Another shift of power in the West? Shaq heading back to the land of Sunshine!!

[WayOutWest]

http://www.miamiherald.com/594/story/407442.html

Heat in serious talks to trade Shaq
Posted on Tue, Feb. 05, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY BARRY JACKSON
bjackson@MiamiHerald.com
The Heat has told center Shaquille O'Neal's representation that it is talking about trading him and he should be prepared for the possibility of a deal, according to two officials close to the situation. Phoenix has discussed sending forward Shawn Marion and point guard Marcus Banks to the Heat in return for O'Neal.

Asked for confirmation, one of O'Neal's representatives said O'Neal has been made aware that discussions with Phoenix are serious and ongoing, but that a deal was not definite.

Dallas also has been mentioned as a potential destination, though the Heat had not immediately informed O'Neal of that possibility.

O'Neal, 35, was shocked by the turn of events, an associate said. O'Neal helped lead the Heat to the 2005-06 championship, but Miami has struggled since, losing in the first round of the playoffs last season and opening this season with a league-worst 9-37 record.

After this season, Marion can opt out of the last year of his contract worth $17.1 million. If Marion opts out, trading O'Neal would give the Heat substantial salary cap space this offseason, when potential free agents include Gilbert Arenas, Baron Davis, Elton Brand, Antawn Jamison, Ron Artest and Corey Maggette.

Marion, 29, is a four-time All-Star and considered one of the NBA's most athletic small forwards. Marion, 6-7, is averaging 15.8 points and 9.9 rebounds.

Banks, 26, is averaging 5.2 points and 1.0 assists. After this season, he has three years left on his contract worth a total of $13.4 million.

O'Neal, who has been out with a hip injury, has two years left on his contract after this season. He will be paid $20 million each of the next two seasons.

On Tuesday, coach Pat Riley said O'Neal was scheduled to have a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his ailing left hip, which has kept him out the past six games.

''We just want to back it up and see, after two weeks, what it shows,'' Riley said.

Riley gave no indication as to when O'Neal would return to the lineup. Riley said O'Neal must strengthen his legs before returning to action, and that the center will be one of six players to miss Wednesday's game at Detroit.

Heat officials were on their way to Detroit and could not be reached for comment.

[WayOutWest]

Holly krispey kreme donughts Batman! 

I would love to see Kobe face Shaq in the playoffs.  No chance for it in the finals so the Lakers vs Suns would be awesome.  IMO Shaq does not fit in with the Suns except when they face a team like the Lakers/Spurs/Jazz.  Teams that want to slow down the Suns and play half court b-ball will find a monster to deal with in the paint.  While Shaq cannot go a full half, let alone an entire game, at the old Diesel level, he can still cause problems in the half court when the pace in the playoffs slows down. 

IMO this is exactly what Phx needs BUT NOT at the cost of losing Marion.  IMO losing Marion would be too much of a hit for the Suns since you are now relying on two injury prone players in Shaq and Hill to fill in.  A healthy line up of Nash/Bell/Hill/Amare/Shaq would be as good as anybody in the league.  The problem is they are either all old or injury prone, so IMO they have ONE good year in them.  IMO with Nash getting up there in age you take your shot NOW, you have already missed three shots, granted they were cheated last year, but the window for the Nash lead Suns is almost closed, there is maybe one or two more years left in Nash and I doubt he holds up next year.

[msc]

I can't see Phoenix making this move for financial reasons. 

Also, how does Shaq fit in to their run and gun style? 

I don't see this deal happening. 

[Wolverine]

If this deal is for real (haha - that rhymed), the Suns are doing the basketball-equivalent of "all in."

This a big high-risk, high-reward deal, in my mind.  And as a Suns fan, I'm not happy about giving up Marion.  Sure, we get Shaq, but he's old and in a wheelchair.  There's NO WAY he holds up, unless they plan to rest him the entire length of the regular season and hold him for the playoffs.  He doesn't fit into this offense at all.

Yeah, IF he's healthy he'll do some damage in the playoffs and all, but I don't think this trade brings the Suns the title.  As Miguel said, too many old (Nash) and injury-prone (Shaq, Hill) players.

And even if they do win it all this year, that's it.  They're done.  They're throwing everything into this season's run.  If it blows up in their face, they're screwed for the immediate future.

[WayOutWest]

If this deal is for real (haha - that rhymed), the Suns are doing the basketball-equivalent of "all in."

Very nice analogy! 

So are the Suns bluffing or holding the "nuts"?  IMO they just went "all in" on the flop with a "drawing hand".  They need Shaq to recover from his current injury.  Do you hear that Phoenix?  CURRENT INJURY!!!!  The Suns are drawing to an INSIDE strait!  Good luck you nutty bastards!

[Reality]

Jomal

Shaq is untradable, period.

B-Rad

The price is not a deal breaker.  His age and injuries are the deal breaker.  You do realize he is injured RIGHT NOW and the trade dead line is in a few weeks?  Think before you post please.

 
WayOutWest  

You just don't listen.  The ONE time wk has been right this WHOLE year and you ignore him!  
I THINK JoMal might have made a point around here somewhere......

msc n LakerFanDan "All that counts is titles.  We wouldn't have wanted a would-be title if Shaq had brought one to LA by staying".

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/1388/smashsmithersbd4.jpg

Lurker

Miami paid $60 million for 1 title.  No one is going to give them anything for Shaq that will come anywhere near compensating them.  Or making them competitive.  No one wants to say it but Riley really screwed the future of the Heat for a shot at a title or two.  

[Derek Bodner]

it's another power shift all right.  The suns have now lost relevance.

[westkoast]

it's another power shift all right.  The suns have now lost relevance.

Pretty much.  They are taking their run and gun style and putting a bullet in it.  Now instead of getting easy buckets and keeping the defense on their toes they are going to have to wait for Shaq to get down the floor, set, and then try to go to work or pass it.  I keep hearing sports guys talk about Shaq's ability to pass, which I think he is a real good passer, however why do you need Shaq to be a passer when you have Nash?  Shaq is also not suppose to be 100% for AT LEAST a month.  If not longer.  I guess the Suns can afford to let him rest but why bring him in, in March to try to get to know the team and switch up a game plan you've been using for years now? 

Steve Kerr and Mike "just do what Nash says" D'Antoni have been bickering in the backround about the style of play.  Kerr thinks that they will not win a title playing this type of basketball.  Obviously Mike D'Antoni feels they can.  This move looks to prove that the organization is going to abandon what has worked so well for them.  They actually would have won a title had they got past SA last year with this same style of play.

All I can say is that David Stern and the league are LOVING this.  You know they probably woke up early today just to start on the JUGGERNAUT KOBE VS SHAQ in the playoffs marketing blitz now.

And Reality...just because Suns were dumb enough to do this trade still doesn't make you right in terms of Miami seriously rebuilding.  They traded Shaq for Shawn Marion who can opt out at the end of the year.  It clears up cap space but with the team being as horrible as they are what free agent is going to be running there?

[WayOutWest]

The rumors going around are there was so much "drama" between Marion and Amare that it was starting to affect the team.  From watching the games you wouldn't think there was a problem on the Suns.  Everybody not only likes to watch the Suns style of play but the general concenseous is that everybody likes to play the Suns type of basketball.  It's fun to run up and down the court and play playground style of basketball without effort on defense.  You would think that the Suns think playing solid defense only delays you from getting the ball back on offense.  Even the disciplined Spurs would fall into the run-n-gun trap.  Wonder how the Jazz do against the Suns?

[msc]

Looks like the Suns are going for it.  This is very surprising to me.  Wolverines "all in" analogy is a great one.  Very high risk to reward ratio.  I guess they figure they weren't going to win without some kind of post defensive presence.  Desperate times ...

I'm curious; will Shaq just stay on D the whole time while the four quick players run down to play offense?   

Reality, please, for the love of sanity, quit misquoting me.  One last time, I realized Shaq wasn't trying any longer.  I didn't believe we were going to win another championship with him.  Therefore, I supported a trade to re-build around the young guy with the work ethic. 

[Skandery]

you know there's desperation moves and then there's this . . .


. . . my only reaction to this was falling out of my chair laughing at the Suns. 


Do you SEE the comic lows you have driven people to, Chris Wallace, do you SEE!!! 

[msc]

Do you SEE the comic lows you have driven people to, Chris Wallace, do you SEE!!! 

So true!

I've been thinking about this.  First, this is a great deal for Miami.  They get Marion, who has an opt out after this season.  So either it works out and he wants to stay, or you have all of that cap space.  So Miami basically just dumped that gawd awful Shaq contract. 

Second, the ONLY way this is even possibly a good deal for Phoenix is if Shaq has been phoning it in in Miami.  He has set a precedent of this, so it wouldn't surprise me.  If Shaq comes in and starts dropping 20/10, I will have even less respect for him than I ever thought possible.  That said I just don't see it.  He's old, he's out of shape, and he?s a shell of his former self.  Even if he is relatively healthy and has been faking injury as he's done in the past, he's still waaay out of shape.  He's only played what 20 games this year?  He'll be lucky to play his way in to shape by the playoffs. 

How is Phoenix going to run their offense?  Will they have two lineups?  One with Shaq that runs a half court set, and another with Amare as center that is the D'Antoni run-n-gun?  I've seen Phoenix try to run half court and it's not pretty.  Does Phoenix think it?s still 2001 and Shaq commands a double team in the post?  Newsflash, he doesn't.  Good luck Phoenix. 

Oh man, please let the Lakers face the Suns with Shaq in the playoffs ...

Reality, get Sternfish on the line and make sure that happens.  What am I talking about?  This has all been orchestrated by Sternfish so that they can market the heck out of the Phoenix/LA WCF!!  Of course.  Now we can all just sit back and watch the NY Knicks get every call, win every game for the rest of the season so that the two biggest markets can play in the Finals.  Imagine the tv ratings!  Yay, for Sternfish!!  I?m heading to Vegas to bet my life savings on an LA/NY finals.

[Laker Fan]

The only thing stupider than this move is if the Lakers had decided to keep Fatquille instead of Kobe. Wolverine's anaolgy is perfect, problem is, they're betting the house when they are only hold a pair of deuces.

Stupid, stupid move.

[jn]

I couldn't agree more with the comments about the mismatch of and over the hill Shaq and the uptempo Suns.  There had to be a better way for the Suns to shore up the middle.

If it does end up being the Suns vs the Lakers in the playoffs I will not watch.  I simply could not deal with being dragged through any more Shaq vs Kobe announcer babble. 

[rickortreat]

Shaq will get another title if the trade goes through.  Phoenix knows it can't just run down the lane everytime.  When half-court basketball comes, Shaq is the answer to the Suns problems. 

I imagine he's injured but playing for a contending team will make him healthy faster. 

This nullifies the advantage gained by LA with Gasol.  This gives the Suns the answer to the Mavericks and Spurs.   This puts the Suns ahead of Detroit and probably Boston.

It is a very high-risk trade if Shaq can't perform, and it does hurt the Suns for a few years afterwards, but IMO the Suns looked at what they had to go through and blinked. They just can't stay with teams that execute in the half court- no inside defensive presence. Shaq gives them a solid chance in that ares now.