You know, maybe I'm somewhat of a pessimist, because it's hard to be dissappointed with a 63 point performance in any game, but to be honest, watching this game in its entirety only showed that may actually be getting worse, by the simple fact that he's getting better.
Confused? The problem I saw in this game the other night was that Marion has 2 go to moves right now on the court: The 3pt shot and a dunk. Because his ball handling appears to be just as mediocre as it was when he entered the league, he has a hard time driving to the basket even in games like this, so he has to pretty much rely on the 3 pointer, making it his first option. If he gets an open look, you know it's pretty much going in. He's a very good shooter, despite what some may say. Still, his role on the Phoenix Suns basketball team has to be more than his two offensive options allow him to be as of now.
Looking at defensive effort displayed by those who participated in Vince's game, I suddenly realized why Shawn struggles so mightily when defense is played at the other end of the spectrum. Against the Spurs, he played pretty badly because they played defense against him. He didn't get tons of open looks, and the Spurs have never been a team to give away free dunks. In fact, there are so many smart defenders in this league at the 2 and 3 spots that when they see a guy like Shawn, they know how to stop him: Force him towards his weaknesses. For instance, if you deny him a stand-still 3 point attempt, and then force him to go left, he's almost always take 1 or 2 dribbles and pull up. If you play that, and don't allow him to do it, then he has to pull some kind of counter move, and that doesn't seem to be a strong part of Marion's offensive arsenol right now. When these same defenders are going against the likes of Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady, they don't have such glaring weaknesses, so if you give them even a shed of daylight in any direction, they'll take it and burn you with it. Shawn isn't at that level yet, nevertheless however, he's young and certainly has time to develop those abilities, but he doesn't seem to be doing that. At all.
The better Shawn Marion becomes at the 3pt shot, the more it seems like he will be inclined to sitting on the perimeter and doing that. It works for 63 points during charity games during the summer, for about 21 points a game during the regular season, and 30% shooting during the playoffs.
