Markieff Morris locked eyes with his twin brother, Marcus, and that was all the siblings needed.
After making eye contact on their way down the floor, the two did what they have done probably hundreds of occasions messing around in a practice gym, but this time it came against the Los Angeles Lakers in a real NBA game in November: an alley-oop from one brother to another.
Late in the third quarter, Marcus took one dribble toward the paint from the top of the key to draw in the defense and promptly lobbed it to Markieff, who was lurking alone at the rim and flushed it down easily with two hands. Markieff later finished the game with 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a winning effort, capping off one of the finest outings of his career.
This marked one of 16 alley-oops that Markieff has thrown down over the past two seasons. But here's the thing about that: nine of those 16 have been assisted by one player, his twin brother Marcus. Keep in mind, Marcus is a 6-foot-9 forward, not a point guard. It gets more interesting. In his career, Markieff has played at a near All-Star level with his brother on the floor. But without his brother, Markieff has performed no better than average statistically.
Last week, the NBA fined Markieff Morris $10,000 for publicly demanding a trade away from the Phoenix Suns, who had traded Marcus in July to the Detroit Pistons.
Perhaps this is more than just a brother lashing out. Perhaps Markieff knows he's not the same player without his sibling by his side.
We've all heard about the twin connection at one time or another. There are countless anecdotes that suggest there are psychic powers between twins -- especially identical twins like the Morrises. I have my own story. While on a chairlift on a Vermont mountain in eighth grade, my twin sister abruptly began sobbing without provocation; minutes later, she found out from a friend that I had just broken my humerus bone into two pieces during a skiing accident on the other side of the mountain.
Science doesn't back up the twin telepathy theory. The Morris twins probably don't have psychic powers, and they may not be able to read each other's minds.
But it's clear that Markieff and Marcus have a heightened connection on the court. Last season, Markieff Morris averaged 18.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and shot 49.9 percent from the floor and 37.7 percent from downtown while playing next to his brother. When he played without his twin by his side, those numbers dropped to 17 points and seven rebounds with a mediocre 44.1 percent shooting from the floor and 28.2 percent shooting from deep.
Markieff's player efficiency rating is 17.6 with his brother on the court. Without him, it was 14.8, or slightly below average.
That trend has continued his entire career up to this point. Marcus was traded midseason from Houston to Phoenix in 2012-13, reuniting the brothers on the court for the first time since their college days as Kansas Jayhawks. Since then, Markieff has shot 49.6 percent with his brother on court and just 44.1 percent with Marcus sidelined. Markieff's PER has gone from 18.3 to 14.4.
So, what changes? Let's take a look at splits from last season. Markieff shot better with Marcus on the floor partly because he took smarter shots closer to the basket. With Marcus on the floor, 27 percent of Markieff's shots came at the rim, where he shot 63.4 percent. That dropped to 23 percent and 56.7 percent respectively when Marcus rode the pine, according to NBA.com data.
Furthermore, we find that Markieff is assisted on 62.4 percent of his field goals with Marcus on the floor, compared to just 53.4 percent when Marcus is sidelined, signaling that Markieff may not be going one-on-one as much with his brother out there.
That could just be random, but fancy player-tracking data suggests there's more to it than pure blind luck. Remember all those alley-oops from Marcus to Markieff? These twins have some serious chemistry. Markieff shot a scorching 58.4 percent from the floor off of Marcus' passes compared to just 46 percent from all other teammates. In fact, eight of Markieff's teammates fed him the ball more than 100 times, and of those, Marcus' passes were the only ones that generated a field goal percentage of more than 50 percent.
MARKIEFF MORRIS FG% BY PASSER
2014-15 Season
The trend bounces back the other way as well. Marcus shot 50 percent off Markieff's passes last season, the highest percentage of any of Marcus' passers. In fact, Marcus shot a blistering 19-of-34 (55.9 percent) from downtown when fed by Markieff; he shot just 93-of-279 (33.3 percent) on all other 3s. Now, that's some brotherly love.
And that's not far from the truth. The Morris brothers exhibited synergy that other NBA brothers don't have. In a story by NPR in February, Phoenix head coach Jeff Hornacek said the Morris brothers were much kinder to each other compared to the Dragic brothers (Goran and Zoran, who were traded to Miami last season).
"[During practice] Goran and Zoran are probably more typical brothers, because they hit each other," Hornacek said. "But the Morrises, they tend to let each other score, and not guard, and make each other look good. So they're different in that way."
The numbers prove that Marcus made Markieff look good on the court. But the brothers are no longer coworkers in Phoenix. As part of a salary dump engineered by GM Ryan McDonough during the LaMarcus Aldridge chase this summer, Marcus was traded to Detroit along with Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger for a future second-round pick. The Morris brothers were publicly upset about it, but most siblings don't even get the chance to play together. Just ask the Barrys (Jon, Brent and Drew) or the Grants (Harvey and Horace).
While Markieff may have come off sounding entitled and unprofessional in his Sept. 3 tweet in which he wrote his future wouldn't be in Phoenix, there's real evidence that Markieff has more than one reason to worry about his brother leaving. It was hard to tell Markieff and Marcus apart as teammates, but 2014-15 Markieff may not look anything like 2015-16 Markieff with his brother in Detroit.