The Phoenix Suns are in about as big of a rut as you could possibly imagine, as they have lost seven of their last eight games, have fired their top two assistants and are reportedly on the verge of firing head coach Jeff Hornacek. The recent coaching changes have taken attention away from the Markieff Morris problem, but it is still exactly that, a problem. Morris just got done serving a two-game suspension for throwing a towel at Hornacek but will have to apologize to the organization, coaches and his teammates in order to return to practice, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Morris has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons since this offseason when the Suns traded his twin brother Marcus to the Detroit Pistons. Morris has publicly demanded a trade, didn't show up to any voluntary workouts, and in the latest incident was suspended for what the Suns called "conduct detrimental to the team." Morris missed out on $144,455 because of the two games he missed.
Morris is expected to have a meeting on Tuesday morning with general manager Ryan McDonough, president Lon Babby and Hornacek in which he is expected to be asked to apologize to them and his teammates while also making a renewed commitment to the team. Morris is expected to comply with the requests, but his camp is reportedly confused because he has already apologized to Hornacek and his teammates via Twitter and he also supposedly sent Hornacek a text message to relay his regret.
Morris has been in and out of the Suns' rotation recently, as he has not played as well as he is accustomed to so far this season. Coming off a career year, Morris is averaging just 10.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and has lost playing time to the younger forwards on the Suns as the team looks to see what it has for the future.
Morris is under contract for three more seasons after this one, so he won't be going anywhere unless the Suns find a trade partner for the much maligned forward. Morris' contract is reasonable and he is a very good player, but it is fair to wonder whether any team would want to deal with his baggage that also includes a pending felony assault charge. Morris says he doesn't care whether it's with the Suns or someone else, he just wants to get back on the court and play basketball.
