I'm not sure that you can really evaluate Shaq's presence equaling wins in Phoenix. Several of those wins have Shaq playing pretty sparse minutes. I do agree that Shaq will help the Suns against the Spurs but for most of the other teams in the playoffs, he hurts more than he helps. In order for Shaq to be the difference maker -- he has to rule the defensive zone and I think those days are far behind him. I think he can make a difference on the boards and chip in a few points but teams can exploit his weaknesses. We will see who is right but the Suns are going to have to play one of the top 4 teams in the Western Conference in the first round -- that means either the Lakers, Rockets, Hornets or Jazz or Spurs (depending on how it all shakes out). The division thing makes a difference too -- so things would have to shift a lot at this point in order for the Suns to face the Spurs -- the Jazz would probably be the next team they would prefer to play but their bigs like to play out from the basket and that's way out of Shaq's comfort zone. That means that the Suns have to play help defense and that leaves shooters wide open. Not to mention the Jazz would kill Shaq on the pick-and-roll -- Shaq couldn't defend the pick-and-roll in his prime.
I will say that we are going to see some good basketball in the Western Conference playoffs this year -- I think the first rounds are going to be the best first rounds we have ever seen (the opposite can be said of the Eastern Conference -- those will be some of the worst first rounds we have ever seen).
