 Welcome to another episode of In the Zone. We are honored today to have one of the critical players for the Boston Celtics, Marcus Morris. He's joining us in the zone. Marcus, man, thanks for joining us today. How are you doing? I'm good, man, just working real hard, man. Thanks for inviting me on, man. No, man. You were one of the major figures in the post-season. I got to tell you, just real right off the bat, I love the emotion that you brought to the playoff, particularly against Cleveland, yelling after plays and getting into Tristan Thompson's face. And where did that? I mean, you've been firing your whole career, but where did that come from? And why were you so hyped and emotional in that series against Cleveland? I think the atmosphere, the importance of the game, I think that brought that type of emotion out of me. Boston has great fans, the way they showed their support to what the playoffs throughout the season. I think that's what really brought that extra, the little extra screaming and that extra attitude to the game. When you look back, I mean, I don't know if you saw it on film. What did you think when you saw it on film? Which one? Say it again. What did you think when you saw yourself on film doing that? Man, it was kind of funny because outside of the game and outside of playing basketball, I'm a laid-back quiet dude. So doing that, it was kind of funny, man. It was a little different, but the fans embraced it. They loved before it, and I wouldn't take it back. I wouldn't change anything. Yeah, yeah. Now, take it back. I was going to bring that up. Take us back to game seven against Cleveland. Does that game still bother you? Game seven versus Cleveland, it was hype, man. Being in that type of atmosphere, being in that type of game was such important, man. It was a different level that I have never experienced yet being in the NBA. At first, it was a little nerve-racking, but my job was to fill a brand as best as I possibly could. That's all my focus was on the entire series. They got the win, but I definitely think that they knew they had to give everything they had. They had to play as well as they could to beat us. I felt like I thought they would win the series, but I remember saying on the air, I thought you guys would give Golden State a better series. I thought you had match-ups that fit that series better. What do you think would have happened if you guys had been able to get past Cleveland? How do you think things would have went against the Warriors? No, I definitely, and there's no knock to Cleveland, but I definitely think we would have put up a better fight. We definitely would have not got swept. And that's for sure. Cleveland, the first two games, they were really critical. That first game, I know that they thought they had one, which was a tough way to lose. But I just thought our match-up was a lot better. As far as the four guys, they just could put the ball in their hands and create their own shots. Cleveland, everything went through LeBron. And the other guys didn't really have as good of a series as they wanted to. I know definitely in the championship, they didn't play as well as they wanted to. But I definitely thought we just have more match-up problems. And I think that's what got us to that point in the playoffs, because when we matched up against Milwaukee and the Sixers, they had one or two guys that maybe that can get theirself a shot. We had maybe five, six. And that's tough to match up with. There's talk. I mean, Kawhi Leonard is on the trade market. Well, I wouldn't say on the trade market. But he wants the trade. And Boston's been one of the places mentioned. Would you like to see you guys just come back intact, obviously, with a healthy Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving? Or would you like to see some type of move where you can get a guy like Kawhi? With many teams of Ceases and you only get this guy for one year. I don't know how that holds up along with it. But like I said, Kawhi is a great player in this league. And he's a tough piece. In my opinion, top 10 in this league. So I mean, that's just tough to pass up. How good do you think you guys will be? Let's say you come back as you are with a healthy Kyrie and Gordon Hayward. How good do you think, like, how far would you expect to go if you're all healthy next year? Oh, man, good coach. So he would figure out how to implement everybody and keep everybody happy. But at the end of the day, with that team, I think structurally, you maybe add another center if we don't sign Aaron Baines back with the way it's going to be tough to beat us. There was a lot of talk when Kyrie wasn't on the bench for game seven. Some people frowned on that. What were the players' thoughts about that? We never really talked about it. Kyle, I've been around him. This is my first year around him. He's a good dude. He's a great teammate. I know him. He could have been there. He would have been there. Really focused on who's sitting on the bench. And who's not. This is the biggest game of all of our careers. So I don't think that was a big major. Obviously, everybody's looking at free agency. Where will LeBron go? Paul, George, guys like that. Are you as into it as the fans? I mean, everybody seems to be on the edge of their seats. There's a lot of shit. One thing I can say, man, and that's what I'm watching to see if he does leave, Boston will own the East. And that's just what it is. If he stays on the East, then we still have to leave. He goes to the West. Now, a lot of people talking about MVD and Joel MVD and Vincent and Philly, y'all wouldn't be. I mean, obviously, you give them their respect, but you really wouldn't be too worried about them. You feel like y'all would just have it. Y'all would have the East. Yeah, man. We have, like I said, man, we have a lot around the league. A team like ours think we might be more deep than they are. If we brung back the exact players that we have now, because now you have, you know, you put card read back out there. You know, do anybody has. Or you want him in the East so you can beat him. Man, at this point, man, you know, if he stays in Cleveland and they don't get anybody, we definitely won't lose to them again. I'd like to see them again and be able to redeem ourselves for another year under our belt and go to the state. I wouldn't mind seeing them. Now, there was, you know, I don't know how realistic it is, but there was some talk about maybe the brand going to the Celtics. What are your thoughts on that? Would you be in favor of something like that? We clashed up against them. I want to go against them again, man. I can't. Yeah, well, so what's your thought? I mean, obviously, you got a lot of guys trying to team up and make, quote, unquote, super teams. What's your feeling on that? You know, a lot of old school cats criticize it and say, man, compete. You know, what's your thought on kind of these new, new fangirls, super teams? I mean, that's just the way the league's going right now. You know, you've got Golden State and it's all super teams, or we just continue to let Golden State get to where they're going every year. That's just it. There's no way around it, you know, really good. And I mean, what can you do about it? But get somebody, get a team that's just as good and go against them, you know? Or just like at this point, there's no other choice but to get other teams to beat those guys. When you look at Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, three All-Stars. You know, you and Rogier, that's great depth. You know, Tatum, Jason Tatum, looks like he's got a great future, Jaylen Brown. I mean, do you kind of feel like you guys are super team? You know, with the emergence of the younger guys, I definitely do, man. They, you know, the way they open up the league, I plan as well as they did when Kyre and just having that super team, you know, with another year and the work ethic that those guys have, you know, and the coach that we had, we're just about right there. We're back in, it will be, you know, that will be exciting to see how that goes. And, you know, we're really winged on. I'm back and, you know, he plays his normal stuff, man. I feel like it's hard to beat us. It'd be really tough to beat us. You've guarded and played against, you know, the best wing players in the league. How good can Jason Tatum be? I mean, I think most people think he can be a star, but what do you think is, you know, the heights that he'll reach? You know, like what, maybe if there's a player, like, can he get to a KD level? Can he get to a, you know, Kawhi level? Or what, you know, how good can he be? I think it's going to be really, really, I think is that, you know, KD had the ball. I think that could be the difference of how fast, the way KD developed was from day one, it was KD and everybody else got in line, you know what I mean? And that's the only, I think his development might be just a tad bit slower, but I think he wins more early on, you know, things like that. You've played, like I said, you've guarded KD, Kawhi, LeBron, Anthony Davis, all these great wing players. People refer to LeBron as the best player in the world. From your experiences of guarding all these guys, do you, is that how you feel? And that's not not KD, he's a great player. You know what I mean? You got Klay and Steph, his percentages are going to go sky high because now you have to guard those guys. The lane becomes very wide open, you know what I mean? And doing what LeBron did this year was definitely special, man, because, hey, you know, we gon' call it speed or speed. The guys around him didn't play well. He literally carried you through, you know, KD is a scorer, he can get it done. His defense has got a lot better efficiency, he's rebounded, he's scoring, you know. So I'm gonna ask you for your honest opinion. If you were in LeBron's shoes, where would you go this summer? If I was in LeBron's shoes, I would stay home, man. Really? If I would stay home, and I'm not saying that because, you know, that's what I want them to do, but get some guys over there. At the same time, I would get some guys to come over there and then we go right back at it. It's intriguing, man, that what you can do in LA and have the magic and things like that, that's definitely intriguing. So that's hard to play. At the end of the day, man, that's just like if I was in Philly, I would stay home. That's interesting, that's interesting. Now, of course you got a twin brother, Marquise, who plays in the league as well. Ironically, y'all have the same scoring average for your careers, 11 points a game. He's a few decimal points ahead of you, but it's basically 11 points for each of you. You know, I got twin girls. They're identical twins like you guys. And I have not seen, I mean, they're close. They're really close. But you know, I haven't seen, you know how they talk about twins having this extra connection and all that, you know? I haven't really seen that with them. But, Dave, you and Marquise, do you guys have that, have a kind of extraordinary connection you feel like? Yeah, for sure, man, because you know, I think it starts at a younger age. When we were younger, we did everything together. It was, you know what I mean? My mom, growing up, she made sure that we were like really close. And then that led into the sports. So when we played sports, it was always receiver, quarterback, small four, power forward. So everything was done together. So our minds kind of were connected. It's kind of funny saying it, but we're like connected. Like even when we play now, it's like if we were on the same team, I can make a pass. And I know for sure that he won't get it. And we will be upset at each other if he didn't. You know what I mean? I didn't. You know, and that's just something with twins. You know, it's hard to explain, man, but like even today, like even days, I would call him here for like, man, I was just about to call you a second before you called me or something like that. I was just about to say that. And you know, it's fun, man, you know, but you know, the thing about it is, man, and the ultimate goal was to get to the NBA together. You know what I mean? Rather we're playing on different teams. It would get there together. And that, you know, from a young age we pushed each other with making sure that we both got there and that we both were solid in the league. How competitive are you guys? Because my twin girls are very competitive with each other. You know, for us, it's more like, we're competitive at like, like video games and things like that. But other than that, you know, we're not really competitive, man. We just, you know, we want each other to be the best that we can be, you know what I mean? Together. So like even during throughout the season, like we're constantly like, I watch every game that he play almost. If I'm not playing, I watch them all. I send them little tips, even if it's the first or the second, you know, game of the season, we want what's best for each other and we continue to push each other to get better, you know? So we're not really competitive, man. And that's the funny part about it because I talked to a lot of the twins and they damn near want to kill each other when they're playing together. I was like, man, I've never been like that. Never been that way. Now, did y'all used to play one-on-one growing up? Yeah, I mean, a little bit, but we had an older brother and I have a few older brothers, we used to just play two-on-one against him. Oh, we never sure we were able to dunk. And then once we became able to dunk, it was like, all right, we played two-on-two against anybody, but there's not too much one-on-one. We might play one-on-one now, but it's just, it's through the emotions of just figuring out little things, trying to tweak little things about each other game. Yeah, you ain't really going at it like to beat each other so much. Yeah, yeah, man, I know it sounded a little crazy, but that's just how we are, man. And, you know, we've been like that. And, you know, I think that's what got us to the point we're at today, you know what I mean? Having somebody like that that's actually in the same position you were in to push you as hard as they can, you know what I mean? To help you as much as they can. And I think that, you know, if everybody had that, the world would be a better place, man. And that's just real. No, that's true, that's true. Now let me ask you this, there was, I'm sure you're aware of this. Back in the 2017 playoffs, there was this conspiracy theory going around that you had actually played for Mark Heath. He was out with the Wizards with an ankle injury. Now we know it wasn't true, but do you think y'all ever could pull anything like that off? No, just in a subtle fact that like Heath is a traditional foreman, you know, and I've played the three for the past three, four years in the NBA. So I think if it'll be, you can just see it if I just start dribbling the ball or bringing it up because Keith don't do that, you know what I mean? If I get on the wing and I'm coming off a pick and roll, just not realizing where I'm at, it might get a little fishy, you know what I'm saying? And he jumps higher than me. There's little things that you would be able to see him like, damn, I've never seen that before. Right, right. It might turn it over, but, you know, in the fact that, you know, that he twisted his ankle, you know, I was kind of upset a little bit that people thought I would really, you know what I mean? That it wasn't him because, you know, it's tough that the way he twisted his ankle and come back and put himself on a line for a team like that, man, like he should get all the credit, you know, it shouldn't be, oh, is that the other twin playing? I thought it was funny, but at the end of the day, you know, he came out there with a severely bad ankle and still went out there and contributed to his team. So, you know, that's the only thing that, you know, I didn't like. Yep, yep, I'll see you. Last question. Growing up, did you guys ever pull tricks like that? I mean, like data girls are different guys, you know what I mean? Or in class or with teachers or anything like that? Oh, come on, man. I can't tell you everything, but we, we might be the best twins in the world, man. Like we, we didn't, man, we didn't, we didn't switch classes. We didn't took tricks for each other. We didn't do a lot of stuff that, you know, we got to go to the grave with. Well, yo, man, I appreciate the time Marcus. You had a great year specifically in the playoffs. And man, I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all do next year, whether LeBron's in the East or not. No doubt, man. I thank you for having me. You got to come back and I'll let me after all this going on. I tell you, I don't go because I don't know what's going to happen, man. Everything's up in the air. You know, you know, hopefully I stay in Boston. You know, I love it there. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's a business. You know, they're looking to get new guys and shuffle the deck. So, you know, I don't really know where I'm going to be. But, you know, I, Yeah, I was going to ask you, are you worried, you know, you see stuff out there, are you worried about that? No, I'm not, you know, for me, I'm not worried, man. You know, a piece like me, I think anybody in the league can use. You know what I mean? God, I can start God. I can come off the bench and give you buckets and defend the toughest guy and be a tough part of your team and bring the energy and bring that toughness that every team has to have to win a championship. I don't care how it goes. You've got to have some tough SOBs on your team to win, man. And that's just what it is. So, at the end of the day, you know, I think my volume in the league is very high because it's so much stuff I bring. So, you know, whoever gets me, you know, and like I said, I love Boston and I want to stay there, but whoever gets me, they're going to get, they're going to get a great piece, man, a great veteran, you know, and a great leader and a great player. No doubt, no doubt. Let me ask you one more thing because your coach, you've mentioned Brad Stevens a few times and obviously he's a tremendous coach. Can you give me one story about why he's such a good coach? You know, it's more, it's not just a story. It's just the way he says things before it happens. I could tell you about that Sixers in the regulation. It might have been over time in the playoffs when I made the pass to Al Horford. Yeah. The way he drew up the play and the first time I think when he drew the play up, it was just a decoy just to see what they were going to guard. You know, he knew that play wasn't going to work. He knew it wasn't going to work the first time, you know, and then the second time he wrote it out exactly how he was going to play and he told me exactly what was going to happen and exactly those things happen. You know what I mean? And that was multiple times throughout the year that that happened and I've never played for a coach that can kind of see everything before it happens. You know what I mean? You know what players do. You know what I mean? From what I've noticed, he does that so well and he comes up with schemes so well and he's just his attention to details. It's like slim to none, man. You know, even when we practice, we don't really even practice. We go over those small details and we go over, go over, go over and then in the game, that's all you need to win. So does that give you, like when you go into a series, were you guys going in like, man, we know we got a big advantage on the bench, coaching-wise? Like does that give you extra confidence? Oh, for sure. For sure, man. That's going into almost all the series, you know, and all the coaches in the NBA are very good coaches with Brad Stevens. You know, he's like a professor that knows everything. You know what I mean? He brings that to basketball. He knows the game so well that he just sees it before it happens. You know what I mean? He sees it and he knows what we need to get better at going into certain games and that's what we work on. You know, we don't waste no energy. We don't waste no time in the gym going over, you know, stuff that doesn't really matter. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well, Marcus, I know you're about to go work out and I'll be in touch, man. I'll hit you after some of these free agent moves are made. No doubt, man. I love to get back on here, Chris. All right, Brad. Thanks, man. All right. Appreciate it.