Phoenix Suns Extend Morris Twins

In their first full NBA season together, twins Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris both had the best years of their young careers. Given how long the Morrii have been playing together, it’s no surprise the Phoenix Suns sensed they were on to something and decided to keep the brotherly love going.

The team announced Monday that it had signed the Morris twins to four-year extensions, with Markieff receiving $32 million and Marcus earning $20 million. ESPN’s Marc Stein reported Sunday night that a package deal could be coming as soon as Monday, with the total value somewhere in the $52 million range.

The new deals will keep the Morrii in Phoenix over the next five seasons, since the twins still have the last year of their rookie contracts before the new extension kicks in for the 2015-16 season. The twins had previously said they would take discounts to stay on the same team together.

From the Suns:

"“We are particularly pleased to have reached extension agreements with Marcus and Markieff before the start of training camp,” said President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. “There is an extraordinary bond between these twin brothers; they make each other better players and better men. We take pride in their growth and look forward to their bright futures.”“We are excited to be able to extend the contracts of Marcus and Markieff,” said General Manager Ryan McDonough. “They have had great success playing together at every level of basketball, including last season with the Suns. They have made great strides over the past year and we feel like they will continue to grow and improve. They are just entering their primes and we think they will play the best basketball of their careers over the course of the next five years.”"

Markieff and Marcus were the 13th and 14th picks in the 2011 NBA Draft, respectively. Marcus played one and a half seasons for the Houston Rockets before the Suns acquired him in a trade to reunite the twins. At the time it mostly felt like a PR stunt to distract fans from the second-worst season in franchise history, but last year under Jeff Hornacek, both brothers were able to prove why two Morrii are better than one.

Averaging 13.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game — both career highs — off the bench, Markieff Morris finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting and was named Western Conference Player of the Week in November after posting 22.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game while shooting an absurd 69.8 percent from the floor.

Markieff still needs to become a more effective three-point shooter like brother Marcus, but he showed an incredible amount of finesse and skill in the post, an area of his game he’s seriously expanded since entering the league. Capable of knocking down turnaround jumpers, step-backs or attacking the paint from the low block, Markieff Morris started to deliver on his first-round draft status last year and will continue to improve in more minutes following Channing Frye‘s departure.

Marcus Morris was starting to look like a draft bust in his time with the Rockets, but in his first full season with the Suns, he was out to prove that’s not the case. Though not quite as impressive as his brother, Marcus averaged 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22 minutes per game while knocking down 38.1 percent of his threes. Since Phoenix’s offense was predicated on ball movement to open shooters and stretch-fours, Marcus is a valuable role player off the bench who can spread the floor.

The Morris twins have spent the vast majority of their basketball careers playing on the same team and in the limited time they were separated, they didn’t look comfortable on the court. But now that these brothers have been locked in to four-year extensions, they will be able to stay together in Phoenix with another set of brothers — Goran Dragic and the recently signed Zoran Dragic — for at least another five years.

That $52 million seems like a lot on the surface, but locking in the Morrii for about $13 million per year isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s something of a bargain. But after giving Eric Bledsoe a five-year, $70 million extension, this deal pretty much eliminates the Suns from the free agency market next summer. Then again, since coming to a new deal with Dragic was always going to be Phoenix’s top priority next summer, that’s not exactly the end of the world for a young and promising team with the league’s deepest backcourt.