As I’m sure you all have read by now, last week Tyronn Lue announced what had been an open secret----Terance Mann will be the Clippers fifth starter this season. He started throughout preseason and Marcus Morris had openly criticized Lue and the Clippers coaching staff for his role within the team last season and openly questioned his status with the team after he was involved in the failed Brogdon trade with Boston. There had been little communication reportedly between Lue and Morris after that and now we know Morris is not only out of the starting lineup but out of the rotation entirely with Batum and Covington expected to take the bulk of backup forward minutes along with KJ Martin.
Morris has been a negative net rating player for the Clippers the past two seasons, in particular being a poor defensive option at the 4 and an outright liability at the 3, whereas Mann has been a positive one and graded out positively with their Big 3. He’s a great ancillary player who fills a lot of gaps and has become, albeit on not the highest of volume, a very good 3 point shooter. He’s a heady passer with solid feel and one that makes good reads. He can defend multiple positions. He can serve as a secondary ballhandler. He’s a smart cutter/off ball player. He will push the ball in transition. He’s an all-around versatile and dependable player that fits very well with the Clippers Big 3.
Dropping Morris from the lineup can be viewed almost as addition by subtraction and replacing him with Mann seems like the perfect fit for the Clippers as a team. How much of an impact do you think Terance Mann’s addition to the starting 5 of the Clippers for Marcus Morris will make to the Clippers success this season?
I genuinely believe if we had just waived Morris last year form the beginning we would have won at least 5+ games and probably woulda been healthier overall.
It’s not an exaggeration to say he’s dead weight on the court, especially last year when his shot was broke.
Everyone constantly had to cover for him and over a course of a season it wears on everyone essentially playing 4v5(obviously not actually 4v5 but in the sense of quality minute deserving players)
Lue did our team no favors and essentially shot us in the foot and never gave us a real chance by being married to the idea of having him start and play significant minutes all through the season up until the end
Terrance Mann at this point in time is an NBA caliber player, which is more than can be said about present-day Marcus Morris.