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2024 Free Agents - Marcus Morris

Summary
Morris has been an effective role player in recent seasons, starting the majority of games during his time with the Clippers. After being traded to Philadelphia in the James Harden trade, he struggled to play well, not getting consistent minutes. However, he did join the Cavaliers late in the season and had a positive impact - hitting shots at a good rate and even scoring 25 points in their final playoff game of the season.

Morris hit 40% of his 3s for the Clippers, and has always been a good midrange shooter. He can faceup out of the midpost and shoot over smaller defenders, and even has a good mid-post fadeaway. As a below-average athlete, Morris struggles to finish at the rim, and hardly even gets there anymore. He can read the floor and make the right plays, but isn't someone that is going to drive offense or create for others off the dribble.

Defensively, Morris has good size for a forward at 6'9" and strong. He is a solid defender, although he doesn't get many steals or blocks, and isn't a great rebounder for a forward. Morris has fit in well with the Clippers when they have gone with switchable, wing-heavy lineups. He is definitely better-suited to defend up the positional spectrum rather than down, especially as age has sapped some of his quickness. Morris has played some small-ball center in recent years, and has held up there pretty well.

Morris will be nearly 35 years old as a free agent in 2024, so he's definitely in the twilight of his career. I would be surprised if he gets any significant offers in free agent, but he showed enough for the Cavaliers to prove that he still belongs in the league.
 
Cap Considerations
Morris will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Cavaliers could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $4 million. This should be enough to retain Morris, since he settled for the minimum of $3.2 million to come to Cleveland. Alternatively, the Cavaliers could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception (if available) to re-sign Morris if he demands more than $4 million. 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Morris as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that Morris only gets minimum offers, and may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Potential Teams: Heat, Cavaliers, Hawks, Timberwolves, Clippers

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $3.3 million ($2.1 million cap hit) with the Heat

Actual Contract: 1-year, $3.3 million (non-guaranteed) with the Knicks

Marcus Morris ended up signing a non-guaranteed contract with the Knicks, and will hope to make one of the final roster spots in training camp.

Last updated: 9/16/2024

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