Player Facts
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 183lbs.
Date of Birth: June 27, 1995
College Experience: Iowa State (4 years)
Selections
All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0
Player Grades
Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 4
Positional Size: 6
Positional Wingspan: 6
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 7
Three-Point Scoring: 8
Dribbling: 8
Passing: 8
Perimeter Defense: 5
Interior Defense: 3
Rebounding: 4
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STRENGTHS
Intro
Monte Morris is a 6'2" guard hailing from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's a smart, team-first player who makes good decisions as a sure-handed on-ball playmaker and competes on defense. Monte's also a great off-ball dual threat as a spot-up shooter and cutter.
Secure Distribution
One of the Iowa State product's elite skills is his ball security. He keeps his handle tight and has the rock close to his body seemingly at all times. This brand of medium-usage, low-error basketball helps set the stage for the rest of his value proposition as a player.
Monte's court vision is very strong and he'll make the logical, correct read within the flow of the offense with a high degree of consistency. The former Cyclone is a valuable passer both on-ball and off-ball. His selfless extra-passing can be an overlooked aspect of his game that still feeds into those great AST/TO rates.
AST/TO Monster
Since his rotation emergence in 2018-2019, Monte has been a mainstay at the top of the assist-to-turnover leaderboards. He provides phenomenal figures here. He clears the ultra-rare 4+ AST/TO ratio with relative ease year in and year out – even as his minutes climb.
Qualitatively, he passes the eye test as a pick-and-roll distributor. He can make the full swath of expected passes. Size is the only thing that stymies his passing here at times but the ability is undoubtedly there.
Monte Morris is also a creative and effective drive-and-kick artist. He can be a blur attacking a seam before spraying the ball out to a teammate like, in the past, Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr. Now a Wizard, he can do the same for Bradley Beal and company.
Additionally, he'll drive into the teeth of the defense and locate cutters like Will Barton. These slashers benefit meaningifully from such crisp deliveries.
On-Ball Points
Monte is an above-average scoring threat himself as the initiator of a ball screen action. He flips on the jets once he's turned the corner to scoot to the hoop when he can. 2021-2022 had him in the league's upper half for pick-and-roll scoring productivity.
Getting into the midrange and the floater zone are also viable options for the guard. He'll arrive here via P&R's and DHO's with poise and patience. 2021-2022 had him drill a cool 45%+ of both his runner-range and midrange shots respectively.
Cutting + Distance Shooting
While he can man the offense for stretches, he was great in the Denver offense centered around Nikola Jokic. Having an offensive savant at the pivot allows for an inverted offense with loads of off-ball movement from guards and wings. When off-the-ball like this, he still helped set up plays via demonstrative motioning and steady communication with the other players involved.
Monte can weaponize his speed off-ball to be a blur towards the basket. Players will routinely find him with floated dimes. Jokic and Morris were by far each other's most frequent targets in 2021-2022, with 20+ average passes per game each way (Morris-Jokic/Jokic-Morris).
Morris likes to enter the ball into the post and then immediately zip to the rim. Back in Denver, over-playing defenders fearful of the Joker's elite vision opened up the man cutting through ever so briefly – a marginal passing window Jokic is perhaps the league's best at using. Monte Morris was in the 86th percentile as a cutter in 2021-2022.
Strong spot-up shooting rounds out Morris' offensive game. He's had multiple seasons north of 39% on his catch-and-shoot three-balls. He utilizes a quick release to overcome his smaller size.
Defensive Energy
When switching sides, Monte's value slips quite a bit. However, what he will do is play smartly and rarely foul or gamble foolishly for steals. His stick-to-itiveness is admirable, looking to maximize what his small stature and slight frame can bring.
He uses his speed and smarts to contain like-sized ball-handlers decently well. The 6'2" guard will apply a calculated burst to garner some steals and deflections too. He can also force turnovers by rapidly beating people to their spots, throwing off their rhythm.
Morris' screen navigation abilities are actually pretty good. He was in the 90th percentile on a fair volume of 2.6 P&R ball-handler possession defended per game in 2020-2021. His agility, footwork, high motor, and compact build are all contributory to this.
WEAKNESSES
Subpar Rim Pressure
Finishing amongst the help defense can prove laborious for the 6-foot-2 Monte. His paint conversion rates remain high because he picks his spots well and gets found regularly on some clean back cuts. However, his lack of size forces him to opt against a rim attempt and instead pass the ball off against rim-protecting foes.
Another symptom of his less-than-stellar downhill pressure is his abysmal free-throw rate. Barely getting easy opportunities at the stripe hampers his true shooting percentage for an otherwise solidly efficient field-goal shooter.
Perhaps adding bulk and upping his level of aggressiveness towards the key is the next progression in his player growth.
Weak Isolation Game
His personal shot creation is another logical frontier to explore improvements in. Monte's end-of-clock individual shot-manufacturing is mediocre at best. 2021-2022 had him in the 24th percentile for isolation scoring.
Flawed Defense
Monte Morris is stuck guarding fellow smalls opposite him. He's only put on about 8-10 pounds since the Draft Combine and remains one of the lightest players in the Association.
Monte's size alone makes him a continual target of the opposition. Switching two-man actions is not ideal for the defense when he's involved. This, unfortunately, comes - although he exerts effort on this end.
He's recorded a number of seasons where over three-quarters of his time is spent strictly on guards. Wing-checking minutes tend to not go very well. In around 120 minutes on forwards in 2020-2021, Morris allowed a 50.4% field goal percentage.
Monte will not add much value in the defensive rebounding department. In a similar vein, paint defense is a near-absent part of his game too. General defensive playmaking, beyond boards or blocks, is an overall weaker area for Morris who lacks the plus-length to deflect many balls.
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Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
- Jamal Murray [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Michael Porter Jr. [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Bradley Beal [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Will BartonOpens in a new tab
- Nikola Jokic [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
