Markieff Morris hadn’t met Dalton Knecht, knowing him only as much as anyone in basketball knew him — as a bold scorer who dominated college basketball at Tennessee before flashing that bucket-getting ability in the NBA.
The two were now teammates, the veteran and the rookie, Morris traded to the Lakers with Luka Doncic and Maxi Kleber while Knecht sent back to the team after its trade with Charlotte for Mark Williams collapsed.
In those first meetings, Knecht wasn’t the same confident person or player. The business of the NBA had just smacked him directly upside the head, a team showing little hesitation to send him out the door only to be forced into welcoming him back because of a failed physical by Williams.
At best it was awkward. At worst, it was a problem.
As Knecht processed how he’d handle returning to a place where he no longer felt wanted, Morris approached him for a talk.
“Be ready. No matter what, be you,” he told Knecht. “When you get the ball, just go be you. And play like how you play, confidently, how you played at Tennessee.
“…At the end of the day, just be you. Be ready to shoot. Stay confident. If they wanted the trade, like who gives a f—? Go out there and stay confident.”
The talk mattered, Knecht regaining his footing, his on-court joy and his place in the Lakers’ rotation during their undefeated six-game homestand. During that stretch, Knecht averaged 9.3 points and made almost 45.8% of his three-point shots. His buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter Thursday propelled a comeback against the Knicks.
In that same game, Morris sat on the Lakers’ bench and sipped from a cup of tea. He was fighting an illness but still was there, watching, talking, advising. During that six-game homestand, Morris didn’t play a single minute.
Acquiring Doncic has helped bring showtime back to the Lakers, to fill the courtside seats with A-list celebrities while one of basketball’s top showmen revels on the golden stage. Adding Morris, one of the NBA’s true tough guy truth-tellers, has bolstered their locker room, a behind-the-scenes advantage that the Lakers have desperately lacked.
“I missed him,” LeBron James told The Times. “…We’ve been in the foxhole together. We’ve been on the floor during big games together. And there’s someone whose opinion I value very much when I come off the floor. He’s watching it. He’s seeing it. I’m just happy to have him back. It’s great to see him.”
To be honest, Morris wishes Lakers’ fans saw him more. The competitive fire that’s kept him in the NBA for 14 seasons still burns intensely, his belief unwavering that he’s got productive minutes in his legs.
Read more: Luka Doncic and LeBron lift Lakers to wild OT victory over Knicks for eighth straight win
Morris also knows that the ways he’s heard might matter more to his new team, that his ability to credibly offer the same kind of advice to Knecht as he can to James, a 22-year NBA veteran who he won a championship with in 2020, puts him in a unique position as someone who can tell the truth without fear of repercussion.
There’s a chance that his off-court influence and the real possibility that Kleber returns from foot surgery before the playoffs are moves around the margins that end up mattering along with the obvious Doncic impact.
“The world that we live in today, a lot of people can’t take the truth in their face. A lot of people don’t know what respect is,” Morris said. “We live in a world with a lack of respect. And that’s what I stand on. It doesn’t matter who you are. That’s first things first with me. And I feel as though, me personally, if I can’t say what I want, if I can’t say what I want, if I can’t say the right things to the people that need to hear them, I’m useless. There’s not too many people in the world like me that’s going to just be up front with anybody. That’s the way it needs to be said.
“Like I say every day, I don’t have s— to lose. My 14th year. I don’t play anyway. So what? You going to get mad because I said a certain thing? I don’t have nothing to lose.”
By the time Morris got to the Lakers, James had already fully bought in, responding to blowout losses in Minnesota and Miami with a level of consistent energy and defensive attention that’s rocketed his team up the Western Conference standings. But stiil, the Lakers missed having a particular set of guardrails.
James had gone on deep runs with head coaches in their first year with the Lakers twice before, winning a title with Frank Vogel and going to the conference finals with Darvin Ham. But those teams had vets that James trusted, a close confidante in Jared Dudley in 2020 and later, a former championship teammate in Tristan Thompson.
The Lakers, after both seasons, though, balked at re-signing those players in favor of ones they felt could better contribute on the court.
“Obviously our league is trying to get away from having guys like that around,” James said. “Like the vets, that means something to a team.”
Not every veteran is able to lead the same way as Morris. Some still have visions of their younger selves, taking over games and dominating. Others aren’t as naturally gritty, as physically intimidating — “He’s big as s—!” Knecht said — or willing to get uncomfortable.
“I think it’s very valuable to have a guy like that, a voice, an older voice, someone who’s seen it all in the NBA, someone who’s won a championship, obviously that helps as well,” coach JJ Redick said. “He’s been great on the bench with talking with guys, making sure our bench energy is good. I told him the other day, we see it and we appreciate it and we all just value what he’s doing right now from that aspect in leadership.”
Austin Reaves, who like Knecht had never met Morris before becoming teammates in February, said Morris pulled him aside during one game last month to give him advice on how to better handle ball pressure by backing up closer to half court to start pick-and-roll actions with opposing bigs, creating more space to gain an advantage.
“He’s just constantly talking in game. I think he has a very good IQ and there’s been a couple situations where he’s dissected the game from the bench and come to me about what I could do to be more effective,” Reaves said. “…It’s just little things like that he sees within the game but I think he does a good job of vocalizing them.”
And because Morris, like James said, has been in the foxhole with him, he can even get on the NBA’s all-time leading scorer when the moment calls for it.
“[LeBron] needs help, too. Everybody just think he knows everything,” Morris said. “Yeah, he knows the game a lot, but for him, he can use a guy that’s, ‘Yo, did you see that right there? You can do this.’ Yeah, and that’s me. I can say, ‘Look. Bron, get your ass back. Look, you got to run back too.’”
The list of people who can credibly do that with James is short, and as they age out of the league that list shrinks every season. Morris is one of a few left in the game.
As teams build their rosters each offseason, they look for shooters such as Knecht, for defensive stoppers such as Jarred Vanderbilt, for offensive initiators or enforcers or for shot blockers.
In Morris, they have a different kind of specialist who does his work without picking up a basketball a lot of times on game night by giving honest assessments to everyone without prejudice.
“I’m not scared,” Morris said. “…I do the same thing with Luka, same with Kyrie [Irving]. It doesn’t matter. Because at the end of the day, I feel like that would make them better. The same way they would do it to me to make me better.. You know what I’m saying? If I’m wrong about something, tell me I’m wrong. Don’t just let me say the wrong s—, you know what I’m saying?
“And the league just doesn’t value it.”
That might be true, but the Lakers know how much Morris does and how much he will matter as they chase a championship.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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