[grndmstr_c]

First off, the one guy that hasn't gotten nearly enough credit for that team's success (this year, at least) is D'Antoni. He's my COY so far, and I don't think anyone's close.

As for the whole Nash/Marion thing, the +/- indicates they're pretty darn close in terms of their value to the team. Nash's net last year was +15, Shawn's was +14.5. This year they're at +1.5 and +.5, respectively.

And I'm 100% with dirno regarding how much the Suns benefit from Marion's ability to play PF. Without getting into a debate about how much of last year's turnaround was due to Nash and how much was due to several other very significant factors (D'Antoni's hiring, Amare's health, and the maturation of some talented young players being the primary alternates), one thing that's worth pointing out is that the Suns had been quite successful (relatively speaking) prior to 04/05 when Marion had played as the PF. In 02/03 they were -.9 with Shawn at SF, and +7.7 with Shawn at PF, and in 03/04 they were -5.4 with Shawn at SF, and -.5 with Shawn at PF. It could be argued (in fact that's sort of what I'm doing) that D'Antoni's use of Marion as the team's PF (Shawn played as the PF in a full 90% of his minutes last season whereas he'd played the majority of his minutes at SF in previous years) was as big a factor as any in the Suns' turnaround.