Suns get first look at Markieff Morris on court
Jun 29, 2011, 9:07 PM | Updated: 10:26 pm
PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns held a mini-camp of sorts on Wednesday and got to take their first look at draft pick Markieff Morris along with a group of undrafted players.
The Suns coaching staff came away impressed with the team’s newest player.
“He’s going to be a good player. The raw skills are there and he’s a competitor,” said Suns coach Alvin Gentry.
Still, the Suns coach believes the former Kansas star has some work to do.
“He’ll have to get stronger having to play against bigger, stronger, quicker guys, but he’ll make that adjustment, so I’m not worried about that part,” said Gentry.
For Morris, the mini-camp was a bit of an eye-opener.
“We play super fast. We run the floor a whole lot,” said Morris.
The Suns first-round pick was able to gain some valuable experience in the short workout.
“Just to get a feel for how the coaches want to play with the sets and see what they want out of me,” said Morris.
The Suns had a large cluster of other prominent players on hand as well for the workouts.
“They’re guys that we like that didn’t get drafted, so we thought this was a great time to bring them in and have them play against each other,” said Gentry.
The group included Jeff Allen of Virginia Tech, Matthew Bryan-Amaning from Washington, Dionte Christmas from Greece, David Lighty of Ohio State and former first-round pick Sean Williams.
Gentry was particularly impressed with former Butler big man Matt Howard.
“Matt Howard is one of those smart, smart players that will eventually find his way into the league,” said Gentry.
It’s possible the Suns could sign a couple of these players to bring to training camp with a chance to make the team.
