Ask and ye shall receive: The Phoenix Suns finally have a point guard again. Monte Morris won’t be the starting point guard, and it was always unlikely they would get a starting point guard anyway, but for 15-20 minutes a night, Phoenix can rest easy knowing they addressed their glaring need for a backup floor general.
Last year, it was supposed to be Jordan Goodwin, but that never panned out. This year, the Suns are entrusting those minutes to Morris, a 29-year-old veteran who was arguably the NBA’s best backup point guard just a few seasons ago.
Morris joins the Suns on a one-year, $2.8 million veteran minimum deal, and although he wouldn’t mention which teams were vying for his services, it was clear that Phoenix was the most attractive destination among those options.
“I think Phoenix was the perfect spot for me as far as opportunity, and just a chance to compete with a great team, a great coach, and get a chance to win a championship,” Morris said.
Over the last few years, Morris has struggled to replicate the same high-end impact he had with the Denver Nuggets for another winning team, spending one solid year with the lottery-bound Washington Wizards before recovering from a quad injury for the first half of last season on the Detroit Pistons.
That limited him to just six games before he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where shaking off the rust and finding his place in an established rotation proved difficult.
Morris got inconsistent playing time and finished his 27-game stint there averaging 5.1 points and 2.1 assists in 15.1 minutes per game. Despite his fluctuating minutes and the arrival of rookie Rob Dillingham, losing Morris was an understated blow for the Timberwolves.
Hopefully it’ll be Phoenix’s gain. According to a source, the Suns’ top three targets this summer were Ryan Dunn in the draft, and Monte Morris and Kyle Lowry in free agency. They’ve landed two of the three, and talks with Lowry are still ongoing. But even if they don’t go 3-for-3, the Suns are comfortable with their new addition.
Last season was a roller coaster ride, but now that he’s healthy, Morris is eager to remind people what he can do.
“I think it’ll be amazing,” Morris said. “I think it’s right on time, especially with me not having the year I wanted to despite injury and all those things. Just having that hunger back and just that drive to just show the league that I’m still that same player, that the injuries last year was a fluke. But I think it was a blessing in disguise for me to have this opportunity.”
The hope is that a fully healthy offseason and training camp will lead to a resurgence. If that’s the case, and Monte Morris can get back to the guy who put up 10.3 points and 5.3 assists per game on .480/.382/.831 shooting splits in his last healthy season for the Wizards, he could wind up being an offseason steal.
So what can the Suns expect from their new arrival? Let’s take a look at three aspects of Monte Morris’ game to answer that question.
Monte MOrris and his elite assist-to-turnover ratio
No matter where you stood on the “Suns need a point guard” issue, they certainly needed a backup floor general, and they definitely needed to cut down on their disastrous turnover issue. Monte Morris is the perfect candidate to organize the second unit when one or two members of the Big 3 rest, and he’ll be a godsend in the ball control department.
Morris has had an elite assist-to-turnover ratio since his college days. In four years at Iowa State, he set the NCAA record for assist-to-turnover ratio (4.79), and then broke his own record again as a senior (5.21). Assist-to-turnover data only goes back to 2008, but Morris still holds three of the top-seven single-season assist-to-turnover ratios ever recorded in NCAA men’s basketball, and four of the top 12. That’s insane!
The best part is Morris has carried that trait over to the pros. Before last year’s injury-riddled campaign, here’s where he ranked in the entire NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio over five NBA seasons as a rotation player:
- 2022-23: 1st (5.43)
- 2021-22: 5th (4.27)
- 2020-21: 2nd (4.41)
- 2019-20: 2nd (4.81)
- 2018-19: 2nd (5.71)
Even last year, Morris racked up 69 assists to only 7 turnovers over 33 games in Detroit and Minnesota. He didn’t qualify for season-end leaderboards, but he had the second-highest assist-to-turnover ratio in the entire league (9.86) over 29 games with the Wolves.
One of his nicknames on Basketball-Reference, “The Count of Monte Assist/TO,” is truly incredible, but it’s also fitting. Monte Morris wasn’t aware of that nickname, but taking care of the ball is something his mother impressed on him from an early age.
“My mom would always be on me about taking care of the basketball,” Morris recalled with a smile. “She would say, ‘Don’t let ’em steal my purse from you.’ So I kinda treat the ball like my momma’s purse, I try to just keep everything intact with that.
“But I’m going out there just to play basketball. I’ve been doing this since I was like four years old, so just loving the game, it kind of just comes second nature to me as far as trying to protect the basketball. I’m not trying to not make turnovers, I’m just trying to play within myself and try to play chess, not checkers.”
That should be music to Suns fans’ ears after last season, especially since Morris’ astronomical assist-to-turnover ratio isn’t just based on reducing turnovers. Even in a down year, Morris ranked in the 90th percentile in assists per 75 possessions, per The BBall Index. In his last healthy season in Washington, he placed in the 92nd percentile.
Morris was also in the 88th percentile in passing creation volume, the 93rd percentile in passing efficiency, and the 93rd percentile in high-volume assist points per 75 possessions with the Wizards.
Watch some of his tape from the last few years, and his assists are rarely flashy, but Morris has a knack for moving the ball where it needs to go. He routinely makes the simple, smart play, and he’s always careful to make sure it’s a safe pass that won’t get picked off:
At his healthiest, Monte Morris doesn’t mind collapsing a defense and finding open teammates. With the Wizards, he ranked in the 70th percentile in drives per 75 possessions and the 80th percentile in drive assist rate.
Because he’s been a solid finisher at the rim (72.6 percent in Washington) and has a respectable floater, defenders have to respect his drives. That opens up shooters on the perimeter for drive-and-kicks:
Morris driving like that, while playing next to all-world scorers like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal — not to mention deadly spot-up shooters like Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale — should make the Suns’ offense more dangerous.
“I think it’s gonna make it easier,” Morris said. “I feel like I’ve always had a feel, I always took care of the basketball, played with some good players throughout my career, but these players right here is Hall-of-Fame players. I’m just excited to share the court with those guys and have some good moments and make history.”
Morris is also more than capable in the pick-and-roll. In Washington, he ranked in the 97th percentile in points per possession as the pick-and-roll ball-handler. Even in more limited opportunities last year, he showed glimpses of still being that guy:
For his part, Morris said he’s focused on getting in the best shape possible to hit the ground running in training camp. As a point guard, he knows building chemistry with his teammates and learning their tendencies is a process, but he understands what Phoenix needs after looking so disorganized at times last year.
“Just being a point guard, getting guys to spots and getting the ball to where they need it to be productive,” Morris explained. “I think that’s one of my biggest traits as far as knowing how to adapt despite who I’m playing with. Four guys out there, but I think it’s big for me to know their games, know their spots, and also know the type of person they is so I can speak to them. I can’t speak to somebody the same way I can speak to another guy, so that all ties in to what I could bring to the table.”
The good news is, Morris already has familiarity with two of his Suns teammates. The first is Bradley Beal, who was Morris’ teammate for one season in Washington.
“We only had one year in D.C., but I think we definitely grew, especially when we were both able to be out there and play,” Morris said. “I think the sky’s the limit. I feel like we already built a little chemistry in D.C., so he knows my game, I’m very familiar with his. So it should be a smooth transition.”
Monte Morris also spent three seasons in Denver with the newly-signed Mason Plumlee, which will be huge for Phoenix’s chemistry in the second unit. In their two full seasons together, Morris assisted on 97 of Plumlee’s 439 made baskets. That’s about 22 percent of his made buckets, and if you narrow it down to his assisted makes, Morris accounted for 31 percent of those.
In other words, this duo had an excellent connection that should translate to Phoenix. If you’ve got two minutes and change to spare, these are just some of their highlights from their time together in Denver:
“I think me and Mason, we had a great run in Denver, threw him a lot of lobs,” Morris said. “He knows how to get me open, and I feel like we communicate with our eyes. I feel like we played together three years, and it was a high-level three years. He would hit me on a lot of backdoor cuts and things like that, but he’s a better person, also, than a player, and I’m excited to get back out there with him.”
Plumlee is no longer the same high-flying lob terror, but he’s still a respectable rim-runner and alley-oop threat. The Suns didn’t add Monte Morris just to make Mason Plumlee better (and Plumlee didn’t even know Morris was joining Phoenix as well when he committed), but it’s certainly a nice, added bonus.
“Monte is such an underrated player,” Plumlee said. “I have so much respect for him, and I’ve been in games where he’s hit big shots, he’s made big plays. I think the attraction to him at the outset of his career was how well he takes care of the ball. I know in college he had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios, but he’s just a really smart player and someone that makes the game make sense for everybody that he’s playing with.”
Underrated point-of-attack defense
When Monte Morris got traded to the Timberwolves, he was working his way back from injury and trying to prove himself within an established rotation that boasted the league’s stingiest defense.
He embraced that challenge, and it showed. From mirroring quick scorers like Anfernee Simons to chasing cerebral guards like Chris Paul, Morris stuck to his assignments like glue:
“Coming into a situation like I did in Minnesota, they were already No. 1 in the league in defense,” Morris said. “I just didn’t want to be a weak link, so I had to come straight in and adapt real quick.”
Try as they might, opponents couldn’t target Morris as the weakest link. Bigger guards like James Harden and DeMar DeRozan gave it their best shot, but the 6-foot-2 Morris held his ground.
“It was fun out there getting stops,” Morris said. “I think this year was probably my best defensive year despite coming in [late]. But I think me putting on some muscle and stuff like that, it definitely made defense a little more easier, so I plan to be even better here with the Suns and set the tone when my number is called.”
While he’s not a swarming ball hawk like a Jrue Holiday or a Kris Dunn, Morris is a lot more formidable than he’s given credit for. He even spent time switching onto wings and playing passing lanes to create havoc, all of which can help a Suns squad that needs more point-of-attack defenders.
This wasn’t just some recent development in Morris’ game either. In his last healthy season in D.C., Morris ranked in the 90th percentile in on-ball perimeter defense, the 95th percentile in off-ball chaser defense and the 94th percentile in ball-screen navigation…all while placing in the 87th percentile in time spent guarding primary ball-handlers.
If he can take what he learned in Minnesota, keep on that muscle, and couple it with his more agile self from his Nuggets and Wizards days, the Suns could have another welcome defensive presence on the perimeter.
Monte Morris can Score on or off the ball
Monte Morris only shot 41.7 percent from the floor last year, but nearly half his shot attempts came from beyond the arc, and he made 42.4 percent of those looks.
Morris ranked in the 89th percentile in spot-up points per possession with the Wizards, and he’s a career 41.5 percent shooter on catch-and-shoot 3s. His game-winning 3 over the Golden State Warriors back in 2022 was his most memorable example:
That catch-and-shoot ability will help him fit with the Big 3 when they need him to play off the ball, but he can also create his own looks — something that was nonexistent for Phoenix’s bench last year.
In Washington, Morris ranked in the 92nd percentile in points per possession on isos. He’s had a nifty little midrange game for a while now: In two seasons prior to last year, Morris ranked in the 92nd and 96th percentile in frequency of shots from the “long midrange,” per Cleaning The Glass, and he placed in the 88th and 80th percentile in accuracy on those shots.
Last year, his frequency stayed in the 94th percentile, but his accuracy dropped to the 63rd percentile. That midrange prowess didn’t show as often while he was recovering from injury, but he should have enough shake and bake to prevent the Big 3 from needing to create everything on offense:
For his career, Morris has put up 10.0 points and 3.8 assists per game on .477/.391/.824 shooting splits. He’s a capable backup who will knock down 3s at his career 39.1 percent clip, set the table for the second unit, and defend opposing lead guards.
At a vet minimum price tag, this was a quality, reliable pickup who could be in store for a bounce-back year now that he’s fully healthy and on a playoff-caliber team again.
