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Opinion: Suns Morris twins leave organization in precarious position

The Suns are left in limbo with two key players facing legal recourse.

SPORTS BKC-VCU-KANSAS 30 KC
Kansas's Marcus Morris, left, and Markieff Morris sit devastated in the locker room at the end of second-half action. Virginia Commonwealth University defeated the University of Kansas, 71-61, in the Southwest Regional Final of the men's NCAA Division I Basketball Championships at the Alamodome on Sunday, March 27, 2011, in San Antonio, Texas. (Rich Sugg/Kansas City Star/MCT)

After a nearly three-month investigation, Phoenix Suns' forwards Marcus and Markieff Morris were each charged with two counts of felony aggravated assault Tuesday. The punishment for a first-time offender, if found guilty, is five to 15 years in prison.

The twins, along with three other men, were allegedly involved in an incident after a basketball tournament at the Nina Mason Pulliam Recreation and Sports Complex on Jan. 24. According to documents, the five men attacked 36-year-old Erik Hood as he was leaving the tournament and the injuries sustained sent Hood to the hospital that night. The confrontation allegedly started because of texts that Hood had sent to the Morris' mother.

Markieff started all 82 games this season, putting up 15.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in his first season as a full-time starter. Marcus played in all but the Suns' final regular season game, posting 10.4 points per game.

It is still too early in the process to project what will happen to the Morris twins as charges were just filed, but the Suns need to start working on contingency plans if this, in fact, goes to trial. The players are owed a combined $52 million over the next four seasons and are expected to carry more of a workload moving forward as they reach their prime over that stretch.

The Suns have a few options in dealing with the twins and all of them carry merit.

The easiest would be to make a statement standing behind the players and just wait until the situation is either resolved out of court or by a jury. This will definitely take the longest to play out and there is no guarantee that Phoenix would ever get those players on the court again.

The second option would be to start shopping the Morris brothers immediately and hope to get something back for them. Obviously not many teams are likely to take on $13 million in salary that could possibly be for two players who never see the court, but it only takes one general manager who wants to take a risk.

Thirdly, and the least likely, would be for the Suns to flat out release the twins based off of this instance. Seeing that this is a non-deadly crime, it isn't a likely move, but is an option for general manager Ryan McDonough.

No matter what McDonough ends up deciding, there will be fans who do not like the decision, but there has to be something done by the organization and quickly.

Reach the columnist at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.

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