Morris has been bad guy in San Antonio before
SAN ANTONIO — Marcus Morris’ first trip here reached its pinnacle with a bold, scowling prediction. He was a college student then, the star of one of the most vaunted programs in the country, and on that 2011 afternoon his Kansas Jayhawks stood one victory away from reaching the Final Four.
When he walked onto the Alamodome floor to shake hands with the opponents from upstart, plucky Virginia Commonwealth, Morris looked into a little guard’s eyes and summed up the situation as he saw it.
“You guys have had a good run,” Morris said. “But now it’s over.”
He reveled in being the bad guy, not only on that day but in the eight years since, and he proved to be so good at it that the Spurs grew to covet his presence. When the broad-shouldered, hard-nosed forward who proclaimed himself a “bully” in Boston became a free agent this summer, R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich designed a transactional strategy to acquire an infusion of Morris’ toughness.
Instead of trying to end a run in San Antonio, he was going to be brought in to extend one.
When free agency began, the Spurs targeted both Morris and DeMarre Carroll, but because of salary-cap rules they had only a $9.3 million midlevel exception to split between the two of them. Morris, coming off a solid-ifunspectacular season with the Celtics, figured to command that much salary by himself.
The Spurs’ solution to that problem was a bit complicated, but appeared to work. By working out a sign-and-trade deal involving Brooklyn and Washington, they were able to add Carroll while saving the entire $9.3-million exception for Morris. The cost of this was Davis Bertans, a fine young player who’d been one of the franchise’s many international success stories, but to get both Carroll and Morris, it was worth it.
Last week, the Spurs and Morris agreed in principle to a twoyear deal with a player option that would bring the total of the deal to $20 million. For a team that just endured a season with the most feeble defense of Popovich’s tenure, the addition made perfect sense.
Smart and versatile enough to play either forward position, Morris also has a mean streak the Spurs sometimes lacked. On a roster filled with nice guys, he looked like he would be the enforcer.
But it turns out other teams value Morris’ skillset, too, and one of them wound up with an unanticipated opportunity to top the Spurs’ offer. According to multiple outlets including ESPN and Yahoo on Tuesday, the Knicks and Reggie Bullock are backing out of a proposed deal because of health concerns. And that gives the Knicks enough cap space to offer Morris a one-year contract for $15 million, which those outlets say he was considering as of Tuesday evening.
And now, when it comes to San Antonio, Morris might wind up looking like the bad guy all over again. Although it remains his right to renege on a deal he never officially signed, he’d be leaving the Spurs in quite the lurch because of the timing.
Sure, the Spurs would still have $9.3 million available, but no free agents worthy of that figure are available anymore. All of them were snapped up in the first week of July.
Had they known Morris wasn’t an option, the Spurs might have held on to Bertans and signed Carroll with the exception. Now, they might consider the possibility of pursuing someone like Andre Iguodala in a trade, but matching salaries on such a deal is difficult.
Who had a contract that would have made it easier? Yep, Bertans.
At the moment, nobody knows for sure what Morris is thinking. If he wants the bigger first-year payday, the Knicks’ offer can’t be topped. If he wants to play in meaningful games, San Antonio is the better choice — but that’s assuming he believes the Spurs’ winning ways aren’t behind them.
That brings us back to his bold prediction in the Alamodome eight years ago. When he looked at VCU — a team coached by future Texas coach Shaka Smart — that day, he saw an overmatched overachiever whose time was up.
Smart’s Rams had been the story of that year’s NCAA tournament by making it to the Elite Eight, but the fun had to end sometime, and Morris was sure it was that day. A couple of hours later, he and his brother trudged off the Alamodome floor, victims of one of the biggest upsets the sport had seen.
So what if Morris decides this week that the extra money in New York is more attractive than a job with a team in San Antonio about to hit the end of its run?
The Spurs can take some solace in knowing he’s been wrong before.