Los Angeles Lakers: Post All-Star break player rankings

8.) Markieff Morris

It’s hard to rank a player who was only recently signed, and has only played in a handful of games so far, but nevertheless, Markieff Morris is the kind of player where we know what we’re getting from him, regardless of what team he’s on.

For the Lakers, all they need from Morris is to spot up from three — where he’s shooting 39.4% on the season at — defend opposing players with size, and be a reliable pick and pop partner for LeBron James and Rajon Rondo. Due to how new Morris is to this team, a lot of his placement on this ranking depends on what we can expect from him as we enter the stretch drive of the season, rather than what we’ve seen so far.

There have been reports, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania that the team plans to play both Morris and Kuzma together, allowing the latter to slide to the wing position, and for Morris to take the bulk of the backup power forward minutes. In theory this should make sense, but we’ll see how that goes when we see Kuzma struggle to stay in front of opposing wings. To be clear, this isn’t a knock on Kuzma, it’s just that switching him from the four to the three will not magically make him a better defensive player.

The biggest thing that Morris brings to the table is what the Lakers can do with their lineups with him in the fold. He can be the backup power forward to Anthony Davis, or have him play alongside Davis when the Lakers go small. He’s a good enough shooter to where he can adequately keep the floor adequately spaced, and isn’t a complete liability defensively.