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Monte Morris breakdown: What to expect from Suns’ backup point guard.
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.
