With No Offensive Flow The Suns Lose To The Hornets In Summer League Action

When confidence is entered into the equation, the kind of confidence knowing you are the best player on the team it can be a double edged sword. For the Suns, they have one of the stars of Summer League to date in Markieff Morris, who is becoming both sides of that sword.

His elite confidence has allowed him to consistently be the best scorer-rebounder combo in Las Vegas. Through three games Morris is averaging 19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.

The problem is that the team is now 1-2 with the loss to the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night. The Hornets who by the way were without Anthony Davis (Olympics) and Austin Rivers (injury) for the game. it was a rout as the Suns could not muster any offense all game in the 78-61 loss.

In the second half the offense was pretty rough, but part of that was due to Morris going down with an injury and not coming back. The pull was precautionary and the injury seems to be more fatigue than anything else.

Part of that was because of the play of Morris. He has been terrific through the first two games, but has shot just 36% from the field (18-50) on a lot of contested shots. It is a combination of confidence and cockiness, but something that is very fixable. That aggressiveness is good for Morris to have on a team that is going to need to get points from its forwards more than ever.

That aggressiveness rubbed off on rookie Kendall Marshall as he took 10 total field goal attempts, taking a cue from the coaching staff. However, the ball was not necessarily falling through the net as he finished with two points and five assists.

"Better," said Dan Majerle after the game. "He played better, more comfortable and you can see his confidence growing. He made strides (definitely) from last game."

Marshall was still passing on some shots that he could have taken, but his natural instincts are to make plays for others. That is going to take more than 60 minutes of action in Summer League to correct.

"They were pretty adamant about that telling me to shoot the ball more," said Marshall after the game. "It's a little different for me. It is something I need to get used to. Obviously more time in the gym and getting my confidence to take those shots will ultimately help my team more."

So the confidence is growing, but will take some time to get used to being a more selfish player out on the court looking for his own shot.

There is not much else that came from this game. It was a rough outing that say Marshall shoot more to no effect and Morris going down to injury really had an effect on the team in a negative way.

Up next for the Suns is an off day before hitting the court on Friday against the NBA D-League Select team led by Andre Emmett and featuring former Arizona star Jeremy Wise.

You can get more Suns coverage at Bright Side of the Sun.

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