"Our basketball people would trade Shaq for Shawn right now."

[Mirth]

This is from Vecsey's latest on Fox Sports:

Think the Suns could've used Marion or Raja Bell to cover Brandon Roy (52 points) in Thursday night's loss at Portland? Phoenix forced six turnovers, the same number committed by Steve Nash, in case you hadn't noticed. A Suns official sheepishly admits, "Our basketball people would trade Shaq for Shawn right now."

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8973180/Marbury-definitely-tops-the-naughty-list

WOW.

 

[slinslin]

Yeah because Shaq is playing a really good season while Marion is playing a terrible season.

Vecsey is just a D'Antoni follower, who spews a lot of nonsense since the Suns let him go.

 

[elindholm]

Two possibilities, each fairly likely:

1. Vecsey is completely making things up, as usual.

and/or

2. The Suns' "basketball people" are morons.

O'Neal is much, much more valuable to the current Suns than Marion would be. It's not even close.

 

[cly2tw]

Right, we want to have Marion to repeat what DA achieved 2 years ago, that is round-2 exit? Smart.

 

[Cheesewater]

I think some people are disappointed the Shaq deal has worked as well as it has, and that Shaq is in good shape and playing good basketball. Those who predicted a meltdown and an emergence of some bad attitude and laziness and locker room cancer are hurting for some crap to stir up. Bad news is always more interesting than good news when it comes to those with extra balloon juice to spew.

Did everyone catch that moment, I believe against the Nugz, when Shaq had the ball batted away in the corner (read: he was fouled)? He followed the ball out of the corner where an elderly lady was seated courtside. She held out her hands in a little wave and Shaq stepped up, took her hands for a second and greeted her. I love this guy.

 

[LV-Suns]

Bell could have helped against Roy going off for 52, after all he held Crawford to....50?

 

[AceP]

It amazed me that how many blind moron experts r still holding their job in such winter of economy. Do they even watch the 08-09 season?!? Bell as a good defender was a distant memory.

And Marion? Give me a break! He is not even close to top 10 small fowards this season. The Cavs r reluctant to trade Vajero for him!

 

[joshstmarie]

Id take matt barnes over marion any day of the week even if marion made 1/2 of what he makes.

 

[SirStefan32]

Vecsey is a tool.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

The quote seems to be taken out of context. It leads me to believe it was intended as a "we could have used a tenacious defender that can lock down the guard position for this game that just occurred," which everyone needs the night someone drops 30/40/50/80 on your team.

and these "basketball people" seem to have forgotten how we got "punished in the paint for 3 years" with Amare at Center.

 

[Folster]

The statement may very well be true if management is looking at it from a financial standpoint. Marion's contract is up after this season while Shaq's contract runs through 2010. If the Suns official realizes that Shaq will not bring a championship, then it's not surprising that he would prefer Marion and his expiring deal. Heck, I would.

Having 17 million off the cap would be nice in the summer; however, the free agent class is ho-hum compared to the bonanza expected in 2010, a factor that the Suns surely considered.

On another note, "Who wants Banks back?" D'antoni was vindicated for burying him on the bench as he was with just about every other player we clamored for him to play.

 

[Shzm13]

Vescey??

really??


I think im a more credible source at this point in my journalism career... (which i have none)

 

[dodie53]

no to Marion.

 

[mojorizen7]

Fine,fine quality journalism.
Trading Shaq for Marion today.....
I'm picturing Robin Lopez forced into a starting role fouling out by halftime,while Amare is forced into playing Center again and promptly gets abused nightly by the refs forcing him to sit often in foul trouble, rendering Barnes into a position of guarding bigger stronger players forcing him to use more....um....drastic measures of guarding people like elbows knees & toes including flagrant 1's & 2's eventually serving a 1 game suspension every other week(damn this team is a bit thin upfront).
That would leave us Marion, who after a week would be cryin to the media......."Damnwhere'sMikeyDat?........Ithoughtyallwuzplayin......getmetaNewYorkman.....knowwhati'msayin...yall?"

You must be registered for see images

 

[slinslin]

Especially since we would have to take Banks as well.

Our problem isn't the Shaq for Marion tade..

1. In hindsight signing a star like Nash that overshadowed Amare as the face of the franchise and leader probably slowing Amare's development as a team leader. We could have used the money for Nash and QRich to sign just Camby and save the rest to extend Joe Johnson and make our #7 draftpick (Iguodala, Deng, Josh Smith) and trade Marion for quality role players or trade up 2-3 spots for Devin Harris.
We had all of them in for workouts, Josh Smith and Iguodala even twice.

2. Trading QRich, Nate Robinson and a draftpick for Kurt Thomas and then trading Kurt Thomas and 2 picks for nothing.

3. Selling Rajon Rondo to save a couple of millions of Brian Grant because D'Antoni didn't like Rondo.

4. Selling Rodrigues and Fernandez because D'Antoni didn't like them.

Colangelo and D'antoni didn't have enough patience to build a team around Amare, instead they just got quick fixes and veterans for fast success and a quick shot at a championship.

One could say that the signing of Q-Richardson cost us Joe Johnson's extension, the #7 pick, Nate Robinson and at least 2 more draftpicks.

 

[Ollie]

Bell could have helped against Roy going off for 52, after all he held Crawford to....50?

You're at least the fiftieth to say that, but none of you actually watched the game and saw Felton getting torched by Crawford.

As for Vecsey, the guy is, for lack of a better term, a hack and has absolutely no credibility whatsoever...

 

[slinslin]

Does it matter, Bell was playing bad defense here over the last year I don't think that could be argued.
He got torched on a regular basis by the likes of Ginobili and co.

 

[Covert Rain]

We are getting torched by guards but has everyone forgotten how that was happening when Marion was still here towards the end? What about Raja over this past year? Honestly, how stupid is PV.

I wouldn't trade what Shaq has brought to this team to get Marion & Bell back. No thanks.

 

[Bufalay]

We are getting torched by guards but has everyone forgotten how that was happening when Marion was still here towards the end? What about Raja over this past year? Honestly, how stupid is PV.

I wouldn't trade what Shaq has brought to this team to get Marion & Bell back. No thanks.

There was nothing wrong with Marion's D. He just never had any business guarding Parker, BDavis or Paul.

I'm sure he could handle Roy pretty well at this point.

 

[arwillan]

It amazed me that how many blind moron experts r still holding their job in such winter of economy. Do they even watch the 08-09 season?!? Bell as a good defender was a distant memory.

And Marion? Give me a break! He is not even close to top 10 small fowards this season. The Cavs r reluctant to trade Vajero for him!

who is this "Vajero" fellow? never heard of him. if you are referring to Varejao, there are good reasons not to do that trade outside of marion's decline. varejao is their only big off the bench. marion would expect to start, but the cavs need both ben and Z starting anyways.

was marion ever a top 10 Small forward? All better than him even when he was with the suns : Lebron, Pierce, Melo, Battier, Artest, Gerald Wallace (offensively at least), Hedo, Peja tore marion up, Caron Butler, and prince.

 

[S_Nash]

It's this kind of bull$hit from fickle fans that piss me right off.

You want to hate on Marion for being a primadonna?

Fine.

You want to hate on Marion for screwing up a deal for KG?

Fine.

But don't start spewing crap about him not being a top 10 SF while he was with the Suns.

Aren't you a Cavs fan anyway? Did you watch Marion during the Kidd years? The Marbury years?? Or did you start paying attention during SSOL?

Why do people instantly have to start hating someone just because they were traded

What a joke.

 

[Irish]

Marion was one of the greatest role players in the league, but his skill set limited the Suns a bunch.

1 Not a three point shooter - Teams began just ignoring him in the corner because his outside shooting was so poor.

2. Not a "make his own shot" guy - He was totally reliant on others getting him the ball.

3. Not strong enough to defend the post - Shawn could front opponents but when wing gys passed the ball inside he gave up a lot of points.

4. Not long enough to shut down tall wing guys who could move.

 

[AceP]

There is NO hating on Marion from my side. Absolutely NOT! Just to make my point clear.

According to his performance of this season, among centers, 3rd in scoring and 7th in rebounding, Shaq is still in top 10, if not top 5. Meanwhile, u can easily find 10 or even 15 SFs better than Marion. And, Marion makes almost as much as Shaq, $17,810,000. Such a swap doesn't make even the least benefit for the Suns either basketball wise, or financial wise.

Such suggestion is extremely disrespect to Barnes and Hill. They r both excellent players doing a good job for this team. Both of them r good defenders, not up to Marion's standard, but not far behind either.

 

[S_Nash]

I wasn't necessarily talking to you specifically.

I guess looking back, I might come off a bit harsh, but it really irks me with all the hate that Marion generates.

Dude was one of the top 10 Suns of all time, no question. And when he was hot, you could make a case for him as top 10 in the league (A few writers alluded to this) and yet you have some joker asking the question whether or not he was top 10 at his position.

I remember when he tore it up for that 4 game stretch around 6-7 years ago. He was on the verge of breaking all sorts of records, then one John Starks undercut him while he was skying for a rebound (Offensive, I might add).

One could say he was never the same after that.

Although in saying that, I like to think that Zarko would've been something special had it not've been for Danny Fortson.

 

[Covert Rain]

There was nothing wrong with Marion's D. He just never had any business guarding Parker, BDavis or Paul.

I'm sure he could handle Roy pretty well at this point.

Exactly my point. You would have Marion still guarding guards and getting torched. Then on top of it, we would have no interior defense either.