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Suns To Retire Numbers For Shawn Marion, Amar’e Stoudemire

August 9th, 2023 at 4:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns will induct Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire into their Ring of Honor this season, the team announced in a press release.

Details of the ceremonies will be worked out once the NBA’s schedule is finalized, but a separate celebration is planned for each player, according to the release. As part of the honor, Marion’s No. 31 and Stoudemire’s No. 32 will join the franchise’s list of retired numbers.

“Shawn and Amar’e are two of the very best to ever wear a Phoenix Suns uniform,” owner Mat Ishbia said. “Shawn changed the game with his elite versatility and Amar’e was one of the most electrifying players the league has ever seen. Shawn and Amar’e helped define the Suns and inspired generations of fans, and our Suns family is incomplete without them in the Ring of Honor. As we embark on the new era of Suns basketball, it is a priority that we remain connected to our storied history. We are excited to celebrate Shawn and Amar’e and properly recognize their incredible contributions and achievements.”

Marion played in Phoenix from 1999-2008, earning All-NBA honors twice and making four All-Star appearances. He averaged 18.4 PPG in 660 regular season games with the Suns and ranks fifth in franchise history in career points, second in both rebounds and steals and third in blocks. He’s also Phoenix’s all-time playoff leader with 706 rebounds.

“This is amazing to be recognized by the Suns family in this way,” Marion said. “The fans in Phoenix are one of a kind and this city will always be a part of me. My time with the Suns was special and I am looking forward to being inducted into the Ring of Honor.”

Stoudemire was named Rookie of the Year in 2003 and averaged 21.4 PPG in 516 games during his eight seasons with the Suns. A four-time All-NBA selection and five-time All-Star in Phoenix, he’s seventh in franchise history in career points, third in rebounds and fifth in blocks.

“I bleed purple and orange, making this a tremendous honor to be inducted,” Stoudemire said. “My best and most transformative years came in Phoenix with the Suns. I have so much love for Suns fans and appreciation for the love they have always shown me. I am excited to reconnect with the fanbase in joining the Ring of Honor.”

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And-Ones: Wiseman, Schwartz, Andrews, Hall Of Fame

December 20th, 2019 at 7:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

It’s unlikely that James Wiseman will fall below the top five in the June draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reports. The freshman center decided to leave Memphis on Thursday and sign with an agent to prepare for the draft.

Wiseman could have solidified his draft stock had he finished the college season on a high note after his 12-game NCAA suspension ended. However, he could have also slipped some if the Tigers had started losing games with Wiseman in the lineup. Givony continues. The lack of quality big men in a draft and the need of several lottery teams to add an impact big man could also help him, Givony adds.

We have more from around the basketball world:

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Cavaliers Notes: Korver, Burks, Hill, Sexton

December 1st, 2018 at 6:21pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Cavaliers‘ decision to trade Kyle Korver to the Jazz on Wednesday was made because the team wanted to move him while he was still healthy and productive, according to Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com. Korver has a history of foot issues, most recently causing him to miss two games last month. Korver has been on the market for a while and the Cavs didn’t want to take the chance of another injury derailing a deal.

Cleveland had been hoping to get a first-round pick in exchange for the 37-year-old sharpshooter, Pluto adds, and although several teams were interested in acquiring Korver, no one was willing to part with a first-rounder. Several Cavaliers teammates were upset to lose Korver, who had a 22-point game on Monday.

There’s more news today out of Cleveland:

  • Alec Burks, whom the Cavs acquired in the Korver deal, is thrilled about the chance for more playing time, relays Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Burks already has a connection to Rodney Hood and George Hill, his former teammates in Utah, and to coach Larry Drew, who played against Burks’ father. “Opportunity is everything in this league,” Burks said. “I feel like I have a great one here. Just trying to take advantage of it and help my new team win.” However, Fedor points out that Burks’ stay in Cleveland might be brief. He has an $11.5MM expiring contract that could make him attractive to a contender before the February 7 trade deadline.
  • Hill is returning to action tonight after missing more than three weeks with a sprained shoulder, tweets Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Drew confirmed that Hill is ready to go, adding that rookie Collin Sexton will remain in the starting lineup as the shooting guard.
  • The Cavaliers made a couple of housekeeping moves this week, according to the Real GM transactions page, renouncing their free-agent exception rights to Shawn Marion and James Jones. Marion retired in 2015, while Jones called it quits in 2017 and serves as interim GM of the Suns.
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Mavs Notes: Jordan, Marion, Doncic, Mejri, Barea

September 12th, 2018 at 5:26pm CST by clarkcrum

As part of an ongoing series in anticipation of Mavericks training camp starting later this month, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News asks whether newly-acquired All-Star big man DeAndre Jordan is on the downslope of his career.

Now a 10-year veteran, Jordan actually averaged 12.0 points and a career-best 15.2 rebounds per game last season for the Clippers, but the team did not perform well, finishing 10th in the always tough Western Conference. Moreover, Jordan’s field goal percentage of .645, while still excellent, was his lowest output since the the 2012/13 season.

While it remains to be seen if Jordan’s game is on the decline, the Mavericks at least somewhat hedged their bet by only signing Jordan to a one-year contract for the 2018/19 season, which will allow the club opportunity to see how Jordan meshes with relative youngsters Dennis Smith Jr., Luka Doncic and Harrison Barnes.

If Jordan ends up descending into the twilight of his career, the Mavs can simply let him go next summer. But if he can continue to average a double-double and be near the top of the NBA in rebounds and field goal percentage again this season, Sefko opines that the Mavericks will gladly re-sign Jordan next summer at whatever price tag is needed.

There’s more from Dallas:

  • Now that the 2018 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class has been enshrined in Springfield, Joe Nguyen of The Denver Post takes a look at some candidates for election next year. Among the first time candidates is do-it-all forward Shawn Marion, who helped the Mavericks win an NBA Championship in 2011.
  • In an appearance on KRLD-FM, Dirk Nowitzki (per Sportando) presented a glowing endorsement of Doncic, admitting that the Slovenian rookie is better than Dirk was at the same age. “Oh yeah (he’s better). I could shoot a little bit but I never had the court vision … the savviness that he brings to the game… He’s going to be fun to watch especially with bigs like DeAndre (Jordan) and Dwight (Powell) rolling to the rim … He’s going to pick defenses apart and it’s going to be fun to watch.”
  • In another piece for The Dallas Morning News, Sefko profiles big man Salah Mejri and his role on the Mavs this upcoming season. Mejri, 32, signed a one-year contract for the veteran’s minimum this offseason. And even though the addition of Jordan won’t do any favors for Mejri’s playing time, the Tunisian big man will be ready to play when needed, as always.
  • In yet another player profile piece, Sefko opines that backup point guard J.J. Barea may be one of the most underrated Mavericks of all time. Barring injury, Barea will later this season become the seventh player in Mavs history to play in 600 games with the franchise.
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Central Notes: Blatt, Bucks, Love

June 18th, 2015 at 5:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

LeBron James‘ attitude and demeanor toward Cavaliers coach David Blatt during the NBA Finals was unbecoming and inappropriate, Marc Stein of ESPN.com writes. Stein references LeBron essentially calling his own timeouts and making substitutions, as well as eschewing Blatt for assistant coach Tyronn Lue. James also nixed a number of plays that Blatt had drawn up during timeouts, which only served to undermine the coach in the eyes of the rest of the team, Stein notes.

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

  • While some have speculated that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert might make a play for former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, a number of Cleveland’s front office personnel insist that Gilbert is Blatt’s biggest supporter, Zach Lowe of Grantland tweets. GM David Griffin downplayed any issues between Blatt and James in today’s season-ending news conference, saying, “Sensationalism sells. LeBron said David’s a hell of a coach,” Sam Amico of FOX Sports.com relays (Twitter link).
  • Griffin said that he expects James and Kevin Love to both opt out of their deals this summer, but he anticipates that both will re-sign with the Cavs, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group tweets. While this news isn’t a surprise as far as LeBron is concerned, it does run counter to what Love told Haynes back in January that he planned to do.
  • The Bucks held workouts today for Josh Gasser (Wisconsin), Keifer Sykes (Wisconsin-Green Bay), Olivier Hanlan (Boston College), Cady Lalanne (Massachusetts), Amere May (Delaware State), and TaShawn Thomas (Oklahoma), the team announced (via Twitter).
  • Cavs veteran forward Shawn Marion confirmed today that he is indeed retiring after 16 years in the league, Stein relays in a separate article. “I wanted to go out on my terms,” Marion said. “The biggest thing is having a son. I got attached to him. Seeing him periodically is hard. Watching him grow up on pictures and videos is hard.” The Matrix’s final career numbers through 1163 contests are 15.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game.
  • Bucks coach Jason Kidd is excited about the team’s possibilities for tweaking its roster this offseason, Genaro C. Armas of The Associated Press writes. “Yeah, I like what [GM John] Hammond has done, the position he has put us in pre-draft,” Kidd said. “We’ll see what happens,” Kidd continued. ”You’ve got a lot of different things, possibilities that you’re not landlocked to get better, and that means not moving a major piece.”
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Shawn Marion To Retire After Season

January 21st, 2015 at 1:56pm CST by Chuck Myron

Shawn Marion will retire after this season, as he tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. The 36-year-old is on a one-year contract with the Cavaliers. The 16th-year veteran believes he could play three more seasons but instead prefers to spend more time with his 8-month-old son, who is his first child, as Marion explains to Coro. His desire to be closer to his son, who’s in Chicago, helped lead him to accept a minimum-salary offer from the Cavaliers, as Marion has said in the past, even though he could have netted more money elsewhere. Marion mulled retirement this summer, according to Coro, as his free agency stretched on for several weeks.

Marion’s defensive versatility has long been his calling card, but Cleveland hasn’t found as much use for him as other teams have in the past, in spite of the defensive shortcomings the Cavs have struggled with this season. Marion is averaging a career-low 22.8 minutes per game despite making 22 starts, and his 5.6 points per contest represents the first single-digit scoring average of his career.

The ninth overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft is a four-time All-Star selection who enjoyed his best days with the Suns, where he was a force on both ends of the floor and on the boards. He peaked with averages of 21.8 PPG and 11.8 rebounds per game in 2005/06, helping Phoenix to a second consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance. The Suns traded him to Miami in February 2008 in the deal that sent Shaquille O’Neal to Phoenix, and the Heat shipped Marion to Toronto a year later. Another trade that summer took him to Dallas, and Marion enjoyed a career renaissance with the Mavs, winning his only title in 2011.

Dallas sought to continue their partnership when his five-year deal worth almost $39.88MM expired this past summer, but the tug of his family drew him north, and surely the presence of LeBron James and Cleveland’s looming acquisition of Kevin Love helped influence his decision. Marion’s financial sacrifice this year makes more sense in the context of the greater than $133.488MM he’d already earned over the course of his career, according to Basketball-Reference. He’ll add this year’s $1,448,490 to that total.

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And-Ones: Barron, Revenue, Heat, Marion

October 17th, 2014 at 2:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns are giving Earl Barron legitimate consideration for a spot on the regular season roster, and while that would force the team to rid itself of a fully guaranteed contract, coach Jeff Hornacek says that’s a move the team would be willing to make. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has the details.

“The one guy that sticks out and is really fighting for the team is Earl Barron,” Hornacek said. “He’s still on the roster for a reason. I know our guys are saying, ‘If he’s going to help us and we have to eat a contract somewhere, I think [owner] Robert [Sarver] is willing to do that.’ If it’s going to help us win games and he’s better than another guy, Robert is all for it.”

Hornacek’s comments sound familiar to the ones that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle made recently in which he insisted that owner Mark Cuban would be willing to sacrifice guaranteed salary to keep the non-guaranteed Charlie Villanueva. However, the Mavs are reportedly eager to open up an opening-night roster spot, which would appear to cut Villanueva out of the mix, and Sarver has never been particularly generous in his spending on the Suns. While we wait to see how it plays out in both Dallas and Phoenix, here’s more from around the league:

  • Potential changes to the league’s revenue sharing system join the draft lottery among the major topics on the agenda for the NBA’s Board of Governors next week, tweets Grantland’s Zach Lowe. The board appears poised to implement a new lottery system for the 2015 draft.
  • Erik Spoeltra this week called Heat signee signee Shawne Williams “one of the great surprises of the offseason” and raved about his shooting, notes Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. Williams has a fully guaranteed deal with Miami.
  • Shawn Marion admits the Mavs reached out to him the instant he became a free agent this summer, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram notes (Twitter link). Carlisle, Dirk Nowitzki and other Mavs figures retain a soft spot for the versatile Cavs addition who’ll be a free agent again at season’s end, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com details.
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Eastern Notes: Knicks, Celtics, Cavs

October 15th, 2014 at 9:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

One of the major storylines in New York this season will be how well the Knicks adapt to the triangle offense. Shaquille O’Neal, who played in the triangle during his time with the Lakers, told Mitch Lawrence of NBCNewYork.com, “For the triangle to work, you need to have two superstars. It’s been proven over time. Look at what Phil [Jackson] needed to win his championships in Chicago. Then look what he had in L.A., with me and Kobe. You have to have two superstars playing in the triangle to win championships.’’ Jackson hopes to add that second superstar during next summer’s free agent signing period when Andrea Bargnani‘s and Amar’e Stoudemire‘s contracts come off the books.

Here’s more from the east:

  • With the Celtics carrying 16 fully guaranteed contracts on their preseason roster, at least one of those players will need to be traded or waived prior to the beginning of the regular season. Brian Robb of Boston.com looks at the reasons why Boston shouldn’t waive Vitor Faverani despite his injury concerns.
  • Ben Rohrbach of WEEI 93.7 FM breaks down the numbers on Evan Turner and what the swingman brings to the Celtics franchise.
  • When asked what led him to sign with the Cavs, Shawn Marion said that LeBron James wasn’t enough to sway him, but LeBron and Kevin Love combined were, Michael Lee of The Washington Post writes. “LeBron coming here wasn’t enough. It was more so finalizing the deal with Love. That sold it,” Marion said. “That made it more realistic, like we do have a shot to win the championship this year.”
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And-Ones: Saric, Thompson, Carter-Williams

October 14th, 2014 at 3:50pm CST by Chuck Myron

The father of lottery pick Dario Saric is upset about his son’s lack of playing time for Turkey’s Anadolu Efes and is threatening to end his son’s deal with the Euroleague team, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. Predrag Saric said he’ll look for someone who would finance a buyout if his son, whose NBA rights belong to the Sixers, doesn’t start to see the floor soon, as he told Hrvoje Slišković of Jutarnji.hr, a outlet in Saric’s native Croatia. Dario agreed to a long-term contract with Efes shortly before the draft, one that was to keep him out of the NBA for at least this season and likely until 2016, but it’s not clear if Predrag’s agitation is a precursor to an early NBA jump, particularly since he’s advocated in the past for his son to remain in Europe. There’s more on the Sixers in our look around the league:

  • There have been conflicting reports about whether Klay Thompson is asking for the maximum salary in an extension with the Warriors, but Thompson’s father says it’s indeed the max that he’s after. Mychal Thompson made his comments Monday on his own ESPNLosAngeles radio show (audio link), as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes.
  • Mychal, a former Lakers player, also signaled that he’d like to see his son play for the Lakers at some point, Leung observes in the same piece.
  • Sixers coach Brett Brown clarified to reporters that the team never gave a recovery timetable for Michael Carter-Williams, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Carter-Williams said yesterday that he was told when his shoulder surgery took place in May that he would be out six to nine months. Indeed, Philly’s release at the time stated that there was no timetable. Pompey and other reporters gave a two-to-four month estimate shortly after the surgery based on the way others have come back from the injury.
  • Shawn Marion, who left Dallas for the Cavs this summer, still has a bitter taste in his mouth from the Mavs‘ decision to let go of Tyson Chandler soon after the team won the championship in 2011, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to defend [our title],” Marion said.
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Central Rumors: Thompson, Marion, Turner

September 29th, 2014 at 10:37pm CST by Charlie Adams

The Cavs haven’t spoken with agent Rich Paul about an extension for Tristan Thompson, as Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer hears, but it’s not necessarily a sign that the sides don’t intend to strike a deal before the October 31st deadline to do so, Haynes indicates. Let’s wrap up more from the Cavs and the Central:

  • Shawn Marion explains that the Cavs‘ acquisition of Kevin Love convinced him to spurn more lucrative offers from other clubs and sign with Cleveland, according to Jason Lloyd of the Beacon Journal.
  • Cavs GM David Griffin admits LeBron James was critical in Cleveland’s success in recruiting other big name players this summer, as Lloyd details in the same piece. “You couldn’t have a better recruiter than LeBron James,” Griffin said. “When you cut LeBron loose in a free agency path, you tend to get results you don’t get otherwise. To say he’s been an amazing partner this offseason would be a gross understatement.”
  • The Pacers and Evan Turner never attempted to negotiate a new deal that would have brought the former second overall pick back to Indiana for the 2014/15 season, reports Andrew Perna of RealGM (on Twitter). “We both just decided to go our separate ways,“ said Turner.
  • Greg Monroe‘s decision to sign his qualifying offer means he will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, but he says that doesn’t necessarily mean that he wants to leave the Pistons, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit News. Monroe also dismissed the notion that he doesn’t like to play alongside Josh Smith, according to Ellis (Twitter link).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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