OKC Reminds Anthony Morrow Of Home
By Randy Renner
Thunder free agent signee Anthony Morrow is happy as can be to be in Oklahoma City and not just because of the Thunder.
Morrow already feels right at home in OKC because it reminds him so much of his own hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina.
"It's a really good city, kinda right up my alley," Morrow said after spending much of his Tuesday afternoon at the Positive Tomorrows school. Which is something else that's right up his alley.
"I love giving back to the community," he said, "and I've done a lot of work in Charlotte with my foundation so it was really good for me to start giving back here and start meeting the people in this community."
Positive Tomorrows is the only elementary school in Oklahoma City that is specifically designed to take care of children and their families who are homeless. (To learn more about Positive Tomorrows and how you can help, click here).
Tuesday afternoon Morrow and new teammate Reggie Jackson jumped aboard the Thunder Book Bus and helped students pick out some new reading material.
"This is the same thing that my foundation, The Anthony Morrow Foundation, embodies trying to help homeless children and homeless families. So this fits right in with some of the things I've already been doing and I'm really looking forward to doing more stuff."
He's also looking forward the upcoming NBA season perhaps more than any other because of his new team and his new teammates.
Morrow is a career 43 percent 3-point shooter despite never having been on a team with other offensive weapons close to what he'll have now with the likes of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and Reggie Jackson.
"Yeah I haven't had a lot of open looks in the last seven years."
Last season in New Orleans, Morrow nailed 45.1 percent of his long balls and had the fourth highest 3-point shooting percentage in the league. Kyle Korver had the highest at 47.2 percent.
Coming in Morrow will have the best career 3-point percentage of anyone on the Thunder (Durant for instance is a career 37.7 percent shooter from deep).
So Morrow should be able to provide some instant offense and be a escape route for passes from Durant and Westbrook when they find themselves double-teamed.
"Yeah, that'll be great man and we're already working on chemistry with guys. Me and Kevin had a friendship before and I've known Russ off and on so I've kinda known these guys since I came in the league so it should be an easy transition."
And so far so good, Morrow says he's had no problems at all fitting in and he's impressed to see so many of his new teammates already here in Oklahoma City, working out and playing pickup games with still almost three weeks to go before training camp starts.
"I think it says a lot when a lot of guys wanna get here early and get to work, there's only two or three guys who aren't here yet so we're already getting geared up and ready for the season."
As far as his role on the Thunder, Morrow said neither head coach Scott Brooks nor GM Sam Presti have defined anything specific and Morrow said he's willing to do whatever is needed.
"Starting or coming off the bench, it doesn't really matter to me. You just have to earn it. And that again is right up my alley. Because you know I was undrafted, one of those guys whose back was against the wall and so I've never had a problem accepting that role. I'm just ready to get to work."
Morrow likely will come off the bench midway or so through the first quarter but is also likely to finish games on the court, providing that extra punch that could be needed.
But as you know the Thunder have a starting shooting guard spot open with the departure of Thabo Sefolosha and a big time battle between Morrow, Jackson, Andre Roberson and Jeremy Lamb could play out during training camp.
That's something we haven't seen around here in a long time. Except for injuries OKC's starting lineup has been as dependable as the summer heat dome.
That's changing now, now the heat will be cranked up indoors during the Thunder's October training camp.