Mavs Should Have Made Different Choice on “The Matrix"

     Let’s rewind the clock about a year and cast Jerry Stackhouse as Morpheus from The Matrix. He presents Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, with two choices in the form of a red and a blue pill. Choice one is to take the red pill and simply cut Jerry Stackhouse thereby gaining financial leverage for the future. Choice two—the one the Mavericks chose—to use Stackhouse’s expiring, not guaranteed contract in a trade for the player formerly known as “the Matrix”.

     Shawn Marion earned that moniker with his high flying and high scoring exploits in Phoenix when he was teamed up with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudamire. At his best in Phoenix, Marion averaged an eye-opening 21.8 PPG and 11.8 RPG, but in the three years prior to the trade to the Mavs, Marion, after trades to Miami and Toronto, had been somewhat exposed as either a product of the Phoenix system or not the same player when put at the 3. In those years with Miami and Toronto he hovered around 13 PPG and 9 RPG, nothing to sneer at but not what it once was. With a small resurgence in his final months as a Raptor, Mark Cuban saw enough out of Marion to give him a 5 year $39 million deal. In the complicated trade with the Raptors that landed Marion in Dallas, Toronto was able to take the red pill Dallas passed on.

     The Mavs were convinced that an unorthodox 3 in Shawn Marion would work with an unorthodox 4 in Dirk Nowitizki. To a point, the combination did work on the defensive end, but offensively Marion never found his rhythm with the team. He ended the year averaging career lows in scoring and rebounding with 12 PPG and 6.4 RPG. A trade during the middle of last year netted the team Caron Butler, a player who has far more scoring punch at the 3 and has shown to be at least comparable to Marion at the defensive end. Butler’s problem is that he doesn’t play as well at the 2. This puts “the Matrix” into somewhat of a funny position going into this year. The Mavs are good at the 4, are likely to put Butler at the 3, and are poised to give Roddy a shot at the starting lineup after his emergence last year. It looks as if Marion is heading towards the bench.

     How does a career starter first deal with coming off the bench? Mavs fans have seen it with Jet Terry here in Dallas, but his initial benching was a sort of farce because of his overall minutes. Marion and Terry are both looking to get their minutes chopped like never before in their basketball lives in the upcoming season. Although Jet’s first move to the bench was not a big deal he still showed class in doing it, Marion has a record of not being happy unless he is a main part of a team. While his play last year has forced him to back off that stance a little, I still don’t believe he will be content on the pine. The problem is there isn’t much more that can be done. Since Cuban decided to give him a hard contract to move, the team would be unable to trade him if they wanted to. Nobody is taking on a clearly aging 32 year old ex-malcontent for 4 more years.

     Shawn Marion does play good defense, can rebound, and is somewhat able to score. The problem with “the Matrix” is that he is an old man on an old team who is looking to get younger and more explosive on their starting line. He might have a place on another team, but there is no way to get him there. In retrospect, the Mavs should have kept Stackhouse. The Raptors also should have kept Marion over Turkoglu. One of the real losers is Portland because they could have been a top 4 seed in the West with the Turkish forward that left them at the altar for Canada. Hindsight is 20/10, but if these teams and players had shown some foresight the summer of 2009, free agency could have been far more productive for all involved.

- Jason Haynes

Picture from http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/mo2/Images/morpheus.jpg