Shaq asks for dessert. Gets desert instead
The Heat just completed the trade of Shaquille O’Neal for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.
Pat Riley must be the happiest man on the face of the planet right now. He managed to trade for Shaq while he was still a serviceable player, squeeze enough for a run at a title and then dump his huge ass and his even bigger salary in the desert. The Heat were horrible this season, and, unlike last season when Wade went down, Shaq didn’t bother to try and drag the team to the playoffs. Now he was just content with faking injuries and collecting his paychecks.
It’s obvious why the Heat did the trade: they got a very good player that will actually play close to 82 games per season and who’s staying on the court instead of on the bench with foul trouble. And who has a smaller salary than Shaq. They also got Marcus Banks who never made it work in Phoenix, but might benefit from a change of scenery and from the fact that Williams, the Heat’s starting PG, is injured most of the time.
An artist’s rendition of Shaq playing in Phoenix
The big question is: why did the Suns do the trade ? It first looks like a rushed reaction to the Gasol trade pulled by the Lakers. A badly thought reaction. The Suns had their reasons to trade Marion away: he’s been a whining little bitch, complaining how he’s not appreciated (despite having the biggest salary on the team) and then asking for a trade. How retarded can you be to ask for a trade AWAY from a team ran by Steve Nash ? There were players across the league shaking their heads in disbelief when they heard that one. Especially players who played with Marbury for a few years. But having a reason to trade Marion is not a reason to trade for Shaq.
There are some valid concerns regarding how Shaq might adapt to playing with the Suns. That is if he will finally declare himself healthy enough to play.
- the Suns are a run and gun team, but at this stage, the only thing Shaq can run is his mouth. The Suns were practicing with a 7 second shotclock; welcome to the 7 minutes shotclock.
- Suns’ offense is based on the pick and roll, but Shaq is not the player to set high picks and then roll to the basket. You mention pick’n'roll to him, he’s probably thinking about how to “pick a roll”. A cake roll that is.
- Shaq’s D is lame. Marion was the Suns’ best defender. It may not be a great idea to replace him with a poor defender. Shaq never cared much about defense, but even if he suddenly started caring, he lacks the mobility.
There may be some answers to these questions and some pros to bringing Shaq:
- you don’t usually run the fast break with all 5 players. Shaq can stay behind while Nash runs with Amare, Hill, Bell or Barbosa.
- Shaq, despite being as old and out of shape as he is, still draws a double team in the low post and is a good passer, so he could benefit from the excellent 3p shooting of the Suns and the shooters could feed off him.
- Shaq could help against the Spurs (Amare had no answer for Duncan on defense) and the big front line of the Lakers.
- just by being a big body in the paint Shaq could help the Suns rebounding - especially help them give up fewer offensive rebounds
But in the end, a lot of problems and questions remain. First of all, this move was made with the Spurs (and new look Lakers) in mind. But this season the West is more open than ever. The Spurs may have finally entered their decline, and the Lakers will probably not have enough time to gel to be a real contender this season. The Suns may have to face the Jazz in the WCF. That would pose a completely different set of problems, cause Shaq won’t be chasing Okur out to the 3p line, and if Amare is put on Okur and Shaq on Boozer, Boozer has a mid range shot and the quickness to go past Shaq. From this point of view, this move is probably a year too late. And even if the Spurs put together one more run, can Shaq really help on Duncan ? With the Heat he was in constant foul trouble and couldn’t stay on the floor.
All these issues and we didn’t even touch the fact that this was hardly the best possible deal the Suns could get for Marion. If this was the best deal the Suns could get for Marion, someone *cough*Sarver*cough* needs to give Bryan Colangelo a call and go all the way from Phoenix to Toronto on his knees to beg him to come back. The main apparent reasoning for the deal was to get a player that can defend Duncan. But, because of luxury tax concerns, the Suns wasted 2 first round picks to convince the Sonics to get Kurt Thomas. Thomas did a good job on Duncan in the 2007 playoffs. If it wasn’t for Tim Donaghy’s fixing games and NBA’s decision to reward Horry’s thuggish play and suspend Amare and Diaw, the Suns might have won the title.
Wouldn’t it have been smarter to keep Thomas and trade Marion to a team with cap space and players on rookie contracts who could offer a nice player and absorb Marion’s contract ? Atlanta is the 1st that comes to mind. That would have helped trim the payroll while getting something in return for Marion and keeping the guy who could help on Tim Duncan.
The Suns could have probably done a Marion for Kirilenko trade. Both were unhappy, both were similar in what they provided, both could have used a change in scenery. Then they could have made an agreement with the Sonics to waive Kurt Thomas so he can sign back with the Suns for the minimum. Or they might have tried to sign PJ Brown who, if is not already pushing daisies, could have also helped on Tim Duncan. He did a decent job on Duncan while with the Bulls last year during their regular season meetings. He might like the idea of playing for a title with the Suns and agree to do it for the minimum.
Maybe if the Suns didn’t sell their picks during the last few years in order to save some pennies, they could have sent Marion to a team with cap space and got back less salary and still have enough to contend. For example, if they didn’t sell their #7 pick to the Bulls in the 2004 draft, they could have drafted Biedrins (to have someone to guard Duncan), Josh Smith (can take Marion’s place as he’s a similar type of player), Iguodala, Deng or Al Jefferson. Any of them would have been a nice addition to the Suns roster.
In the end, they picked the wrong time to be cheap, and the wrong time to trade for a huge salary. The only way this deal is not a complete disaster is if the Suns win a title this season. They had a window that was slowly closing with the aging of Steve Nash. But with this move the window is not closing slowly anymore, and is about to drop on their fingers. Shaq will probably be motivated by the perceived disrespect shown to him by Riley and will be looking to make a point this year. If they don’t make it this year, I seriously doubt Shaq will find the motivation to play well for next season. He will just be a 20 million contract hanging like a millstone on the neck of the Suns’ organization, strangling their cap space. Or perhaps “eating up their cap space” would be a better way to put it.
As for Miami, what will they do with Marion ? Well, hopefully for them, they won’t give him that 20 million per year extension he’s been crying for. If they do that, they negate any good to come out of this trade. If Marion threatens to opt-out, let him do it. Then, as he barely gets 10-12 million as a FA, laugh in his face and start thinking about how to spend all the newly created cap-space. Don’t you think Riley will go “Hmmm …. Lebron James will be an unrestricted FA soon. I wonder … ” ?
