Steve Kerr- genius or idiot? your verdict!

[Whiteman]

Before the Shaq deal (but after trading KT), the Suns were soft as butter inside and terrible on the boards. Furthermore Amare was unhappy and not 100% effective playing out of position.

The trade fixed all of these problems, but created a number of new ones.

Shaq's pick and roll defense is terrible, his FT precentage is embarrasing and the Suns lost their best defender in Marion.


The Spurs are a great team, doing an excellent job at exploiting the Suns' new weaknesses. But I tend to believe they would have beaten the pre-trade Suns as well - destroyed them on the boards and with penetration instead of P'nR.

Respect to Kerr for trying, it's a shame it didn't pay off.

[Tom Baker]

Kerr has balls. That's all.

Phx wasn't going anywhere anyway. He rolled the dice. It didn't work.

Gotta give him credit for trying.

Time to blow it up. Nash has declined and Shaq is not what he used to be. Too bad Phx has been giving away its draft picks for a while now.

[TAI8]

I called it that the Shaq trade was going to be the end for the Suns. He is getting killed in the series and exploited at the line. The Suns can't beat the Spurs. They have lost three series in the past four years to the Spurs. They lost in 5 in '05 with Nash, Q, JJ, Marion, and STAT. They lost in 6 in '07 with Nash, Marion, STAT, Diaw, Barbosa, Kurt Thomas, Bell, and Jones. They are going to get swept in '08 with Nash, STAT, Shaq, Diaw, Barbosa, and Bell. There is obviously a plethora of offensive talent on each of the squads, but when they're playing an elite defensive team like the Spurs they need to raise their level of intensity on the defensive end. We handled the Suns in '05 because they couldn't play D for ****. Last year was the toughest the Suns have ever played because they tightened their D. I can't remember exactly the stats but I do remember a couple of low shooting percentage games here and there. This year we're going to sweep the Suns because guess what? They can't play D for ****. I feel sorry for the Suns organization because they are an elite offensive team in the regular season but can't win in the postseason and now they have to deal with a declining Nash, an injury-prone Hill, and a flamed-out Shaq. The Suns are done.

[Serpo]

Well i never thought the Suns could win it all with their small bench .

I mean every good team in the past could go at least 10 deep some even deeper .
The Suns basically ran the regular season with 7 guys and after the Shaq Trade even 6 for quite a while . The players are only human you can't do that for ever.

If they kept some of the players or picks they gave away for basically nothing in the past and then made the Shaq trade they most likely would have been legit but not with 7-8 guys .

[Hunter]

Basically just gonna say same thing I said in the other thread; I think a move had to be made, I just don't know if there wasn't a better move to be made. Shaq is not the answer. But I respect the fact that Kerr went for it all. I much prefer that to playing it safe, especially because I don't think the Suns would have gotten out of the West regardless. Like some other people have said, Kerr has balls.

[B-Scott]

I give props to Kerr for trying to make changes to get over the hump, because there team with Marion couldn't beat the Spurs.

The problem is they traded for the wrong guy. If i was the Suns i would have gone all out for Pau Gasol who would have fit in perfect in there system.

I would have offered Marion and Barbosa if thats what it took.

[Mr. Sun]

did the Shaq trade worked or did it set the Suns back?

The trade made sense for the Suns... just Kerr over estimated D'Antoni's ability to play the big man's strengths.

[aznkillabeezZz]

It worked Snaquille!! Spurs even might win the Championship this year. And who knows how far Suns would go if they weren't against the Spurs first round.