Miami Heat
P.J. Tucker and Markieff Morris believe fit is right with Heat. A look at how they can help
Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker arrive to the Miami Heat with a lot in common.
Both were added by the Heat in free agency this offseason, in part, to fill the void Jae Crowder left behind as a reliable small-ball four option when he signed with the Phoenix Suns last year in free agency.
Both players have similar skill sets, known as tough and physical veteran three-and-D options.
Both have been on teams that have eliminated the Heat in the playoffs in recent seasons, with Morris on the Los Angeles Lakers roster that defeated the Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals and Tucker on the Milwaukee Bucks roster that swept the Heat out of the first round last season.
Both have won NBA championships recently, with Morris winning his with the Lakers in 2020 and Tucker just winning his first title a few weeks ago with the Bucks.
And both seem to fit with what the Heat needs at the power forward position.
“It just makes sense,” Tucker said after signing a two-year, $14.4 million contract with the Heat last week. “When you’re a free agent looking for places to go, you look for fit, obviously coaching styles, team styles and what they do. This is kind of tailor-made to exactly what I do. Even last year when I was getting traded, Miami was right at the top of the list. So this has been a long time coming. I’m super excited.”
Morris, 31, echoed that sentiment.
“I was just kind of waiting to see how things played out just from a market perspective,” Morris said after signing a one-year minimum deaI with the Heat last week. “It was just a situation where the Lakers had a couple things going on. Miami was always one of my destinations. I work out here in the summer all the time, and I just felt like it was the right place for me.”
While Morris and Tucker are different players than Crowder, the expectation is they will be asked to play a very similar role to the one Crowder excelled in during the Heat’s run to the NBA Finals in 2020.
With Crowder in Phoenix, he left a void behind as a reliable small-ball four option that the Heat struggled to replace last season.
After Crowder committed to the Suns, the Heat responded by signing guard Avery Bradley and forward Moe Harkless in free agency. But Bradley and Harkless never found consistent roles with the Heat and were dealt away in March.
Miami eventually acquired veteran forward Trevor Ariza from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a trade with less than two months remaining in the regular season. Ariza started the final 27 regular-season games as the Heat’s small-ball power forward alongside starting center Bam Adebayo before signing with Los Angeles Lakers in free agency.
Now the Heat has attempted to address that need in free agency this offseason with two veteran forwards who fit the Crowder mold in Morris and Tucker. Miami also added six-time All-Star guard Kyle Lowry in free agency to strengthen a core that already includes All-Star caliber players in Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
“I’m going to play well. These guys play the game the right way,” Morris said. “This is like a dream team of playing with stars who play the right way all the time. I think we fit. I’ve known Kyle for almost my whole life. I’ve tried to team up with him a couple times here in the NBA. Me and Tuck played a couple years in Phoenix. He was one of my great friends. I’ve known Jimmy for a long time. I actually work out with his trainer, so there are some ties. I come down here in the summer and play. I’ve played with Bam the last two or three years he has been here. So we kind of already got a feel for each other.”
Playing with and complementing Adebayo will be an important part of Morris and Tucker’s job in the Heat’s frontcourt.
With Adebayo not yet incorporating the three-point shot into his offensive game and most of his points coming from inside the paint, Morris and Tucker will both be asked to space the floor with their three-point shooting.
Morris shot an underwhelming 31.1 percent on threes with the Lakers last season, but made 38.6 percent of his shots from deep in 2019-20. He has battled inconsistency with his outside shot over his NBA career and is a 34.1 percent three-point shooter during his 10 years in the league.
Tucker is a career 35.9 percent three-point shooter, but is coming off one of his worst outside shooting seasons. He made 33.6 percent of his threes last season, which is his lowest mark since he shot 33 percent from deep in 2015-16.
But both Morris and Tucker have displayed the ability to make threes at an above average rate during stretches. Morris shot an impressive 42 percent on 3.3 three-point attempts per game during the Lakers’ championship run in 2020, and Tucker has established himself as one of the best corner three-point shooters in the NBA as he led the league in corner threes made for three consecutive seasons from 2017-20.
“Bam is my guy. He’s a North Carolina guy, so we always stick together,” said Tucker, who is from Raleigh, North Carolina. “I’ve known him for a while. To be a center and to be able to do what he does is unbelievable. Get it off the glass and push it, being able to almost guard one through five, his energy every night on the glass, his ability to pass, so many things. So when you got a center that can do all those things, the possibilities are endless. I’m super tight with him because he’s a smart guy. He knows the game, so he makes the game easier for a lot of people.”
With Adebayo’s elite switchability on defense, the Heat prefers to play a switch-heavy style. Morris (6-9, 245) and Tucker (6-5, 245) should fit into that type of scheme, with both players strong enough to guard up and hold their own at power forward while also having the ability to stay in front of smaller and quicker perimeter players.
“When you look at our roster, we’re going to be a tough gritty team, man,” Tucker said. “Guys that play two ways, a bunch of defenders that get after it that can switch and guard multiple positions. But more than anything, I can see us being really united. Guys that are like-minded and kind of play the same way. When you get a bunch of guys like that on the same team, you can have some special things happen.”
There are questions that Morris and Tucker will have to answer: Can they bounce back after cold three-point shooting seasons? Can Tucker avoid a drop-off at 36 years old? Which one of them will start?
But both Morris and Tucker believe the fit is right with the Heat. The hope is that translates to the court.
“The Heat isn’t for everybody,” Morris said. “I think that was the first thing that [coach Erik Spoelstra] said to me when I got on the phone. I already know the culture. The entire NBA talks about the Heat culture. So this is something that I’ve been wanting to be a part of for a long time now and it’s finally here.
“We’re going to be a great team, man. We have a very unselfish team with a lot of tough hard-nosed guys. It’s going to be hard to score against us. I think we’re going to be defensive-minded first and that will be our DNA.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 2:08 PM.
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