Twins making impact for Phoenix Suns
by Paul Coro, USA TODAY Sports
Marcus and Markieff Morris had their first noticeable Suns twincident last week.
Denver’s Corey Brewer made a 3-pointer against Marcus, and Markieff was under the basket. Five seconds later, Marcus was dunking alone at the other end on a football feed from Markieff, who had grabbed the ball, lifted one foot while stepping out with the other and hurled the ball to the twin he never saw was running until he was throwing the pass.
“You’re going to see a lot more of that,” Marcus said. “We don’t even have to say anything to each other. I just know what he’s thinking and what he’s going to do before he does it.”
The Suns were banking on the sum being greater than the parts when they traded for Marcus at the February deadline to make the Morrises the only twin teammates in NBA history other than Dick and Tom Van Arsdale, who closed their careers as Suns in 1976-77.
The notion of pairing twins for success is too early to determine with Marcus joining a spiraling Suns season in progress and a four-week sample size. Marcus made an initial splash but struggled at both ends on last week’s winless road trip.
His averages (8.3 points and 2.8 rebounds entering Monday) are similar to what he did in Houston but he is at his natural position, small forward, now, and is shooting better with twice as many steals. Markieff’s shooting also is slightly better (39.4 percent before Marcus and 42.3 percent with Marcus) but his statistical increases with Marcus (9.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game) have more to do with playing five more minutes per game.
There have been other sets of twins who started in the league, such as Horace and Harvey Grant and Robin and Brook Lopez, but the Morris twins are the first to start as teammates. It is a different dynamic than the Van Arsdales had. The Morris twins, 23, just left each other for the first time 15 months ago.
“I don’t see it as being a benefit to wins and losses just because they’re twins,” said Tom Van Arsdale, 70. “Their … [For more on Twins making impact for Phoenix Suns, click here.]
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