Former NBA player Marcus Morris appeared on ESPN airwaves Thursday morning as a guest NBA analyst on Get Up and First Take. It’s not an uncommon site for recently retired or inactive players to show up and do the Bristol Car Wash and get some nationally televised reps for what could be a future media career.
But none did so with quite the array of wild hot takes that Marcus Morris did in taking a flamethrower to the NBA discourse.
Let’s start with his takes on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who Get Up host Mike Greenberg had just mentioned as possibly one of the best teams in NBA history. He said the Thunder aren’t “deep enough” to win the title this season and have gotten by being “healthy all season.”
Marcus Morris doesn’t believe the Thunder are “deep enough” to win an NBA title this year 👀 pic.twitter.com/xyn8MHlGWf
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 3, 2025
First of all, the Thunder haven’t been healthy all season. Chet Holmgren has only played 28 games after suffering a hip fracture in November. Key rotation pieces Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso have also missed significant playing time. As for the depth argument, OKC has 7 players averaging in double figures in points this season. A whopping 13 players have averaged 10+ minutes per game. Not enough depth? They may be the deepest team in the league!
Morris then turned his attention to Nikola Jokic for a seemingly random conversation of whether or not the reigning two-time League MVP is a Top-20 player all-time in the NBA. Morris was complimentary of Jokic, but ultimately decided that he was not, much to the joy of Stephen A. Smith for taking the heat off his own shoulders and the bewilderment of Kendrick Perkins.
Marcus Morris says Nikola Jokic (who infamously shoved his brother Markieff in the back so hard it gave him whiplash) isn’t a Top 20 NBA player all-time in an appearance on First Take. pic.twitter.com/5GP4MTPvZP
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 3, 2025
Given Jokic famously injured Morris’ twin brother Markieff in an altercation in 2021 and both sets of brothers exchanged words in the aftermath, maybe he’s not the most impartial observer when it comes to where the big man should rank in NBA history?
Speaking of impartiality, Marcus Morris finished off his triumverate of hot takes by saying that former Los Angeles Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard is the most feared player in today’s NBA, not Steph Curry as Stephen A. Smith had argued the day prior.
Marcus Morris Sr. picks Kawhi Leonard over Steph Curry as the most feared player in the NBA 👀 @stephenasmith wasn’t having it 😯 pic.twitter.com/Rt3Z9DdQjQ
— First Take (@FirstTake) April 3, 2025
Leonard has appeared in 32 games this season and is averaging 20.8 PPG. He’s a great two-way player and an NBA Finals MVP, but this isn’t 2019! If he was healthy enough to rank among the league leaders, he would be 30th in the NBA in scoring between CJ McCollum and Darius Garland.
NBA fans are desperate for some actual analysis of the game as it is today. Hot takes from Marcus Morris ain’t it, but at least he wasn’t asked to be involved in a LeBron vs MJ GOAT debate.
