So after 17 games

[Spartan13]

He may not have been the best Defender, but he did a better job at C then Amare thats for sure. And I fail to see which Center we could have got instead that would have made such a big difference. Thats why im saying, even with a rebounding defensive C, I don't think the Suns would have been a lock for anything.

[KJ7]

My view is if we couldn't get a C who would put us over the top then just keep Marion and call his bluff on his contract. Instead we get Shaq and then have to offload the last year of his contract for nothing.

Shaq did a better job at C then Amare but we got further with Amare at C ... well for me the team > 1 position.

Don't have anything against Shaq ... just had something against Shaq on the team we had.

[Spartan13]

Marion was perfect for the Suns. He hid a lot of Nash's defensive deficiencies, and did the same thing for Calderon when he was in Toronto. Too bad hes in Dallas now...

[rsavaj]

Tucker/Griffin/Lopez for DeAndre Jordan! If only it was that easy.

[Miklo]

Tucker/Griffin/Lopez for DeAndre Jordan! If only it was that easy.

serrrriously. Maybe we could use blackmail or something? Oh man DeAndre..I would love him here. And I'm not talking about Brokeback Mountain kind of love. I'm talking possible STARTING CENTER love.

[tsherkin]

I'm talking more so in the way the Shaq's were used, not if one was in better shape then the other.
You bring up offensively speaking,

And SSOS Shaq was more useful to the team's offense than the way D'Antoni used Shaq, IMO. Then again, we saw SSOS Shaq with Amare riding the pine the entire time, so it's hard to tell, but it wouldn't have been functionally different, except Stoudemire would have been scoring a lot before they went to Shaq as an option.

Which was a much wiser way to use Shaq then Porter did, because Amare was a beast whenever he played with Shaq under Gentry and D'antoni.

Agreed.

He may not have been the best Defender, but he did a better job at C then Amare thats for sure. And I fail to see which Center we could have got instead that would have made such a big difference. Thats why im saying, even with a rebounding defensive C, I don't think the Suns would have been a lock for anything.

With Marion and a defensive center, yes, the Suns would have been a lock.

I was talking about the D'Antoni-era Suns, not the Suns of last year.

You put out a defensive center with Amare, Marion, Good Raja and Nash, maybe bring KT off the bench, that team has an outstanding chance to win a title.

[JohnVancouver]

My view is if we couldn't get a C who would put us over the top then just keep Marion and call his bluff on his contract. Instead we get Shaq and then have to offload the last year of his contract for nothing.

Shaq did a better job at C then Amare but we got further with Amare at C ... well for me the team > 1 position.

Don't have anything against Shaq ... just had something against Shaq on the team we had.

We traded Trix for Shaq, in large part so that we wouldn't lose Shawn for nothing (there were on-court aspects to the trade, too; the idea that Shaq could get us past SA.)
Then we traded Shaq for two contracts which we bought out for, what, $10 million and $1.25 m

So in the end we saved $11 million. We could have just let Shawn expire and saved more, as it turns out.
Not to say it was a bad move - it was worth a shot. Just funny how it works out.

[JohnVancouver]

Ahhhh - but I forgot: we also unloaded banks, who would still be here.

[lilfishi22]

Oh damn, the thought of Banks still on our roster kinda makes every bad things that's happened so far, kinda worth it.

[Miklo]

Oh damn, the thought of Banks still on our roster kinda makes every bad things that's happened so far, kinda worth it.

haha banks..where "if D'Antoni ever returns as coach, make sure we don't also make him GM again" happens