good group. We added a big piece in Markieff that we’re excited for, and we’re gonna be ready for the second half after this break.”
Check out more Northwest Division notes:
- The Timberwolves‘ decision to start Dario Saric in place of Taj Gibson led the team to score 74 points in the paint on Thursday. Interim head coach Ryan Saunders complimented Saric on creating space with his presence, per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “That’s one thing we like with Dario spacing the floor and having Taj in there at times, too,” Saunders said. “Karl(-Anthony Towns) has a little more opportunity to work. Playing through Karl is definitely a focus of ours.”
- Speaking of Saunders, he’s only a few weeks into the job after the firing of Tom Thibodeau. Saunders praised the Timberwolves‘ players for easing his transition into head coaching duties, Feigen writes. “Anything that’s new and sudden, it takes time to get more comfortable just in your regimen, your daily routine in things. But I felt comfortable out there,” he said. “The credit goes to the players in terms of how they make me feel, too.”
- At 27-30, the Timberwolves are four games back of the eighth seed in the Western Conference. While their postseason odds are not great, the team insists there is reason for optimism entering the second half, Chris Hine of the Star Tribune writes.
The wolves should be a top 5 team. Either coaching is terrible or Wiggins is a terrible leader but there is no reason a team that deep is under 500
Completely agree .. It just seems like they have no energy/interest in way too many games they should win !! Not sure if that all falls at the feet of Wiggins but as a leader on this team he needs to take a serious look at himself ..
They’ve had so many injuries. Our 4th string PG started a handful of games. Been missing Covington for almost all of Saunders time as coach. Let me get healthy.
Starting 4-9 really put us in a hole before the Butler trade.
OKC will not make it past the second round.
Only Denver & probably GSW will go past the second round, so that is a bit of an obvious & redundant comment, right?
Wiggins is the worst “max” player I’ve ever seen.
If, and that’s a BIG IF, they should luck out and make the playoffs, their first opponent will send them packing. To identify a team/organization strategy for the balance of the season, TANKING, comes to mind.
Does tanking really help? They’ve had 3 number one overall picks on their roster at the same time…didn’t help too much.