From the “you’ve got to consider the source” files – KTAR’s John Gambadoro reported that the Suns may have an interest in bringing Shawn Marion back to the Valley for a return engagement. For this proposed scenario to occur Grant Hill would have to take off for Boston or New York and the Suns would have to clear a few more bucks in order to offer Marion near the mid-level exception (about $5 million).
Bringing Marion to the place where he started his career would almost make too much sense for the Suns. They’ve already admitted that Shaq was a failed experiment (see: Cavs salary dump) and that doing anything but running with the current iteration of the Suns is a waste (see firing Porter, Terry and hiring Gentry, Alvin) – so why not. Let’s get the band back together.
Take a look at it from Marion’s perspective – in February of 2008 he was an All-Star forward making $17 million dollars a year on a team sitting in first place in the Western Conference. 17 months later – after unimpressive stints with Miami and Toronto – he’s been reduced to scrounging for the mid-level exception. Remember – this is the guy who was unhappy with Phoenix because they wouldn’t sign him to a MAX DEAL! It appears the other primary option for Marion would be to sign with Toronto, at which point he would be dealt to Dallas for Jerry Stackhouse. Looking at the Mavericks roster (including Josh Howard at SF and Dirk at PF), I’m not even convinced that Marion cracks the starting lineup. With Phoenix the Matrix would be starting and be allowed to run again – giving Steve Nash one of his old mates and allowing Marion an opportunity to rebuild his value. This really does make sense for both parties.
In this fantasy world I’ve created the Suns would also finally complete the Ben Wallace for Tyson Chandler deal and throw out the following lineup:
C – Tyson Chandler
PF – Amare Stoudemire
SF – Shawn Marion
SG – Jason Richardson
PG – Steve Nash
Bench – Leandro Barbosa, Louis Amundson, Robin Lopez, Jared Dudley, Goran Dragic, Earl Clark
That lineup would score like nobody’s business AND have the ability to defend with Marion and Chandler in the fold. I’d imagine that each time Nash looked at the basket he’d just see a bunch of guys flying towards it preparing for an alley-oop. Someone please explain to me how this doesn’t make sense.
Now I realize the desire is to cut costs but doesn’t actually having a winning team – selling tickets and moving merchandise – make up for some or all of the costs? Someone have an intern look into that. In addition the Suns don’t even have their first round pick in 2010 so if you dump the entire team all you’re ensuring is that OKC has a nice solid lottery pick for next year.
Please Steve Kerr…do this. Thanks.
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