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I don't recall Marion hardly ever doing well against us.
Infact I remember him doing pretty damn bad in one series.
Marion was great at running the break. The problem is that the Spurs transition D could slow the pace down and he'd become just another shooter floating around the 3 pt line. I said that this trade would make the Suns better but not get them over the hump and so far it looks like I might have been right for once. If Marion is there this series is still 2-0, only Tim would be scoring more instead of the guards, or the 3 pt shooters would be bombing away. I think having someone who has a prayer of guarding Tim 1 on 1 balances out the equation.
I don't recall Marion hardly ever doing well against us.
Infact I remember him doing pretty damn bad in one series.
He would help them on defense as he could guard Parker or Manu.
Offensively, I think he was averaging something pathetic like 6 PPG against the Spurs in the playoffs in all the times we met.
I don't think you can say which version of the team was better because they've completely changed styles. This matchup used to be a clash of styles with the team who was able to impose their will being the victor. That happened to be the Spurs more times than not. Now, the Spurs and Suns play basically the same style, except that the Spurs are now the better fast break team and both are pretty equal in the half court.
Of course the Suns miss Marion and the versatility that he afforded them on defense, but the truth is that they weren't a good defensive team with him anyway. The somewhat surprise is now that they have swapped Shaq for Marion, they still aren't a good defensive team. They have had to play basically flawless offensive basketball in two first halves just to maintain a small lead, and when they couldn't keep the near perfection going (as no one can) they fell behind and lost.
My theory is that all of this falls on the head coach, and to an extent the star PG. The coach's offensive mind is great, but like his star PG he is one dimensional. The coach doesn't have the chops to coach great team defense, and team defense is what is needed to slow down a back court like the Spurs have that is constantly attacking you. The Suns are very slow on rotations a lot (if they rotate at all), and although their one on one defense is pretty good at many positions they aren't able to handle the multiple pick and rolls and back screens that require team defensive execution to handle. The reason I think it's also on the PG is because he is a complete defensive liability. His inability or unwillingness to perform defensively causes a huge void right at the point of attack of the other team's offense. I can't think of a championship team in recent memory that had a complete defensive liability at the PG position.
marion was always iffy against the spurs in the playoffs, but you could hardly write him off as a non-factor no matter how many bad games he had against us.
without him the suns have to rely on feeding the ball to the 2 big guys in the middle. they've lost just about all of their perimeter game on both ends of the court. bell can knock down the open three, but nothing like the matrix. nash has had to create on the outside a lot more to fill the marion gap as well.
shaq seems to have improved the interior defense and rebounding, but he's a one on one defender these days. not a threatening post presence like i think phx was hoping he would be.
marion was shut down by bowen but bowen shutsd down all star players most of the time
Ask me when the series is over.
The revisionist love for Marion is basically re ed. The guy sucked against the Spurs. He totally vanished. By not being slow and 360 pounds, yes, he allowed them to be more of a running team. If he was still on the team now we'd have much less problem with them. He would still be vanishing but as an added bonus he would be whining in the locker room, possibly even drowning out the drone of the coach.
bowen would own marion again but tp and bowen would not be able to tag team nash and wear nash out!
Suns could have pulled out a run there in the fourth if Marion was playing.
No way do I think they are missing Marion, at least for sure not in this series. If the Suns somehow pull this series off, then I absolutely think they will be missing him against a team like the Hornets, but Marion had a tendency to disappear in postseason series', and him being there would have changed nothing in these first 2 games. Finley still would have had the chance to hit the clutch 3, Marion wouldn't have changed Duncan's 3 at all.
The Suns have gotten out to a very good lead in both games, something rarely done on the Spurs, but it has been the Spurs amazing ability to step up on defense, as usual, and their clutch play late in games that have been the difference in this series. Suns just cannot close right now, and D'Antoni is an idiot, always goes away from what works.
We have a winner. MD played right into Pop's hands in game one by taking Shaq out of the game when they were employing the hack a Shaq.
Absolutely yes! Marion is a decent defender. Given the Suns almost non-existant defensive capabilities, they miss him. Nash can't guard anyone. Whenever they double Tim, and the 1st game showed them they have to at least some of the time, Parker and/or Ginobli will continually penetrate the paint because the Suns do not have enough defense to keep both under control. They try to be physical with Tony and Manu, but as we know, neither will back down. Further, because they cannot hold the paint from Tim/Tony/Manu, eventually the outside jump shooters will start to kill them. So the Suns are truly in a "pick your poison" situation.
No the Suns don't miss Marion. Marion is one of the most overrated players of this generation. He rarely ever did anything against the Spurs and his whiny personality hurt their chemistry.
The Spurs are just playing really well right now. Duncan was amazing in Game 1. Parker was good against them last year but he's been even better this year. Last year Ginobili was pretty damn bad in the first two games of the series. This year he has been very, very good.
If these Spurs would have played last year's Suns, the Spurs would have blown them out in both games.
Marion did JACK in the playoffs vs the Spurs.
He will now do JACK for the rest of his career since he can't create his own shot and D-Wade is more of a shoot first guard than Nash.
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