Summary

While his twin brother has spent the last two seasons shooting the lights out from three for contenders, Markieff Morris has struggled, dealing with injuries and struggling to hit shots. Morris gave up about $940k in a buyout with the Pistons, but was able to make it back by signing a $1.75M deal with the Lakers. However, Morris also gave up a $3.36M salary for '20-'21, as he had a player option for that amount. As long as Morris is able to get a fully-guaranteed minimum contract this upcoming offseason, he'll come out close to even.

 

If Morris is unable to get off the bench for the Lakers in the playoffs, he may only be getting minimum offers. If he can contribute to winning and show some of the play that he previously showed in Washington, Morris will improve his stock heading into the offseason.

 

Cap Considerations

Morris will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Lakers could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $2.8 million. This could be enough to retain Morris, since his value in recent years has plumetted. Alternatively, the Lakers could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Morris if he demands more than $2.8 million.

 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Morris as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer, Taxpayer, or Room Mid-Level Exceptions to sign him. There's also the chance that Morris is only able to get minimum offers this offseason.