Markieff Morris re-signing with Mavs, recruiting brother Marcus?

The Mavericks will only have four free agents this summer, two of whom (Greg Brown and Brandon Williams) are two-way contract players. Of their playing rotation, only Derrick Jones Jr is hitting the market, along with Markieff Morris at the end of the veteran bench. The upshot of all this is that, with so little salary expiring, the incumbent payroll is expensive. Doncic ($43,031,940) and Irving ($41,000,000) take up $84 million between them, or almost 60 percent of the salary cap, and once the five other eight-figure annual salaries owed to Tim Hardaway Jr ($16.193.183), PJ Washington ($15,500,000), Daniel Gafford ($13,394,160), Josh Green ($12,654,321) and Maxi Kleber ($11,000,000) are included, that is all the salary cap gone. -via HoopsHype / June 19, 2024

“If Giannis Antetokounmpo ain’t put his foot under [Kyrie Irving], they would’ve had a championship,” said Markieff Morris, who was playing for the Lakers at the time. “Milwaukee would still be without a championship. “I know so. They were going to get swept. They know that. You can ask anybody on their team,” added Morris, pointing out that former Bucks point guard Jeff Teague said the same on his podcast. -via New York Post / June 8, 2024

“[The Nets] didn’t want to pay him. So what is he playing for? If you’re not trying to pay him in a contract year with this good team, and everybody else is paid, [Kevin Durant] is paid [with a max extension],” Morris said. “Kyrie did everything that you needed to do. … So just go to another team. And now we’re in the finals.” In retrospect, the trade was terrible for the Nets, who fell to 11th in the East last season and just hired their fourth coach in about four years. -via New York Post / June 8, 2024