In a story about the Mavericks’ chase for Andrew Bynum (do you have to run that fast to catch him?), Eddie Sefko at the Dallas Morning News threw out an interesting little nugget:
There are several other teams that have more cap space now than the Mavericks, who are very hesitant to jettison Shawn Marion and his appetizing, expiring contract next season. He’s helped win a lot of basketball games in the last four seasons and can help win a lot more this season. They may have to lose Marion’s money on the cap to get into the Bynum running.
Eventually I think Dallas will move Marion, but right now who is out there they really want to move him for? Andrew Bynum? They are better off holding on to him for a better, bigger target.
Marion quietly had a pretty nice season for Dallas at age 34 — 12.1 points on 51.4 percent shooting with 7.8 rebounds a game. All that plus an expiring deal means Dallas should wait for the right deal, or they can let him walk at the end of the season and have the cap space to chase free agents next summer.