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Seiously. This is BIg!

If Shawn Marion has to go...

No...

Lol why not. They're going to lose to the Lakers either way.

Where's the "hell no" option?

Im curious to see PHX fans take on this.

Phoenix will go undefeated for the rest of the season if they get Shaq.

My take?

I have no idea. tsherkin has outlined the positives quite succintly, but Shawn Marion, to me, IS the Phoenix Suns, and losing him in a trade and not getting a "similar" player back is rather numbing.

This is the biggest gamble in the history of Arizona Sports. If it works, then...holy crap. I just have a very legitimate fear of it not working.

No green font needed

LA takes over as Pacific's best until I'm proved this stuff works

rsavaj wrote:My take?

I have no idea. tsherkin has outlined the positives quite succintly, but Shawn Marion, to me, IS the Phoenix Suns, and losing him in a trade and not getting a "similar" player back is rather numbing.

This is the biggest gamble in the history of Arizona Sports. If it works, then...holy crap. I just have a very legitimate fear of it not working.

Losing Marion is big but i think more of Shaq slowing down your offense, being set in the middle where nash loves drive and dish, and no being able to move out. You have the best O in the game.

This is weird.

haahaha are you kidding?

This destroys their title hopes.

I hope Steve Kerr is dumb enough to take this gamble. If it works, he is the GM of the century. IF it doesn't, which it won't, then he's really screwed Phoenix for the next couple of years (although Shaq's expiring is a nice little pickup in a few years).

Black Jesus 1 wrote:LA takes over as Pacific's best until I'm proved this stuff works

We're already Pacific's best.

IMO, this isn't a bad trade for the Suns. Kerr knows that Marion sucks in the playoffs and against the Lakers/Spurs. At this time, the Suns won't stand a chance against the Lakers/Spurs and the Suns will lose Marion in the Summer for NOTHING.

Shaq is built for the playoffs. He can do a lot of things that Marion/Amare can't do.

nobody can tell if it'll make them worse or not..

the system will have to slightly change to implement Shaq, but Phoenix still has capable players to play less transition than they do..but like tsherkin said in the other thread, Shaq can facilitate a fast break with his rebounding, and he's definitely an upgrade over Amare defensively..

it all comes down to one question for me..do the Suns and their fans believe they can win a title this year with Shawn Marion and their current team? because if the belief isn't there, gambling on Shaq might not be such a bad idea..

Shaq would certainly have to give them a verbal commitment though..he's still a very solid player when he's healthy and conditioned to an extent(for his size)..Phoenix style gets a lot of blow outs though, so Shaq will get more rest than he got in Miami..

Maybe.

Shaq gives them another big man in the paint that can help their defense a lot. Especially if Shaq is paired up with Amare on the frontline with Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Barbosa etc. on the perimeter. The Suns will definitely have a good mix of quickness and size on their team.

Even though Phoenix is a high scoring team, they will probably rely on SHOOTING more than FASTBREAKS. IMO they will run more half court sets, but will still be able to score a bunch of points because of their good shooting percentages.

Even on fastbreaks, Shaq won't slow them down. Usually on fastbreaks you look for 3 on 2's, 4 on 2's, 2 on 1's etc. It's rare that you see something like a 5 on 1 fastbreak... all Shaq really has to do is use his big body to grab boards and play defense that will fuel their transition offense.

For example, Amare and Shaq are in the paint: Shaq and Amare contests a shot and Shaq uses his size to grab a sure rebound. While he's rebounding the ball, 1-4 Suns players would already be running down the court for the outlet pass from either Shaq or Amare.

I actually think this trade would benefit the Suns. Crazy I know, but imo it seems like it could actually work.

rsavaj wrote:My take?

I have no idea. tsherkin has outlined the positives quite succintly, but Shawn Marion, to me, IS the Phoenix Suns, and losing him in a trade and not getting a "similar" player back is rather numbing.

This is the biggest gamble in the history of Arizona Sports. If it works, then...holy crap. I just have a very legitimate fear of it not working.

Tsherkin has some good points, but it still doesn't make sense. If you're going to put Shaq and Amare on the floor together, then you take away the effectiveness of the Nash/Amare pick and roll because Shaq's defender now has more freedom to leave his man and help on the rolling Stoudamire. The Suns have always had big men who were able to space the floor giving the others freedom to work towards the basket: that goes away with Shaq. Plus, Shaq isn't nearly as effective on the post up as he used to be anymore, so a simple inside-out type game wouldn't even be as effective even if the Suns were to attempt to modify their offense accordingly.

What's worse, you lose an all around player and arguably the team's best defender. Who's going to be guarding opposing power forwards and small forwards? Boris Diaw? It's already evident that Amare is one of the league's worst big man defenders as it is. How does this move give them a matchup advantage against *anyone*?

And to top it all, it makes no financial sense for a franchise that has been known to be one of the league's most frugal.

semi-sentient wrote:Phoenix will go undefeated for the rest of the season if they get Shaq.

LOL, how can they when Shaq will be missing half the season?

My question would be ... Shaq would need to give more than he is giving MIA now for it to be successful. He has been hurt and obviously they play an uptempo game. I dont see how they can insert him in their system without changing everything. Plus, the subtraction of what Marion brings, I dont see how they could bridge that gap.

great deal for MIA because they dump Shaq's contract but more importantly they get Marion who could actually add something but at worse case... is a much better trade assest than Shaq.

Bad news for PHX because of what I listed above and unless the impossible happens , this could be the straw that broke it all. They are not too old...but old enough to think twice about such a gamble.. and are well over the cap for a longer time.. something they wanted to avoid
Holding on to KT makes sense at this point.

Nope. Ask a mia fan how bad shaqs looked the last 2 years. Now wonder how worse his decline from bad will be for the next 2. Kerrs a moron

Kerr just made mia rebuilding a hell of a lot easier now. Damn you Kerr. I feel sorry actually for phx fans. A owner that trades prospects & 1st rd drafts picks for nothing & a gm that ruining their title hopes. Not cool for any fan of any sport.

I added the same poll question this thread asks so that we don't have two threads discussing the exact same thing.

-miller

Shaq ain't playing no defense. He never did in the three peat years and never will for any team. He swatted around pathetic bigs and little kids who came for a candy around the rim.