There’s still no official word on the Shawn Marion-for-Lamar Odom swap detailed on SportingNews.com Tuesday. Marion told me he wants the deal to go down, and he sounded genuinely excited about the possibility of changing scenery. Marion also said he spoke with Kobe Bryant over the weekend and was left with the impression that Bryant supported the trade.
The Lakers, of course, need to appease Bryant. Bryant’s angry tirade in May about the Lakers’ inability to surround him with more talent became a major story of the offseason. The Lakers haven’t done much to improve their roster this summer, and while it could be argued that swapping Marion for Odom wouldn’t lead to significant improvement, it would at least be a change. And the Lakers need a change. If the Lakers are convinced Bryant wants this trade to happen, they’d be foolish not to pursue it.
So what’s the holdup? The deal was presented last week, giving the Lakers and Suns plenty of time to evaluate it.
As I said, there has been no official word. But a source close to the Suns says the Lakers are grappling with the same misgiving Phoenix has expressed: They’re wary of giving Marion an extension, which could cost in the area of $65 million over three years. If L.A. traded for Marion without extending his contract, Marion could opt out next summer and hit the free-agent market. The Lakers still could re-sign him then, but the team might not want to run the risk of giving up Odom, its second most important asset, only to watch Marion leave after one season.
Because of that concern, the deal might never materialize. Another source said Tuesday that the deal was a 50-50 possibility. But, as one general manager says, “The Lakers would be making themselves a target by coming to camp without doing anything. That has been Kobe’s complaint all along — that the team doesn’t take chances, like with the [Jason] Kidd-for-[Andrew] Bynum thing. This is a chance to show Kobe they’ll take some chances and spend some money.”
There’s also this irony: Marion has taken so much flak this summer for causing chemistry problems, you’d think the Suns would be desperate to trade him. The reality is quite the opposite. “Shawn might complain from time to time, but he is not disruptive,” the source close to the Suns says. “[The Suns] don’t think he is a guy who would intentionally come in and be destructive to the team. He is too much of a professional to do that. They know that, so they know they don’t have to go out and give him away.”
Perhaps if Marion were more of a pain, Phoenix frantically would be trying to trade him. But that’s not the case. Chemistry issues between Marion and power forward Amare Stoudemire have been overblown. The reason the Suns are entertaining trade offers has nothing to do with Marion’s performance on the court or in the locker room. The reason is financial.
In fact, Marion acknowledged Tuesday that he would show up in Phoenix next Monday ready to play if he is not traded. He didn’t sound excited about that prospect, but he’s not one to destroy team chemistry. The last thing he said to me when we spoke was this: “I am a professional. I will be where I am supposed to be.”
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