Former Phoenix Suns All-Star guard Stephon Marbury feels the Suns still need to add one more player to complement Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“I think that they need a point guard,” Marbury said to Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on Scoop B Radio. “They need a scoring point guard. They need a guy that can get them going but can really go too.”
Marbury said one player in particular who would be a pipe dream for the Suns to get, given that they are severely handcuffed in making moves and will have the first-ever payroll exceed $400 million next season.
“Like the kid that plays for the Indiana Pacers? Tyrese [Haliburton],” Marbury continued. “He didn’t play in the Olympics that much this year. But if he gets stronger? Oh my God, he will be off the hook! He got a big heart but sometimes he seems like his heart don’t beat just as big as the other guys whose heart beats big too. It’s like, he lets other hearts beat him out.
“But I think that he’s still young and I think once he gets stronger — he needs about 15-20 more pounds of solid muscle on him.”
Haliburton, a two-time All-Star who averaged 20.1 points and a league-leading 10.9 assists with the Indiana Pacers last season, joined Booker and Durant on Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer and gave Suns fans a big “what if” to see him play alongside these two, given that the Suns chose Jalen Smith over him with the 10th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, while Haliburton fell to the 12th pick.
“I like him with Phoenix,” Marbury said of Haliburton. “If he plays with Phoenix, I think he’d definitely be different because he’s definitely DIFFERENT because he runs the ball up the court, he knows how to handle the ball. Sometimes he jumps in the air too much but he’ll get out of that habit because he’ll learn everybody’s habits where he’ll see who knows how to play defense, who can steal the ball, who doesn’t steal the ball.”
Marbury played 2.5 seasons with Phoenix from 2001-2004, making his second-career All-Star team in 2003. During 197 games (195 starts) with the Suns, Marbury averaged 21.3 points and 8.1 assists. He was the “scoring point guard” on a young Suns team that did not add Steve Nash until year after Marbury left, but did feature players such as A’Mare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson.
The interesting thing about Marbury’s comments is firstly how difficult it would be to get Haliburton and the fact the Suns did add two point guards this offseason in Tyus Jones and Monte Morris, who are known to be more of playmakers, but can still score efficiently if needed, and we haven’t seen them play in Phoenix’s system yet. Booker, Kevin Durant and Beal are also three of the top scorers in the whole league, so it would be pretty difficult to get everyone involved with another scoring option.
A player like Haliburton has shown to be more of an elite playmaker, arguably the best in the NBA, than scorer so far in his career and that would presumably be the role he would hypothetically have for Phoenix, just as Jones will find himself in this season.
What do you think the Suns need to add to their roster?
Suns veteran discusses unique basketball journey, expectations for 2nd season in Valley
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
