Insider - Chad Ford - Trades might shake up draft, from top to bottom

[Joe Mama]

Crazy talk.

Odom does well against Marion head-to-head, but who cares? The Suns aren't worried about Odom, they're worried about Nowitzki and Tim Duncan, and Marion is the one who can actually guard one of those guys.

Plus, with Amare/Odom/Diaw, you've got three players who all need significant touches to work their way into the game. "Why did _____ completely disappear from the game?" would be the main topic of discussion after every loss for the entire year.



I do like the logic of "Let's trade our 40-minute guy for that 38-minute guy, so that we can get rid of our 24-minute guy", though.

Shawn Marion can't guard Dirk Nowitzki or Tim Duncan. He is assigned those players defensively frequently because the Phoenix Suns play small ball, but he cannot guard them by himself. Hell, even with help they usually go off on him. Lamar Odom is far from a perfect player, but my guess is that he would be better in the Phoenix Suns's system courting those players than Shawn Marion is. now if you want to talk about guarding players like Sam Cassell, Mobley, Kobe Bryant, etc. I would be more inclined to agree with you.

Joe Mama

 

[F-Dog]

Marion does a better job than anybody on Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk gets his points because he gets his points against everybody, but Marion bothers him, especially at the ends of games (when fouls aren't as much of an issue).

Odom isn't a good defender, and the Suns wouldn't make him look any better.

 

[JCSunsfan]

An Amare/Odom/Diaw frontcourt would be sick. We'd have no need for TT in that case and I could imagine a s&t as part of the Marion for Odom deal. But I'd have no idea why Lakers would prefer Marion to Odom though.

Marion>Odom

I would prefer the front court we have now to that.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Marion does a better job than anybody on Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk gets his points because he gets his points against everybody, but Marion bothers him, especially at the ends of games (when fouls aren't as much of an issue).

can someone tell me where this fallacy started? Nowitzki roasted Shawn during the regular season and the playoffs this year and had a pretty good sereis against him last year. Does a better job against him than ANYBODY? I think Bruce Bowen would have something to say about that, as would Udonis Haslem. And as far as bothering him at the end of games, it ain't Marion that bothers, him, it's the pressure - same as it does against everyone else - the guy's a choke-artist (well, except us this year) plain and simple and THAT is what bothers him at the end of games.

And did you really say Marion can guard Duncan as well? If that were the case, I'd love to hear the superlavtives you bestow upon Marion versus Brand. And if you want to fall back on the old "Marion's playing guys much bigger than him" - well that still doesn't mean he plays them well. Getting torched like he did against Howard, Odom, Nowitzki, Brand and Duncan could be done by a host of guys, not just Shawn Marion.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I'm still trying to figure out the Marion does better against Nowitki than ANYONE comments, especially when you consider that in last year's playoffs, against us, Dirk averaged 26.5 point per game and 11 rebounds and then threw up 28/15, 29/12, 25/8 and 36/11 against this season before he took us out in the playoffs.

Can someone show me where that good job was done there as Nowtiki hit or surpassed his averages in all of the above?

I understand it's a fun thing to say, but it's really not the truth.

 

[F-Dog]

I'm still trying to figure out the Marion does better against Nowitki than ANYONE comments, especially when you consider that in last year's playoffs, against us, Dirk averaged 26.5 point per game and 11 rebounds and then threw up 28/15, 29/12, 25/8 and 36/11 against this season before he took us out in the playoffs.

This year he averaged over 27 per game against Bruce Bowen in the Spurs series, with Duncan backing Bowen up. And, because they were forced to put Bowen on Dirk, the Spurs had to play small for most of that series.

I don't think you recognize how much Dirk hurts other teams--he gets MVP talk for a reason. The fact that Marion can do as well as he does, without help behind him, while also rebounding from the PF position, is the reason the Suns match up so well against Dallas.


Oh, and saying Haslem can guard Dirk is like saying Tyronne Lue can guard Iverson.

And did you really say Marion can guard Duncan as well?

No, of course not.