The Shaq trade was a mistake

667Club · Post #41 » by **667Club** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:31 pm

The real mistake was refusing to trade Amare for Kg.

daboywonder2002 · Post #42 » by **daboywonder2002** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:52 pm

its not just getting rid of marion for shaq that has messed everything up. but its other moves before that. getting rid of kurt thomas, james jones, tim thomas(ok well scratch that cause even i wouldnt have matched the contract he got from the clips). but i'll admit tim was a nice fit. who else? eddie house, even joe johnson would be help right now. a lot of these moves are now coming back to haunt the suns. the johnson for diaw trade 1st. yes diaw beasted. but that was with no amare. now you basically traded all star joe johnson for a damn bench scrub. im not sit here and say why all these moves were bad. but ill say this. the suns were better with amare in the middle and a bunch of 3 point threats. now you got amare, shaq, hill and at times diaw. all clogging up the middle. yes grant has a nice mid range game, but he isnt a threat from the outside. theres a reason phoenix had a weak record against the top teams even b4 the shaq trade. think about that.

madmaxmedia · Post #43 » by **madmaxmedia** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:10 pm

But I guess Marion was a big question mark (in terms of contract), so what then?

Also, you don't want to overreact to what other teams are doing, but the Lakers really pulled off a coup and ended up with an athletic, fast, 7 ft. frontcourt of players. If the Suns were a bad rebounding team, then I think they can't beat the Lakers for sure in a series. Plus the Spurs ended up adding Kurt Thomas as well (not a huge deal but very solid frontcourt presence.)

I think the big stat for Shaq going forward is not PPG or RPG, I think he will do roughly fine there. The big stat is going to MPG IMO. I don't mean that should be the end goal, but that it will be a good indicator of where he and the team is headed.

He hasn't played over 30 MPG for awhile, but if the relatively short season and new surroundings means he is fresher and will be able to consistently log over 30 MPG I think the Suns will figure things out. If he ends up at 26-28 MPG then I think there will be problems.

chrice · Post #44 » by **chrice** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:48 pm

667Club wrote:The real mistake was refusing to trade Amare for Kg.

You're Joking right? Amare is the future of the Suns, no way a sane GM would make a move like that. Trading star forward for star forward is also somewhat of a lateral move. True you get a minor upgrade at that position, but in order for the Suns to see an improvement, they needed Amare AND KG. The biggest problem at the time was at the Center. Nobody clogging the paint, no interior presence. KG is great, but he can't do the job of two people.

Patterns · Post #45 » by **Patterns** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:46 pm

chrice wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

You're Joking right? Amare is the future of the Suns, no way a sane GM would make a move like that. Trading star forward for star forward is also somewhat of a lateral move. True you get a minor upgrade at that position, but in order for the Suns to see an improvement, they needed Amare AND KG. The biggest problem at the time was at the Center. Nobody clogging the paint, no interior presence. KG is great, but he can't do the job of two people.

Al Jefferson + Expiring+picks for KG anyone?

Upgrading from Amare to KG is NOT minor. You see how KG motivates everyone on his team and he's a leader. He doesn't take sh*t from anyone and he protects all of his teammates no matter what.

Not only would he have solved your rebounding problem, he would have solved your defense problem too.

Post #46 » by **tsherkin** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:58 pm

chrice wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

You're Joking right? Amare is the future of the Suns, no way a sane GM would make a move like that. Trading star forward for star forward is also somewhat of a lateral move. True you get a minor upgrade at that position, but in order for the Suns to see an improvement, they needed Amare AND KG. The biggest problem at the time was at the Center. Nobody clogging the paint, no interior presence. KG is great, but he can't do the job of two people.

Actually, the big impact would have been felt on defense, which Garnett actually plays (and well; he's a contender for DPOY this season).

Amare's an exclusively one-way player and that often sabotages the effect of his own offense. Garnett is also a much better passer than Amare.

The Suns are a very clear "win now" team and Garnett would have been a MUCH better option, especially with Shaq.