Before Kevin Garnett went to Boston, Phoenix had a good shot at landing the All-Everything forward. In fact, they may have come closer than we'll ever know; according to the rumor mill, ATL didn't want Amare Stoudemire. He would've gone to the Hawks, KG to Phoenix, and draft picks to Minny.
Except Garnett wouldn't have been interested, either. From SLAM:
KG: Just in terms, like, I wanted to play with Stoudemire, but in trying to keep within the league rules, trying to get insight, when they was talking about moving Stoudemire, which was who I wanted to play with...it's not like I'm against playing with Shawn Marion, but I wanted to play with the big fella.There's more in there about why he hadn't seriously considered the Lakers, Nets or Celtics pre-Ray Allen trade. But I'm wondering: why didn't Phoenix try and offer Shawn Marion instead? Although Marion hadn't officially asked out yet, they knew he was disgruntled. Marion and Garnett would've been a little redundant. And while The Matrix isn't an Amare-like headline-grabber, he doesn't have injury issues or questions about his commitment to defense.
The obvious response is "if they wouldn't listen to an Amare deal, why would Atlanta want Marion?" However, maybe that offer would've been more appealing to the Hawks.
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