Marcus Morris to Knicks??

[timpiker]

This will be a bad look for Morris.

Spurs made moves (including a trade) to actually make it feasible to sign Morris and he had agreed with them.

That and he actually has a chance of winning with the Spurs verses the Knicks.   If he changes his mind you know where his head is at.

His head is focused on maximizing his earnings. There’s nothing wrong with that.  The guy has played eight seasons, and has “only” earned $29 million. I’d want to maximize my salary, too.

Yes there is something wrong with it.  It's called your promise.  Used to mean something in this country by most people.

[SparzWizard]

This will be a bad look for Morris.

Spurs made moves (including a trade) to actually make it feasible to sign Morris and he had agreed with them.

That and he actually has a chance of winning with the Spurs verses the Knicks.   If he changes his mind you know where his head is at.

His head is focused on maximizing his earnings. There’s nothing wrong with that.  The guy has played eight seasons, and has “only” earned $29 million. I’d want to maximize my salary, too.

Yes there is something wrong with it.  It's called your promise.  Used to mean something in this country by most people.

Well, NBA is a business and in business in order to succeed you need to lie!

[bellerephon]

This will be a bad look for Morris.

Spurs made moves (including a trade) to actually make it feasible to sign Morris and he had agreed with them.

That and he actually has a chance of winning with the Spurs verses the Knicks.   If he changes his mind you know where his head is at.

His head is focused on maximizing his earnings. There’s nothing wrong with that.  The guy has played eight seasons, and has “only” earned $29 million. I’d want to maximize my salary, too.

Yes there is something wrong with it.  It's called your promise.  Used to mean something in this country by most people.

I think this is not an apt description of what's going on. A million dollar business agreement is not like a promise between two people. It's more like agreeing to buy a house, it's okay to change your mind if you decide it's not right for you. It may be inconvenient for the sellers, they may have turned down other offers, but you are not obligated to go through with the purchase if circumstances have changed.

[ozgod]

Handshake agreements and the value of your word are dead in today's world I guess. But you gotta do what you feel is best for you.

[blink]

This will be a bad look for Morris.

Spurs made moves (including a trade) to actually make it feasible to sign Morris and he had agreed with them.

That and he actually has a chance of winning with the Spurs verses the Knicks.   If he changes his mind you know where his head is at.

His head is focused on maximizing his earnings. There’s nothing wrong with that.  The guy has played eight seasons, and has “only” earned $29 million. I’d want to maximize my salary, too.

Yes there is something wrong with it.  It's called your promise.  Used to mean something in this country by most people.

I think this is not an apt description of what's going on. A million dollar business agreement is not like a promise between two people. It's more like agreeing to buy a house, it's okay to change your mind if you decide it's not right for you. It may be inconvenient for the sellers, they may have turned down other offers, but you are not obligated to go through with the purchase if circumstances have changed.

exactly, these are huge multi-million dollar deals.  nothing really matters or is real until both parties sign on the dotted line.  Until then it is all pie in the sky.

[Who]

They should get rid of the waiting period before guys can sign deals. Stop this nonsense of players changing their minds.

[Fafnir]

They should get rid of the waiting period before guys can sign deals. Stop this nonsense of players changing their minds.

I heard a rumor on one of the podcasts I listen to that Morris had turned down a bigger than 20 million guaranteed early in FA.

So some regret at "settling" for the Spurs offer and Rich Paul being his agent and you get this sort of shenanigans.

[philr13]

Not surprised that Morris chose the Knicks offer. He signed a bad contract in PHX and has been miffed about it ever since. I'm sure he couldn't care less what San Antonio thinks about it. He's 29. New York will be his 5th team and he has no idea where he'll play next year.

Gotta wonder what's going to happen with the Knicks this year. They signed all these mercenary players to one year deals. Guys like Morris, Portis, Ellington are going to expect to get their shots or they're going to be pretty p---ed. Their next contract depends on it. Young players like Knox and Barrett are going to have serious problems in that environment.

[bdm860]

They should get rid of the waiting period before guys can sign deals. Stop this nonsense of players changing their minds.

I heard a rumor on one of the podcasts I listen to that Morris had turned down a bigger than 20 million guaranteed early in FA.

So some regret at "settling" for the Spurs offer and Rich Paul being his agent and you get this sort of shenanigans.

The thing is the Morris/SAS deal was agreed to after the moratorium was over, so that didn't even play into this.

Personally I wonder what was going on with the Morris camp.  Being a Rich Paul client, when Morris went without a deal for the first week I assumed their was an agreement with LAL as plan B.  Like if we can't sign Kawhi, will give you a $20m 1yr deal to maintain cap space, but then the Lakers used it on Danny Green instead ($30m/2yrs).  So maybe Morris was the Clippers plan B?  Tell me there was some reason they were waiting.

[Walker Wiggle]

The problem is that there was a verbal agreement in place, similar to the one DeAndre Jordan broke with the Mavericks a few years back.

A good agent doesn't pull this. If your client comes to you and says, "I change my mind, get me a different deal" you're supposed to say "Tough luck, you agreed to the deal, either sign it or find another agent before you ruin my reputation." Will teams continue to deal with Rich Paul, though? Of course! That organization has its tentacles across the whole league, thanks to the power and influence of Lebron.

This is the fundamental problem with the league. Teams -- especially small-market teams, and even well-run ones like SAS -- have no certainty. Players decide whimsically when and where to play, and in some cases (like Kawhi in his last year with SAS), IF to play. How do you run a team in that environment? The league has a problem and it's not going away any time soon.

[Walker Wiggle]

The problem is that there was a verbal agreement in place, similar to the one DeAndre Jordan broke with the Mavericks a few years back.

A good agent doesn't pull this. If your client comes to you and says, "I change my mind, get me a different deal" you're supposed to say "Tough luck, you agreed to the deal, either sign it or find another agent before you ruin my reputation." Will teams continue to deal with Rich Paul, though? Of course! That organization has its tentacles across the whole league, thanks to the power and influence of Lebron.

This is the fundamental problem with the league. Teams -- especially small-market teams, and even well-run ones like SAS -- have no certainty. Players decide whimsically when and where to play, and in some cases (like Kawhi in his last year with SAS), IF to play. How do you run a team in that environment? The league has a problem and it's not going away any time soon.

By the way, I'm still waiting to hear the story behind the Celtics' trade of Aron Baynes. It was reported that he opted in to the second year of his contract, with a handshake agreement not to be used in a trade, only for the team to trade him away. My assumption was that the Celtics couldn't have betrayed him like that, and that there's more to the story. But I'm curious.

[Fafnir]

The story behind the Baynes trade was simple. He opted in to lock in his money and play for the C's as they contended with the young guys, both he and the C's thought they could keep Al and would be an over the cap.

Once Al was gone, he was moved to create cap space to pursue Kemba. That's it, that's the story.

[bdm860]

A good agent doesn't pull this. If your client comes to you and says, "I change my mind, get me a different deal" you're supposed to say "Tough luck, you agreed to the deal, either sign it or find another agent before you ruin my reputation." Will teams continue to deal with Rich Paul, though? Of course! That organization has its tentacles across the whole league, thanks to the power and influence of Lebron.

Actually I think this is exactly what a good agent does (I mean a good agent probably wouldn't have gotten Morris to this point to begin with, but now that we're here...)

An agent is supposed to work in the best interest of the player, even if it makes the agent look bad.  If an agent is worried about how he'll look over his client's wishes, well then it's time to get a new agent.

If I'm Rich Paul, I'd be using this as a selling point to future clients.  AD you want to play in LA?  Let me handle it, I'll be the bad guy with the media.  Mook, having 2nd thoughts about that contract? I'll get you out of it and be the bad guy.

Say what you want about Rich Paul, I personally don't like him and think he has several flaws, but this is actually a good attribute for him as a player's agent.

[PhoSita]

What is New York doing?

They have a million power forwards and now they have Barrett, Morris, and Knox who would all ostensibly play minutes at the 3.

[W8ting2McHale]

I am glad Morris is gone. He got his numbers, but he was never the player I wanted him to be, or the player the team needed him to be.
 
I hope Grant Williams can be that player. A small ball PF, valuable 6-7th man, occasional starter, that knows how to play team defense, when to pass, and plays within the offense only taking the shots that come to him.

I think Morris playing as much as he did and shooting as often as he did might have one us a game or two, but was detrimental to the development of both the J’s.