Pacific Notes: Morris, Schneider, Ayton, Haliburton

Clippers power forward Marcus Morris has thrived across the 16 games he has played since replacing Nicolas Batum in the team’s starting lineup, as Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times details. Los Angeles is 13-3 since head coach Tyronn Lue made the change.

Ahead of tonight’s 126-115 victory over the Pacers, Morris had been connecting on 48.8% on his 6.2 three-pointers a night and 51% overall from the floor since taking over as a starter.

My production is the same, minutes (have) been the same,” Batum said of the switch. “But Marcus has been great for us. He has been even better since he has been starting.”

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

  • The Warriors have announced (Twitter link) that Brandon Schneider will replace departing Rick Welts as Golden State’s president and COO when the latter retires at the end of the 2020/21 season. Schneider has served as the Warriors’ chief revenue officer since 2018, and has spent 19 seasons with Golden State overall.
  • Suns center Deandre Ayton has been a big, but subtle, contributor to the club’s newfound success this season, writes Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Though he is known more for his scoring and rebounding, Ayton has been able to juggle his impressive skill set with a growing defensive game and improved screening.
  • Kings rookie shooting guard Tyrese Haliburton acknowledged his frustration over his team’s current seven-game losing streak, according to James Ham of NBC Sports California“We know we’re better than this, we’ve proven we’re better than this throughout the year,” Haliburton said. “But obviously, consistency has plagued us our whole season.” With a 22-32 record, the Kings are currently four games behind the tenth-seeded Warriors for a chance at a play-in tournament berth.
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