#2 – Monte Morris
Similar to Barton, Monte Morris is a staple in the Denver Nuggets rotation. Over the last five NBA seasons, he’s gone from a late second-round pick averaging a measly three points per game. To the fourth-leading scorer (12.6) and second-leading facilitator (4.4) for one of the Western Conference’s most competitive teams.
The difference between him and Barton is the fact that Monte Morris is just 26 years old and appears to be on the up-and-up of his career. Having boosted his scoring, rebounding, assist and minute totals each of the last five NBA seasons. All the while maintaining an efficient shooting stroke.
Morris is also on a far friendlier deal of $18.9 million through 2024, with an annual average salary of $9.26 million, per Spotrac. While his contract is also fully guaranteed, it’s still nearly five million dollars less than Barton’s and fairly cheap in the scheme of things.
So, then why would the Denver Nuggets trade him you might ask? Well, first off, he holds far more trade value than Barton. Particularly since he’s younger, less expensive and only going to get better over the course of the next few years. Which means that Denver could probably give up a lot less (or get a lot more) in a trade involving Monte Morris.
It also might not be the worst idea to move on from Morris before his current deal expires, since his next contract is going to be much larger. Especially when you consider the number of point guard-needy teams that would pay up to acquire his talents.
Possible Trade
After dealing with a knee injury to start the year, Kemba Walker was benched in the middle of the season in favor of Alec Burks. Before then being shut down entirely for the remainder of the 2021-22 campaign, and immediately thrust into trade rumours.
While Cam Reddish played a total of 215 minutes over the course of 15 regular season games with the Knicks after being acquired by the team mid-season.
All in all, it’s safe to say that neither is worth a damn in the eyes of Tom Thibodeau.
Monte Morris, on the other hand, has proven to be serviceable role player who can consistently give you 10-15 points and 3-6 assists per game, on average. The Knicks need a true point guard to start alongside RJ Barrett, and Morris deserves the opportunity to take over that role.
In this trade scenario, the Knicks would be giving up two players (who clearly don’t have a future with the franchise) in exchange for a legitimate starting point guard that can score and facilitate for a winning program.
Sure, Denver would need to convince New York to part ways with the 11th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, which might be easier said than done. However, they’d also be receiving the 21st overall pick as compensation and could easily find value at that number as well.
For the Denver Nuggets, they’d be receiving two solid role players who should be able to squeeze into the rotation right away, along with the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft. Which could then be used to find that stingy wing defender everybody’s been talking about.
Even though Kemba has declined significantly since his days as an All-Star with the Charlotte Hornets, he still averaged 11.6 points, 3.5 assists and 3 rebounds in 25.6 minutes per game last season. So, he could easily take over the starting job or provide valuable minutes off the bench if Denver would prefer to run with a backcourt of Bones Hyland and Jamal Murray.
Reddish would simply be an insurance piece, providing the Nuggets with more depth along the wing and the Duke product with the opportunity to prove he still belongs in the big leagues. Above all else, his shooting touch beyond the arc would offer the Nuggets’ playmakers more to work with.