It’s an awkward situation for the Morris twins these days, as Markieff Morris tries to lift the Wizards to a playoff spot while Marcus Morris makes the same effort for the Pistons, one of the teams standing in Washington’s path. Still, both agree that the Suns wronged them, as they tell Michael Lee of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Markieff Morris told Lee he never would have put pen to paper on the extension he signed in 2014 if he knew they would trade his brother, while Marcus Morris continued his criticism of the Suns for their failure to provide advance warning of the offseason swap. “Personally, I think he did a lot for Phoenix. He took a lot of sacrifices for Phoenix. For them to do such a thing, I feel like they backstabbed him,” Marcus Morris said about his brother. “I think if they had just reached out to him, reached out to both of us and said, ‘Listen, this is our direction. We don’t think this is going to work.’ We would understand, that’s what has to happen but by the fact that they didn’t do that, it made it worse. … He just didn’t want to be there. He didn’t feel the vibe.”
Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic is trying to pick up the pieces of an injury-plagued second season in the NBA, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. After earning second-team all-rookie honors in 2014/15, Nurkic has seen his playing time and effectiveness limited by an aching left knee. He had surgery during the offseason to repair a partially torn patellar tendon, but the knee hasn’t responded the way he hoped it would. He is averaging 6.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in just 23 games. “I can’t control this stuff,” Nurkic said. “When I hear my name I go in. I haven’t heard it a lot this season for some reason, but I will be a professional until the end and try to finish the season the right way.” In October, Denver picked up his option for 2016/17 at $1,921,320. He also has a team option for 2017/18 at $2,947,305.
There’s more news today out of Denver:
- Both Emmanuel Mudiay and Nikola Jokic have strong cases to be first-team choices on this season’s all-rookie team, Dempsey contends in a separate story. Mudiay, the seventh player selected in the 2015 draft, leads NBA rookies in assists with 5.7 per game and is fourth in scoring average at 12.3 points per night. His main competition for first-team honors in the backcourt will come from the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell and the Suns’ Devin Booker, Dempsey believes. Jokic was a second-round pick in 2014 who played in the Adriatic and Serbian leagues before coming to the NBA. He ranks second among rookies behind the Wolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns in player efficiency rating and is fourth in rebounding and eighth in scoring.
- The Nuggets don’t know if Danilo Gallinari will play again this season, but the injured small forward plans to be part of the Italian team in the Summer Olympics, according to Marco “Barzo” Barzizza of Eurosport [hat tip to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando]. Gallinari suffered two torn ligaments in his right ankle during a late February game. The injury was expected to keep him out of action for about a month, but the Nuggets may shut him down for the season even if he does recover. “I don’t know if I’ll be back before the end of the season,” Gallinari said. “I am very happy to be in Denver and before thinking about new teams I hope to win something here and to play for the Denver Nuggets for many years.”
Tyson Chandler doesn’t want any part of a rebuilding team, James Herbert of CBSSports writes. “For me, especially where I am in my career, I want to win,” Chandler said (video link via The Arizona Republic). “I want to win now. I’m not in any kind of rebuilding stage. So if that’s the case, it ain’t where I’m supposed to be.” The Suns signed the 33-year-old to a four-year, $52MM deal last offseason and the team expected to be in the hunt for the playoffs. Phoenix currently owns a record of 19-50, as our Reverse Standings show.
- Suns interim coach Earl Watson credits his time spent in the Spurs organization as a D-League assistant with preparing him for the challenge of leading Phoenix, Mike Sorensen of The Deseret News writes. Watson also offered thanks to San Antonio assistant GM Scott Layden, who provided him with his first coaching opportunity, Sorensen adds. “Coach Layden is why I ended up in San Antonio,” Watson said. “It’s amazing how people you meet along the way, how they give you opportunities later in life and it can turn out to be the greatest opportunity ever. If I don’t go to San Antonio with coach Layden I don’t know if I become a coach that quickly. I learned a lot in San Antonio from coach Layden bringing me in.”
- The Lakers and Suns have been out of the playoff race for a long time, but their game tonight is still important, writes Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. L.A. is four and a half games ahead of Phoenix for second place in the latest reverse standings. Draft position is especially important for the Lakers, who need their pick to fall in the top three to avoid having it sent to the Sixers. Even so, coach Byron Scott gives no thought to losing. “We’re not in a weird position,” he said. “We play Phoenix and we’re trying to win the game.”
The Suns have signed forward/center Alan Williams to a multiyear contract, the team announced today. Williams inked a 10-day deal with Phoenix on March 8th and saw his first action in Thursday’s game at Utah.
A Phoenix native and UC Santa Barbara product, Williams wasn’t taken in last year’s NBA draft. He went to China, where he posted averages of 20.8 points and 15.4 rebounds for Qingdao, becoming the top rebounder in the Chinese Basketball Association. He’s also the top rebounder and second-leading scorer in UC Santa Barbara history.
Williams played for the Rockets’ entry in the 2015 Summer League, earning All-NBA Summer League Second Team honors. He averaged 20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in four games in the Las Vegas league.
- Rookie shooting guard Devin Booker is being groomed as the Suns‘ go-to player at the end of games, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Interim head coach Earl Watson is putting the ball in his hands during those situations to see how he responds, as Watson relayed to Coro. “Devin has to learn how to finish games at the elbow like Kobe Bryant,” Watson said. “He knows that. We talked about that. That’s the progression of him finishing games.”
Despite the Suns‘ struggles this season, center Tyson Chandler believes the franchise is heading in the right direction and credits the leadership of interim coach Earl Watson for changing the locker room culture, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “I’m excited with the direction we’re going,” Chandler said. “Of late, it’s showing in the win column but I just like what we’re doing. I like the mentality. I like the culture. I think things are really changing around here. It puts a little pep in your step. It’s amazing what the mind can do to you. When you’re carrying so much weight, you don’t have the pep in your step and the excitement that you normally play with. Once you’re able to release some of that stuff and the team starts playing the right way, it’s amazing how much better you feel.”
THURSDAY, 8:22am: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
TUESDAY, 2:11pm: The Nets plan to sign Henry Sims to a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The former Cavs and Sixers big man has been out of the NBA since the Suns cut him in the preseason, having joined the D-League affiliate of the Pistons this year. The contract will pay $57,726, with the Nets responsible for $55,722 while the league office picks up the rest for the three-year veteran.
Brooklyn already has Sean Kilpatrick on a 10-day contract, which expires at the end of Saturday, but he’s one of just 14 players on the Nets roster, so the team can make Sims its 15th man without offloading anybody. New Nets GM Sean Marks has said he wants to use 10-day contracts to discover players who can be a part of next season’s roster, and like Kilpatrick, Sims holds promise. The 25-year-old started 32 games for the Sixers last season, averaging 8.0 points and 4.9 rebounds in 19.2 minutes per contest across 73 appearances overall.
Sims put up 15.7 points and 8.9 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game for D-League Grand Rapids this season after limited preseason court time with Phoenix. It was somewhat surprising to see him linger in free agency this summer before he signed his non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Suns in September, and while he drew attention as one of the top prospects in the D-League, it was just as perplexing to see him without an NBA job for most of the season.
The Kings will listen to offers for DeMarcus Cousins this summer, but it’s unlikely that a trade occurs until they lower their asking price, Sam Amick of USA Today writes.
Last June, Sacramento reportedly wanted Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft and other draft considerations in exchange for Cousins. Some rival executives believed Sacramento’s demands were outrageous, Amick hears, while other executives viewed the proposal differently, speculating that the Kings didn’t value either the draft picks or unproven prospects as enough for Cousins by themselves because they wanted to win immediately.
The Kings are likely to soften their stance on a Cousins trade if the situation doesn’t improve leading up to the 2017 trade deadline, the scribe adds. Cousins is signed through the 2017/18 season, and he’ll make slightly over $35MM during the two seasons that follow this one.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division
- The Kings would like to mend their relationship with Cousins, and some within the organization hope that it could be fixed with a coaching change in the offseason, Amick writes in the same piece.
- Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak was in attendance for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s practice in Israel today, presumably to watch Dragan Bender, Jake Fischer of SI Now reports (Twitter link).
- The acquisition of Brandon Knight hasn’t worked out for the Suns, and the team would be foolish not to consider trading him, Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post opines. Bontemps argues that Knight’s five-year, $70MM deal is movable, and that with the emergence of Devin Booker, the team can afford to make a move in the backcourt.