Shaq Fallout: Trader's Remorse for the Phoenix Suns?

I first heard about this rumored trade from Bleacher Reports' Sean Stancill last week. I thought it might have been the funniest trade rumor I'd ever heard.

He didn't make it up. He was reporting something he'd read.

Considering Shaq's decline in play, ridiculous contract, and numerous injuries, I figured there was no way the Suns would be dumb enough to trade for the Big Yesterday.

Had I known the Suns were that anxious to dump Shawn Marion, there are a number of other trades they could have made using Marion's $17 million deal. If they were willing to make a run at an overpaid, injury-prone, big man, why didn't they offer Marion to the Timberwolves for Theo Ratliff and one of their young players, like Randy Foye or Sebastian Telfair?

Ratliff's in the last year of his contract so they wouldn't have to worry about committing franchise suicide like they might be with Shaq. The Timberwolves won't have any cap space this year anyway so having Marion under contract for one more year doesn't hurt them either. It would actually buy them a year to make another move with Marion.

Based on the remarks made by Mike D'Antoni and Steve Kerr at yesterday's press conference, the Suns felt that they needed more of an inside presence to match up with the Mavs, Lakers, Spurs, and Hornets.

By inside presence, did they mean a fat guy? If they wanted a guy who could clog the lane and miss free throws they could have signed Rosie O'Donnell for the NBA minimum and retained Marion.

But instead of going after the guy who made the most sense for their style of play they chose to go after the guy with the recognizable name and the worst contract. It was as if Suns' owner Robert Sarver saw dollar signs when he imagined how many O'Neal jerseys he'd be able to sell until the honeymoon was over.

It's funny watching D'Antoni and Kerr keep a straight face when saying the Lakers move for Pau Gasol played very little in their decision to make this deal.

Listening to D'Antoni try to compare these Suns with Shaq to the Showtime Lakers with Kareem is even funnier.

On the surface you'd think comparing a 36-year-old Shaq to a 42-year-old Kareem would make a strong case for Shaq. But when you consider how much better shape Kareem was in at 42 than Shaq is at 36 it makes you realize just how much Shaq's star has fallen.

The Suns have to realize that this team is how it's going to be for the next couple of years. Nash turned 34 today. So much like the Lakers with Gasol, they better be good. But unlike the Lakers, this team now has four starters over the age of 30. The Lakers have one. The Suns have hitched the last two real productive years of Nash's career to a broken down Diesel.

I won't make any more predictions about players being un-tradeable after seeing Shaq get dealt with two more years and $40 million left on his contract. Although I think it's safe to say that the Suns won't trade Leandhro Barbosa or Grant Hill because they are both ridiculously underpaid. Nor can they trade Boris Diaw because he's ridiculously overpaid and has had trouble staying in shape.

We know Steve Nash isn't going anywhere, and with the absence of Marion, Raja Bell is now their best perimeter defender so we know he's not going anywhere.

What I don't understand is how so many of the same people who were saying Shaq was done a few weeks ago somehow think he's great again, even though he hasn't played a game in weeks.

When Shaq has played this year he's spent much of those games in foul trouble. Do people really think he'll be that much different because he's on a better team? Even when Shaq had the help of Alonzo Mourning and Udonis Haslem he couldn't stay out of foul trouble.

So what exactly are the Suns expecting O'Neal to bring?

They think he'll be able to ease the leadership burden on Nash. What does that mean? Are we forgetting that this is the same guy who had four coaches fired in his last three stops? (If I'm Larry Brown, I'm already looking for houses in the Phoenix area). 

Isn't this the same guy who felt threatened by a 21-year-old Kobe Bryant and chose to divide the locker room instead of uniting it? The same guy that demanded a trade because he didn't get a contract extension and then sat in silence as the media pretended that Kobe had him traded?

Leaders don't show up to training camp out of shape and use the regular season to get in shape. Leaders don't postpone off-season surgery until September and reason that you should be able to rehab on company time since you got hurt on company time.

Leaders don't threaten to not play defense unless your teammates pass you the ball on offense. 

Quite the leader.

I wouldn't want him leading me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

This deal has all the makings of a flop. The Suns just need way too many things to fall in place for this deal to be a success, and I'm not even defining success here as winning a ring. They need Shaq to stay healthy, stay in shape, stay motivated, stay angry, stay out of foul-trouble, and stay productive.

If he fails to do any of those things then this trade was a failure considering what the Suns gave up in Marion.

They traded a guy who hasn't missed more than two games in 8 years for a guy that's missed 81 games in the last two-and-a-half seasons.

Meanwhile, the Heat made out like bandits. They traded a guy who hasn't played that much this season for a younger guy who hasn't missed more than two games in a season since his rookie year.

If Marion opts out, which he's unlikely to do, the Heat become major players in this summer's free agency.

If Marion doesn't opt out, they become major players in 2009.

If Marion contributes and fits in well, Riley can give him an extension.

Combine Marion with the high lottery pick the Heat will get in this year's draft and the possible return of Alonzo Mourning, and all of a sudden the Heat can be major players in the same amount of time they thought they'd have to wait for Shaq's contract to expire.

I don't think Riles is done. He's still got the expiring contracts of Jason Williams and Ricky Davis. If he wanted to, he could probably get Ron Artest from the Kings for one of those guys and Udonis Haslem if he was willing to take back Kenny Thomas' horrible deal.

The Kings could use Haslem since he's better than Thomas or Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The Heat don't really need him any more with Marion able to play power forward in the Eastern Conference.

If Marion re-signs, the Heat won't really be players in the big free agency summer of 2010. But in 2011, when the contracts of Mark Blount and Udonis Haslem are up, Riley might have $20 million to go after Carmelo Anthony with.

The Heat get a motivated player who finally gets to show his worth after being overshadowed by the likes of Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, Antonio McDyess, Amare Stoudemire, and Steve Nash throughout his career.

He'll still be overshadowed in Miami by Wade, but Wade has already proved how good he is at working with over-sized egos.

The biggest concern for Heat fans right now should be their team making so much of an improvement with Marion that they won't be drafting in the top five. As "biggest concerns" go, I'm sure Heat fans can live with that one.

As I wrote in one of my columns last month, the clock has started for Riley to make sure he gives Dwyane Wade a reason to stick around. This was an amazing move toward achieving that goal. Something tells me that Wade is ecstatic.

Check out what one blogger, President Camacho, had to say about Shaq after the last game he played before injuring his hip in December. This is from Ira Winderman's Heat blog in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

"Shaq is the problem with this team. He's awful. Awful and expensive. At this point, Dampier or Brendan Haywood would be better. And that's NOT factoring in salary. Until he's gone, we're screwed. Hopefully he'll retire early." 

And that's from a Heat fan when Shaq was still "healthy."

The Suns have as tough a schedule in the second half of the season as any team in the NBA. After last night's game they're now 2-8 against the Lakers, Hornets, Spurs, Mavs, and Jazz this season—and now, in the middle of the season, they have to change their style of play to accommodate a player instead of the other way around.

I'll give the honeymoon about three weeks once Shaq returns from his injury. By then Suns fans will find out what it's like to watch Shaq shoot free throws for the home team.

They'll realize that Shaq only gets double-digit rebounds because he misses so many lay-ups.

They'll grow weary of him picking up his fourth foul with eight minutes left in the third quarter.

By then Heat fans will join the Laker fans in realizing just how lucky they are that they're not the team on the hook for two more years and $40 million.

It's a little warmer today in Phoenix. Maybe it's because the window is starting to close.