In today's small ball era, players with all-round skills are the most popular. In the players who are labeled as all-around, I always have a person's name on my mind, and that is Marion.
Marion already had a very comprehensive ability in college, playing for UNLV in the 98-99 season, averaging 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 2.5 steals in 32.9 minutes per game and was selected to the second team of the All-American Collegiate Team.
Marion was picked by the Suns with the ninth pick in the first round of the '99 draft, and there were also all-rounders like Odom, Artest and Kirilenko in that draft. Marion made his NBA debut in the game against the Nuggets, starting with 14 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. In his rookie season, he averaged 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block per game, and was selected for the second team of the year's best rookie team. In 2002, the Suns selected Stoudemire, and he contributed 13.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the rookie season, and was named the best rookie of the year. Marion contributed 21.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.3 steals (league second) and 1.2 blocks that season, and was named an All-Star that year. The Suns' starting point guard that year was Marbury, who later played in the CBA, averaging 22.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 8.1 assists (league fourth) and 1.3 steals, also selected as an All-Star, and this season the Suns won eight more games than last season to advance to the playoffs in the West, but were eliminated by that year's champion Spurs 4-2 in the first round. Singles averaged 14.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.5 blocks in 6 games, Marbury 22 points, 4 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.2 steals, Marion 18.5 points, 11.7 rebounds (playoff 7th), 2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocks (all in the top 10). But in the 03-04 season, the Suns only won 29 games and missed the playoffs, so the Suns replaced the coach with D'Antoni, and Marbury was also traded to the Knicks. Despite the team's poor record, Xiaosi's statistics have improved, averaging 20.6 points, 9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.6 blocks per game, and Marion has been stable, averaging 19 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.1 steals (second in the league) and 1.3 blocks per game. Since the beginning of the season, thanks to nash's arrival and D'Antoni's admired style of bombardment, the Suns have become the most offensive team in the league since the beginning of this season. That season the Suns won the first record in the league with 62 wins, D'Antoni was named the best coach, Nash averaged 15.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 11.5 assists and 1 steal per game, was elected the league assist king and won the MVP, under Nash's needle-cutting line, Xiaosi averaged a career-high 26 points per game plus 8.9 rebounds and 1 steal 1.6 blocks, Marion averaged 19.4 points, 11.3 rebounds per game (third in the league) 2 steals (league fourth) 1.5 blocks, and was also an indispensable defensive player for the team. That season, the Suns swept the Grizzlies in the first round, eliminating the Mavericks led by Nowitzki 4-2 in the second round, including 38 points, 16 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 assist in the g6 to help the team defeat the Mavericks in overtime to advance to the Western Conference Finals, unfortunately, the Western Conference Finals lost 1-4 to the championship Spurs that year, and Marion performed poorly in that round of the series, averaging only 7.8 points in five games. In the 2005-06 season, Marion averaged 21.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, which was the team's scoring, rebounding, stealing, and block king, and the only player in the league that season ranked in the top 20 in the league in terms of scoring, rebounding, shooting rate, steals, blocks, and playing time, and its all-round attributes can be seen. The team finished second with 54 wins, with Nash winning back-to-back MVP and assists, leading the team to the Western Conference Finals without Xiaosi, but still lost 2-4. The subsequent two consecutive seasons of defeat to the Spurs made people feel that this was the upper limit of the Suns. Marion was the most important catalyst for that team when he was in the Suns, and he and Nash Xiaosi were the most mobile trio in the NBA at that time, and he could defend four positions on the defensive end, which was an indispensable defensive gate for the team.
However, everything will have an ending, and in 2008 Marion was traded to the Heat. Subsequently, he was traded to the Raptors in 2009, and spent more than 4 months at the Raptors and came to the Mavericks. In the five seasons of the Mavericks, Marion has long said goodbye to the peak, but he can still show his value when the team needs him, he and Chandler, Kidd together to support the Mavericks defensive system of those years, and finally won the championship with the Mavericks in 11 years. He still remembers the 0.4-second air-picked kill against the Rockets in 10 years, and the block he made against Durant in the final moments of the 2011 Western Conference Finals, dragging the game into overtime, which are all good memories he left for Mavericks fans. After a brief stop with the Cavaliers, he announced his retirement in '15, ending his 16-season NBA career, where he was named an All-Star four times in his career and three-time in his career.
Marion has excellent physical fitness, strong running ability without the ball, is a good hand at converting offense, although the shooting posture is strange, but his mid-range shooting is also qualified, career three-point shooting rate of 33.1%. He has an all-rounder, and at his peak, except for assists, all other statistics can rank at the top of the league. Marion is 2 meters 01 tall, but the arm span reaches 2 meters 22, coupled with his excellent physical fitness, so that he has a strong rebounding ability, has excellent defensive ability and sense of defense, can defend multiple positions; the disadvantage is that the outside shooting rate is not stable enough, lack of positional warfare ball holding offensive ability, poor dribbling shooting ability.
Overall, due to his all-around nature, Marion is the kind of player that teams need most in the championship level, an All-Star who can contribute a steady score without possession of the ball and has excellent defensive ability. The Warriors won the championship in the 14-15 season, and many people are reminded of the Suns of that year, and as a tough player in the Sun shelling system that year, Marion happened to witness the Warriors win the championship as an opponent, how ironic.