Monte Morris just got the first double-double of his career. He had gotten ten assists in a game once before, but he only scored five points, leaving him well short of the ten points that are required for a double-double. This time, he made sure there were no doubts about it, as he continued his scoring well past the requisite ten points, all the way to seventeen. Note that this double-double is way more impressive than any double-double achieved with rebounds. I’m of the personal belief that “assist” double-doubles should be recorded separately from “rebound” double-doubles. Same with steals and blocks, although those are less common. I don’t want people to think that somebody like Trey Lyles, who got six double-doubles last season, was a more impressive player than Monte Morris.
I’m still struggling to understand how Monte Morris became this good after hardly playing in his rookie season, but I’m going to have to just accept that this is how things are now. Morris is a top five backup point guard in the league, and, as a starter, he’s probably close to league average. Maybe he’s even better than league average, given his crazy assist/turnover ratio and a shooting efficiency that most point guards could only ever have wet dreams about.
I’m still waiting for a trade that sends Jamal Murray (and other bits and pieces) to the Pelicans for Anthony Davis, and then Monte Morris can be the full-time starter and get endless dimes to Davis and Jokic. If I open up Wojnarooski’s twitter page one more time and see that this trade hasn’t happened yet, I’m deleting the internet from my computer.