Hoops

Shaq - Marion trade in hindsight

The suns team under coach D died when they let shooters go to other teams and signed players like Hill.

They quit when they had a real shot at a title, if Amare and co hadn't been suspended the title may have been theirs that year instead of the spurs...

If you want to set up a half court defensive type team, based on post plays and kick outs, you cannot have a weak link in your D. At this stage in his career, Shaq is a 350 pound weak link. And Nash is not much chop defending top pg's.

Trading for J-rich would of been sweet, if coach D was still around. Instead you have a guy standing around watching and waiting for 3pt shots. Bell can do that, and he can actually defend his ass of too.

For my money, Kerr is probably the worst GM going around at the mo. Only coz Thomas is gone. MJ is right up there to, but coach Brown is making him look better lately.

Huge mistake if the Heat trade for O'neal. There is just zero future with that guy.

Heat lose out unless they can pull off a trade with Marion. At the moment if he walks they get nothing but cap space - which could have been achieved by leting Shaq expire anyways. If they can get Jermaine O'Neal which by all reports Raptors are ready to trade than they would have done well.

Suns aren't doing any worse than if they had tried to keep a unhappy Marion around.

Ah, I vaguely remembered there was some friction between D'Antoni and Kerr over the Shaq trade, and this got mentioned when D'Antoni bolted (i.e. Kerr and D'Antoni didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, Shaq trade was one example), but couldn't recall the details.

Heat win this by and absolute mile.

Shaq is doing well, but is such a massive liability defending the screen and roll that Phoenix has zero chance of winning in the play-offs.

(The fact that Amare is one of the worst help defenders in the L doesn't help either)

Now they have to pay him big dough to take them no-where, all the while destroying the development of the young star Amare who they needed to focus on for the future.

Miami got the chance to road test Marion, now they can decide if he fits their future and either let him walk and use the cap to sign Boozer or someone else.

From a GM persepective, the Heat are big winners.

Wasn't this trade one of the reasons D'Antoni left? That's a big loss, you only have to look at the improvement in the Knicks this year to see how he gets the maximum out of his available talent.

Suns are struggling with their bench. As soon as Nash, Amare or Shaq sit they are in trouble.
The key to a suns victory is Barbosa and Barnes/Hill contributing take one of those players out of the game and the Suns struggle to win.