Lakers News: Title-Winning LA Big Man Signed By West Contender

Veteran power forward/center Markieff Morris, who was a critical buyout market signing for your Los Angeles Lakers en route to their 2020 NBA championship, will be re-signing with the Dallas Mavericks on a new contract, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Sources inform Marc Stein that Morris will be inking a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with the Mavs.

Per Charania, the 6'9" vet will be taking the slot of another ex-2020 Lakers big man. Dallas will be stretching and waiving the final two years and $11.7 million remaining on the contract of 35-year-old center JaVale McGee (he has a player option for 2024-25 that he will now exercise). Keith Smith of Spotrac reveals that the seven-footer's money will be stretched across five seasons at a price tag of $2.3 million per.

Morris' minimum contract was included as a throw-in when Dallas traded with the Brooklyn Nets for controversial All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving.

The 34-year-old big man agreed to a contract buyout with the Detroit Pistons midway through the 2019-20 NBA season, which enabled Los Angeles to sign him to a rest-of-season deal. In regular season 14 games with LA (remember, it was a pandemic-abbreviated season), he averaged 5.3 points on .406/.333/.833 shooting splits, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists.

In the Lakers' title run (again, alongside McGee, whom he is now essentially replacing), however, Morris enjoyed a significant rotation role as a reserve four and occasional backup five, thanks in large part to his ability to stretch the floor. Across 21 contests with LA in 2020 (including two starts), he averaged 5.9 points on a .449/.420/.778 slash line, 3.0 boards and 1.0 dimes per bout.

He returned to Los Angeles in 2020-21 on another minimum deal, averaging 6.7 points on .405/.311/.720 shooting splits, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 61 games (27 starts).

The Mavericks finished outside of even the play-in tournament bracket in the West last season as the No. 11 season (thanks in part to some late-season lottery-jockeying chicanery), but they revamped their depth this summer, adding Grant Williams in a restricted free agent sign-and-trade, inking sharpshooting guard Seth Curry, and signing all-defense-no-offense reserves Derrick Jones Jr. and Dante Exum. The team also traded for the draft rights to No. 12 overall pick Dereck Lively II, a 7'1", ACC All-Defensive Team center out of Duke.

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