Yuma
Suns are my Kryptonite!
The way I am looking at this trade is we HAD to get Shaq. Don't get me wrong, I HATE trading Marion. The guy is a stud. Probably when we got Grant Hill, Marion's days were numbered. Marion was grumbling about wanting to be traded and in a stroke of genious, Kerr convinced Grant Hill to come to Phoenix as an insurance policy on Marion's possible future departure, or playing disgruntled. Funny thing happened after we got Grant, D'Antoni found out he could play, and play well.
Our problem as a team is we can't match up well with San Antonio with Tim Duncan. We haven't got a guy to guard him in crunch time, and doubling him leads to Manu and Parker lighting us up off the pass outs from Duncan. We have to be able to guard Duncan one on one to beat the Spurs in any kind of series. I would have liked Pau, but the Lakers snapped him up, and now we have a team in our division we have to outplay at center with that Laker acquisition.
Old as Shaq is, he can still guard Duncan, Pau, etc. Do we need him to play 40+ minutes? Hell no. We just need to be able to make some stops, and we NEED a legit low post threat in the playoffs when teams pack it into the paint. Shaq can still do those things even as old as he is. In fact, most nights we don't even need Shaq. We just need him when we play upper echelon teams, and in the play offs for fourth quarter defense and offense.
Don't buy the argument Shaq will slow us down. Kareem Abdul Jabbar hardly ever ran on the fast break, and the Lakers had one of the most potent fast breaks in NBA history during Jabbar's tenure. Shaq will help our rebounding. He can outlet pass with the best of centers in NBA history. His presence will allow Amare to leak out more on the break. Our fast break will get better, not worse, when Shaq is on the floor.
Face it, Amare is a great player, but he's just no center right now in his career. For us to keep Marion, Amare had to step up and be able to play centers without fouling out. That experiment just didn't work. Amare is a true power forward. Now we can put Amare at his true position, and hopefully the foul problems will be lessened to a degree for Amare. That's no knock on Amare, who is probably the second coming of Karl Malone at his young age!
Phoenix has had a hole at center as long as they've been in the league, with apologies to Alvin Adams, Mark West, etc. We just haven't had the kind of guy teams have feared in the middle. Even at Shaq's advanced age, there aren't too many guys who will try and take it to the hole with him in the lane.
Something had to be done. Kerr is taking a shot. I personally like this move because it makes us competitive with the Spurs, and it buys us time to hopefully get a younger center with the Atlanta pick whether we use the pick or trade it. I also feel a lot better about our play off chances this year with Shaq than I have in a few seasons now. In fact, I came out of posting retirement because this trade has made me that excited about the Suns chances this year in the play offs! Bring on the Spurs!
Our problem as a team is we can't match up well with San Antonio with Tim Duncan. We haven't got a guy to guard him in crunch time, and doubling him leads to Manu and Parker lighting us up off the pass outs from Duncan. We have to be able to guard Duncan one on one to beat the Spurs in any kind of series. I would have liked Pau, but the Lakers snapped him up, and now we have a team in our division we have to outplay at center with that Laker acquisition.
Old as Shaq is, he can still guard Duncan, Pau, etc. Do we need him to play 40+ minutes? Hell no. We just need to be able to make some stops, and we NEED a legit low post threat in the playoffs when teams pack it into the paint. Shaq can still do those things even as old as he is. In fact, most nights we don't even need Shaq. We just need him when we play upper echelon teams, and in the play offs for fourth quarter defense and offense.
Don't buy the argument Shaq will slow us down. Kareem Abdul Jabbar hardly ever ran on the fast break, and the Lakers had one of the most potent fast breaks in NBA history during Jabbar's tenure. Shaq will help our rebounding. He can outlet pass with the best of centers in NBA history. His presence will allow Amare to leak out more on the break. Our fast break will get better, not worse, when Shaq is on the floor.
Face it, Amare is a great player, but he's just no center right now in his career. For us to keep Marion, Amare had to step up and be able to play centers without fouling out. That experiment just didn't work. Amare is a true power forward. Now we can put Amare at his true position, and hopefully the foul problems will be lessened to a degree for Amare. That's no knock on Amare, who is probably the second coming of Karl Malone at his young age!
Phoenix has had a hole at center as long as they've been in the league, with apologies to Alvin Adams, Mark West, etc. We just haven't had the kind of guy teams have feared in the middle. Even at Shaq's advanced age, there aren't too many guys who will try and take it to the hole with him in the lane.
Something had to be done. Kerr is taking a shot. I personally like this move because it makes us competitive with the Spurs, and it buys us time to hopefully get a younger center with the Atlanta pick whether we use the pick or trade it. I also feel a lot better about our play off chances this year with Shaq than I have in a few seasons now. In fact, I came out of posting retirement because this trade has made me that excited about the Suns chances this year in the play offs! Bring on the Spurs!
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