The Suns are no strangers to having one of two siblings on their roster. They had drafted twin of Brooke Lopez, Robin Lopez, and had him up until last season. They also used a second round pick in 2009 on brother of Blake Griffin, Taylor Griffin who was with the team for one year.
Only one other time in NBA history have a set of twins become teammates according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The first just so happened to be with the Suns organization back in 1976-77 as Dick and Tom Van Arsdale suited up in Phoenix. The Suns drafted Markieff Morris in 2011 and Wednesday night, acquired his twin brother Marcus Morris from the Houston Rockets for a second round pick. They are the 13th set of brothers to team up in NBA history and join Tyler and Ben Hansbrough as the only active ones on that list.
“We have been intrigued for quite some time about the potential synergy from having both of the Morris twins on our team. So we are excited to have the opportunity to welcome Marcus to the Suns,” said Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby.
The Morris twins were born seven minutes apart, as Marcus graced the earth first followed by Markieff. The two were a combined 95-14 in their three years playing together in college at Kansas. Marcus Morris was named Big 12 player of the year for the 2010-11 season and was named an All-American the same season. They were then drafted five minutes apart as Marfieff was drafted 13th and then Marcus 14th.
Since being drafted by the Houston Rockets, Marcus struggled to find his NBA identity and is now getting the opportunity to find himself as an NBA player with his brother on the Phoenix Suns.
In the process, the Suns waived another player on their roster who is a sibling of another NBA player, Luke Zeller, to get the roster back down to 15.
UPDATE: The Suns made a second move Thursday shipping point guard Sebastian Telfair to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Iranian center Hamed Haddadi and a second round pick. Haddadi is the first Iranian player to compete in the NBA. Telfair spent a season and a half with the Suns in the back-up point guard role.
