Bill Simmons: As somebody who has Clippers season tickets and is really rooting for them to get to the Finals, I hate this trade for them. I watched Marcus Morris on the Celtics for three years. I think on the right team he has a purpose and has real value. He is a ball stopper. The ball goes to him, and it stops. And if you watch the Clippers really carefully, George is a ball stopper in a lot of ways, Kawhi is a ball stopper, although he’s Kawhi. The Lou Williams “give the ball to him and Harrell sets a pick”, that’s a ball stopper. It’s a team where nobody’s moving ever, and now you’re adding a guy who’s basically a statue. And if you throw him the ball, he’s gonna take seven seconds to decide what to do. So now I have Kawhi, Paul George, Harrell, Lou Williams, all standing in different spots while Marcus Morris is deciding what to do.
The flip side though would be like, “Well, he’s a good open three-point shooter”. He was never comfortable with that in Boston. The problem with having a guy like Marcus Morris is: With a minute left, down one in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, he’ll think he should shoot. He’ll be like, “Actually Kawhi, I’ll take this”. That’s why you can’t have a guy like this, I don’t like the trade.
Ryen Russillo: I can’t believe that we agree, and you had such a bad time with Morris you added an extra year to his Boston run. He was only there two years.
Bill Simmons: Honestly, it felt like three.