C's secret weapon: Marcus Morris, rebounder

The scouting report on Marcus Morris when he arrived in Boston in exchange for Avery Bradley last summer was a fairly simple one: A versatile stretch 4 who struggles on the glass. The rebounding numbers for the first four years of the veteran’s career in Phoenix and Houston were subpar for a player of his size (6-foot-9). In two seasons in Detroit, they nosedived even more, largely due to the presence of Andre Drummond, who gobbles up every defensive rebound in sight. Morris’ rebounding output hit a low point during that stint when he grabbed just 4.6 rebounds per game in 2016-17 despite averaging 32 minutes per game.

Morris entered a far different kind of arrangement when he came to Boston on the rebounding front. He would no longer be playing with a true center for the majority of his time on the floor and would be spending far more time playing power forward in hopes of spacing the floor for Brad Stevens’ offense. A knee injury kept us from seeing the best of Morris for the majority of his first season in green but an uptick was already apparent in his rebounding numbers due to the new setup. He grabbed 18 percent of all available misses, a six-point jump from his time in Detroit, which put him back at a respectable number for his position. The C’s still ran into trouble on the glass when he shared the floor with Al Horford at the 5 on the glass, but Morris came in better than advertised on the glass, even if he remained a liability against bigger players.

Now in the midst of a contract year, Morris is getting plenty of headlines for being one of the most consistent Celtics through 21 games. He’s shooting a career-high 43 percent from downtown and taking more 3s than ever instead of settling for mid-range jumpers. However, these offensive improvements aren’t even the biggest contributions of the season for Morris. Despite playing smaller than ever, the Celtics are a top-5 defensive rebounding team in the league and Morris is the biggest reason why.

The 29-year-old is averaging a team-high 6.7 rebounds per game through 20 contests and grabbing 23 percent of all available defensive rebounds. That’s almost double his rebounding rate in Detroit and a six-point jump from last season. That 23 percent number leads the Celtics roster right now among players who have seen the floor more than 25 minutes on the year, topping true bigs like Aron Baynes, Daniel Theis and Al Horford over 21 games.

The fact that Morris leads the team in rebounding despite playing just 26 minutes per game (sixth on team) is a tribute to the great work he’s doing in the trenches and a closer look at the numbers show just how much of an impact his work is having on Boston in the win column.

In 10 Celtic wins this year, Morris is averaging 7.8 rebounds per game. In 10 Celtics losses? He grabs just 5.5 per game.

This added element of Morris’ game couldn’t come at a better time given the struggles of others on the roster in the boarding department. Horford is grabbing a career-low 6.3 rebounds per game as he struggles to battle among the trees at age 32. Jayson Tatum started off the year very strong on the glass but has tailed off in recent weeks. Gordon Hayward is a plus rebounder for his position, but the only other reliable rebounders on the roster are bigs like Baynes and Theis and those guys aren’t seeing the floor for more than 20 minutes combined per game.

That reality would seemingly leave Celtic small ball lineups looking very vulnerable on the defensive glass with Horford rebounding like a small forward while playing the center spot. Yet the Celtics’ lineups that pair Morris and Horford in the frontcourt are rebounding at a respectable clip (75 percent of all available rebounds) thanks to the work of Morris. He’s already piled up three double-doubles in just 20 games of action this year, one more than he had through all of last season.

More importantly for him and the team, his commitment to the glass should unlock the Morris/Horford frontcourt in the starting five on a regular basis, a pairing that should help unlock Boston’s offense moving forward. We saw how good the Smart/Irving/Tatum/Morris/Horford combo looked on Monday night in their first start together on the offensive end and that’s a defensive grouping that can hold its own in the paint if Morris continues to clean up the glass at this rate. He’s among the top-10 rebounders in the NBA among forwards at the quarter pole, cementing himself as a crucial piece of this team’s rotation for the rest of the year.

There’s no guarantee that Morris will be able to keep up that pace but the Celtics need to take advantage of this type of production while they can. The veteran is playing himself into starter-level minutes and a big payday this summer by showing that his contributions can go far beyond the point column this year.