The Houston Rockets have been playing better of late as they have won five of their past six games to bring their record up to 10-11 but overall they have been a disappointment. Earlier this season the Rockets fired former head coach Kevin McHale in hopes that it would provide a spark for the underachieving team and it seems to have modestly done so. Despite the improvement the Rockets aren't satisfied and are now looking to upgrade the roster by potentially trading for Markieff Morris, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
Morris was involved in a very public saga this offseason after the Phoenix Suns decided to trade away his twin brother Marcus. Markieff felt disrespected by the fact that the Suns didn't give him warning that Marcus was going to be traded so he decided to not attend any voluntary workouts and actually publicly demanded a trade which led to a fine. Morris did end up showing up to training camp and has been saying the right things all season so the trade buzz has quieted down but it seems like it will now be picking back up.
Morris signed a contract extension with the Suns during last season that just kicked in this year for four years and $32 million so he won't have the opportunity to leave in free agency anytime soon. The Suns have given no indication that they are willing to trade the power forward but in their most recent game against the Memphis Grizzlies, their fourth straight loss, Morris was a DNP- coach's decision and seems to have fallen out of favor with head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Morris has not played well so far this season as he is averaging 12.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game but his shooting percentages are way down at 39 percent from the field and 28 percent from three. Morris' disdain for the organization could be part of the reason for his porous play so far this season so maybe a change of scenery would help him out.
Houston's interest in Morris is interesting because power forward doesn't seem to be too big of a problem area for them. Terrence Jones has played well, Clint Capela has played great this season and they just got Donatas Motiejunas back from injury so it would be interesting to see where Morris might fit into this equation. Despite the frontcourt depth Morris will likely come at a discount now, if the Suns are willing to trade him, due to his poor season and off the court behavior and it might be a worthwhile target for Houston.
