12 days X-Mas – Obscure stats in Suns history Day 4

The Suns have never had a single-season league-leader in scoring, but with several scoring stars playing for Phoenix for an extended period of time, they do have a handful of players who have joined the 10,000 point club with one franchise – seven to be exact.

However, one of those seven was on pace to push himself even higher on the list of Phoenix’s franchise leaders, and had it not been for a generally undesirable trade, he potentially would have been third in franchise history in scoring within about only 30 games.

That player is Shawn Marion, who by currently sitting at fourth in Phoenix Suns history in career scoring, brings in the fourth stat in the 12 Days of Christmas: Obscure and Lost Stats in Phoenix Suns History.

Phoenix Suns

Shawn Marion appeared in 660 games for the Phoenix Suns over eight-and-a-half seasons from 1999-2008. A fan favorite and extremely high flyer, Marion’s unorthodox shooting style was slowly refined ultimately complimenting his incredible athletic ability that would allow him to swoop and slash his way to the hoop with extreme grace and fluidity.

Although his rookie season started his career off a little slow (he shot a poor 18.2% from three and only 47.1% from the field overall), the high-flying “Matrix” would average over 19 points per game in five seasons in his Suns career, methodically bumping him up the franchise rankings of career scorers until his current settled position at fourth overall.

We of course all remember that his Suns career ended – much to the chagrin of many in the Valley of the Suns as well as some of the players on the team – when he was traded to the Miami Heat just before the 2009 trade deadline in a package that landed Phoenix Shaquille O’Neal.

What you may not know or remember is that at the moment of his trade, Marion was only 614 points away from passing Kevin Johnson and becoming the franchise’s third all-time leading scorer.

Though bolstered by huge expectations, the Suns had already failed to make the NBA Finals for the prior three years, the 7 Seconds or Less  teams, and some in the organization believed that Marion was on the downside of his career (he had had a decent, though generally inconsistent season to date, and it was believed that he was so unhappy being third fiddle in Phoenix that he would opt out after the 2007-08 season) and that a center of Shaq’s caliber could propel them beyond their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. This would all ultimately help to make the decision of trading Marion to Miami for Shaq, a player nearly seven years his senior.

Had Marion stayed (and remained healthy), he would have had approximately 34 games remaining in the season to pass KJ in scoring that year. Although, he had only been averaging 15.8 points per game in his final season in Phoenix – the second lowest average of his career to date – and thus would have needed an uptick to about 18.0 points per game the rest of the way get the 614 points in the 07-08 season. But even if he had missed the mark that year, he would have absolutely passed KJ early the following season.

What’s more is that he was only 1,776 points behind second all-time scorer Alvan Adams, and even if he averaged 15.8 points per game over the next season as well – and stayed healthy – he likely would have moved into second all-time near the end of 2009-10.

Next: 12 Days of Christmas – Obscure Stats in Phoenix Suns History Day 3

Alas, the trade was made, the Shaquille O’Neal experiment proved fruitless, and three years later Marion was crowned as an NBA champion while a member of the Dallas Mavericks.

At the moment, Marion’s place as the fourth all-time scorer in Phoenix Suns history is safe as there are no active players in the top-10, the closest being Jared Dudley who is currently  29th all-time.