Coro's New Update

[The Diesel]

But Shaq has been a very good person to have in the locker-room so far.

Alvin Gentry, Kerr, Nash, Amare, Bell, and even Dragic say he's a fun guy to be around and he keeps things loose in the locker-room.

That's one very positive thing he's brought to the team.

I agree that Marion was never the locker-room cancer some people said he was, but it seems Shaq has been a very positive influence off-the-court so far.

[eastsidecrossover]

The dead horse is getting really smelly. Let it go guys. I know most did not think he was a cancer, and I agree. But his espn article was a slap in the face to this organization and to his team.

When we lost in the playoffs, most on this board would blame........marion. I would not go to that extent, and said this guy is a huge piece of our team. I loved, and respected and understood his game. As a fan, I appreciated what he did. But the guy cried way too much about respect and being a 3rd option. All I wanted him to do was shut up and play. But he could not get over it. Its like you have to go out of your way all the time to tell little Shaun that they loved him and carried for him, and that without him, they would not be as good. please stop. hes a man and does not need to be babied by the media, team and fans.

Give it up guys, we were not going to win it with him this past year. Yes, we could have except for some bad calls/decisions on our teams part. I wish we could have him on this team. But for his price and his weeping, I will pass. I got sick of it.

[HootieRules]

I still fail to see the "shaq was brought in for defense" argument but maybe that's just me. If anything, he was brought in to energize the team and to get buckets when the game slows down in the playoffs, which I can understand the trade from that perspective.

But defense? Shaq? That still makes me shake my head. When you are porous at defending the pick and roll, you need athletic guys to get in the passing lanes and get out and run - ala Shawn Marion. Not exactly Shaq's strengths.

I'll always stand by the fact that you need to throw out intangibles when trading players in the NBA. Who got the better player in the deal? I think that's the only question you should ask. Locker room chemistry is great and is something that's pretty vital I think. But forcing it while making your team worse is not the answer.

[-SDU-]

i guess an argument can be made about shaq improving our defense though by saying that we now had a player who would defend the other teams best post option and was able to foul

too often when we had amare on players like duncan etc, he would have to avoid challenging shots so as to avoid fouls. shaq became the player who took that role now freeing amare up to be more aggressive on the weak side defensively and also allowing him to defend weaker playes and stay out of foul trouble

like oberto does for duncan and dampier does for dirk etc

[The Diesel]

In hindsight, the trade was definitely a mistake and it would have been better to just keep Marion and give the team (Nash, Bell, Hill, Marion, Amare) one last shot to win a Championship before trading him.

Kerr probably regrets making the trade, although for obvious reasons he won't admit it publicly.

Shaq was brought in to beat the Spurs, and instead they beat the Suns in 5 games, and Shaq played terribly in the series.

Shaq is going to get injured again this year, and who knows if he's going to be motivated or not.

I hope he plays with the same energy he did last season when he came to Phoenix and we should all hope he doesn't play the way he did during his last two years in Miami where he clearly wasn't as motivated as he was during his first two years there.

But the trade was a mistake, no doubt about it.

Trading Marion for an injury-prone 36 year old Shaq was a terrible move.

And if Porter is anything like Riley (considering he played for him), things could turn ugly between him and Shaq because Shaq really disliked Riley towards the end of his time in Miami.

[BurningHeart]

The reason the 2007 team had a great chance to win was because they had Kurt Thomas who wasn't on the 2008 team.

Also, Sarver pointed out the 8-12 record this year pre-trade against the top teams as the reason why he doesn't regret the trade.

Yes, Phoenix struggled a lot in the beginning after the trade, but one of the reasons was they had to play teams like the Hornets, Lakers, Pistons, and Jazz pretty soon after the trade while the team was still figuring out how to play with Shaq.

I still feel the Spurs got extremely lucky that Hill got injured and Duncan hit that 3 pointer. I doubt Parker would have scored 41 points in Game 3 if Hill was 100%.

I STILL haven't gotten over that Game 1 loss. So many frustrating moments in that game which might have completely changed that series if Phoenix won that game.

- Blowing a 16 point lead

- Shaq leaving Duncan wide-open to hit his 3 pointer

- Amare not switching on Finley on Finley's 3 pointer to send it into OT

- Diaw missing a game-winning shot at the end of the game

- Barbosa missing a game-winning shot at the end of the first over-time

- Shaq's stupid goal-tending on Finley's 3 pointer which looked like it wasn't going in

- Amare fouling out when the team was up by 3 points with 15 seconds left when he charged into Kurt Thomas instead of passing the ball to Shaq who was WIDE OPEN under the basket.

- Why was Barbosa guarding Finley on his game-tying 3 pointer when Grant Hill was available? Even Jeff van Gundy was surprised that Hill wasn't in the game at that point to guard Finley instead of Barbosa.

Honestly, even though that game was very close, I knew right after the game ended that Phoenix wasn't going to win the series even though it was only Game 1.

Even Jon Barry mentioned after the game that he wondered how Phoenix would recover from such a heart-breaking loss and he mentioned that it was a "lingering" loss and I agreed with him at the time and still do.

I don't know whether the team ever recovered from losing that game.

Remembering that game just made me want throw my head into a wall repeatedly.

[daveang]

On the court, he'll be sorely missed. When Miami plays at Phoenix in late November it's going to be a weird scene. I hope the fans give the Matrix a standing ovation.

I hope they do too, but I can see the opposite happening. As for Marion not being that lockerroom cancer, well that certainly is a surprise, especially after reading what Jack McCallum said about him in "Seven Seconds or Less". I'm glad to hear that he is that decent guy, and will surely be missed, but as the various changes have been made, I have made a decision to embrace them and move forward!