Are you guys worried about Marion in the playoffs?

[cardsunsfan]

I think we could have had a good chance of beating the Spurs last year if Marion has been anything like his normal self but he was plain awful last yr..look at his stats, six points in a game?!

I think for us to have a chance do beat the Spurs we will need Amare because of this, I think Bowen can control Marion...

 

[myrondizzo]

the problem was that the refs let bowen hang all over marion. way beyond hand checking. an NFl Ref wouldve called holding.

 

[JS22]

I think we could have had a good chance of beating the Spurs last year if Marion has been anything like his normal self but he was plain awful last yr..look at his stats, six points in a game?!

I think for us to have a chance do beat the Spurs we will need Amare because of this, I think Bowen can control Marion...

100% worried. I fully expect him to tank it again in the playoffs.

(Prove me wrong, Marion! ....Please!)

 

[elindholm]

If the Suns are fortunate enough to reach the WCF again, it's basically all up to Stoudemire. If he plays at a high level, they have a chance; if not, they don't. I know that some people will be all over my case because they think the Suns can beat the Spurs even without Stoudemire, but I just don't see it happening once the officiating drops to playoff-level.

Part of the reason that Marion didn't score much against the Spurs is because the Suns went to Stoudemire on every play. Also, Marion has become a more confident one-on-one player this year. I'm not worried about him.

 

[scotsman13]

no i am not worried. flat out marion wasnt getting the ball and then he was being guarded by one of the best defenders in the nba. if we want to run him into the middle and let him score in that area then great we can get the scoring from him.

 

[Errntknght]

I more or less agree with Eric and scotsman13 but I am worried about Marion. I attribute his improved play this year to moving much more without the ball, looking for open spots closer in, and not significantly to better 1 on 1 play. Last year I thought Shawn played right into Bowen's hands by being too static, but it's possible that was due to Amare's presence and D'Antoni's design. If Amare returns and is close to his former self, then the factors are present for Shawn to fade to the perimeter again. So I'm worried but I'm hoping that whoever needed to learn from last year has done so.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I more or less agree with Eric and scotsman13 but I am worried about Marion. I attribute his improved play this year to moving much more without the ball, looking for open spots closer in, and not significantly to better 1 on 1 play. Last year I thought Shawn played right into Bowen's hands by being too static, but it's possible that was due to Amare's presence and D'Antoni's design. If Amare returns and is close to his former self, then the factors are present for Shawn to fade to the perimeter again. So I'm worried but I'm hoping that whoever needed to learn from last year has done so.

completely agree with this post. bowen drives marion nuts. but it was also marion's assigned task to stay in the corner in the offense. a player that doesn't move is easy to guard. i think d'antoni won't let that happen again, whether or not amare returns.

that said i'm still worried about marion b/c despite his terrific year he won't prove to me that he's tough-minded until he consistently shows up big in the playoffs. show me shawn, just show me. if the bidwills (sp?) could prove me wrong, so can you . . .

 

[golfcardfan]

Correct me if I am wrong but Marion was HUGE in the playoffs last year in the Dallas series! He did not have a good series against the Spurs but thats because bowen is aloud to do whatever he wants. I am not too worried about him he seems to have gained a huge amount of confidence. Elind I don't think we have to be fortunate or that it depends on stoudamire if we make the WCF I believe we get there again, Now if we can get to the FINALS I think we may need stoudamire to reach the finals. But think we don't have too much trouble reaching the WCF again, which would have to be considered a huge success especially without our Franchise player the whole season.

 

[TucsonDevil]

The person that dissapointed me the most in playoffs last year was Richardson. Now that he is gone, we improve quite a bit. Besides, our team has gone through quite a change from last year. Marion is a different player this year. I don't worry about his performance too much. I am just concerned about our health - if we stay healthy, we can beat SAN, with or without Amare. I really believe that. Case in point, our defense has increased, we have a much stronger bench, we have two point guards on the floor, we have better rebounding, and we still have the MVP. We lost a major weakness in Richardson, and gained the above strengths. Like I said, I have drunk the Suns Kool-Aid, and am looking forward to the Finals (barring any significant injuries).

 

[Chaz]

I am not worried about him unless he is injured again.

 

[cly2tw]

Marion needs space to be effective. He is not a good 1-on-1 player on the offense. Without Amare, it's up to the Spurs whether they could contain our offense and force it into more isolation plays. With the PG quality of Diaw, we are better at maintaining our way of offense than last year, but we'll have to wait till the WCFs to see.

 

[boisesuns]

I hope he's effective. You know what i'm sayin'?

 

[jbeecham]

I'm worried about Marion right now....... he was playing out of his mind for a while, getting the national recognition he craves and then he has 2-3 games where he can't make layups/dunks or catch alley-oop passes.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Correct me if I am wrong but Marion was HUGE in the playoffs last year in the Dallas series! He did not have a good series against the Spurs but thats because bowen is aloud to do whatever he wants. I am not too worried about him he seems to have gained a huge amount of confidence. Elind I don't think we have to be fortunate or that it depends on stoudamire if we make the WCF I believe we get there again, Now if we can get to the FINALS I think we may need stoudamire to reach the finals. But think we don't have too much trouble reaching the WCF again, which would have to be considered a huge success especially without our Franchise player the whole season.

i'd have to go back and check, but i think you're wrong. i think marion came up huge in the last game of the dallas series, but before that i think he performed mediocre at best. and then of course he disappeared against san antonio (though not as much as q, which surprised the hell outta me).

 

[Chaplin]

I'm worried about Marion right now....... he was playing out of his mind for a while, getting the national recognition he craves and then he has 2-3 games where he can't make layups/dunks or catch alley-oop passes.

You forgot to mention that he's been sick as a dog for the past few days.

 

[F-Dog]

Yeah, Marion's been playing like garbage recently. Not that I'm complaining--he was nails for an entire month before that.


Anyway, Bowen + refs gives a lot of players trouble. If you think the Suns have it bad, imagine how the Nuggets must feel--Bowen shuts down Carmelo Anthony, too, and Melo is the Nuggets' only legit offensive threat.

The Suns actually have a couple of options. First, they can go small, and because Quentin Richardson isn't available to absorb mismatches, Marion will wind up matched against Horry or Mohammad and have his usual success. Or, if the Suns' bigs are healthy, they can play the Spurs straight up, absorb the loss of Marion's points, and get those points back at other positions.

In the last game, Bowen switched over to Boris Diaw for a time--he was still effective, but had less success than he usually does against Marion. My thought is that the Spurs will try to use Bowen as a "fireman" this time around, switching him from Sun to Sun as this or that player heats up.

The good news is that Bowen can't guard Steve Nash (and he might not be able to guard Barbosa, either). Nash can guard Bowen just fine, though.

 

[George O'Brien]

Anyway, since the Spurs will be terribly overconfident due to beating the Suns without Nash and Barbosa...

I'm not worried about Marion's offense, I'm worried about the Suns defense against the Spurs. I don't think any team can stop the Suns, but they can outscore the Suns as they are currently operating.