NBA Beat: Suns' deal for Shaq ripe for nasty backfire
Ablang
By Scott Howard-Cooper - showard-cooper at sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 10, 2008
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C4
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/701052.html
After it became a matter for psychiatrists, because most everyone
outside his organization told general manager Steve Kerr he needed his
head examined, and after it became a religious experience, because
Shaquille O'Neal said "Prayer, believe in prayer," it became about
basketball.
The Phoenix Suns, their style of play, their new roster.
Eventually, it will become about gambling, because the Suns just
risked it all. Their championship hopes, their budget and Kerr's
gleaming reputation went on the line with one move. He traded Shawn
Marion and the unwanted Marcus Banks to Miami for O'Neal and various
headaches to be named later, destined to either deliver wins in June
or ruin careers.
Pushing all their chips in for this season and beyond, the Suns added
a crumbling, lumbering center who has $20 million coming in 2008-09
and $20 million more in 2009-10 to a roster heretofore designed to
play at Mach I. It's the same roster that had the top record in the
West and the third-best overall at the time of the trade, and
essentially the same roster that might have reached the Finals a year
ago if not for two hotly debated suspensions in the conference
semifinals.
Kerr's logic is reasonable, if controversial: He concluded the Suns
could not have withstood a playoff rush of big men, one round after
another, with Marion at power forward and Amare Stoudemire at center.
The obvious risk of the unknown that will follow was offset by the
known. The previous group had never reached the championship series.
So, really, what was he breaking up besides a fun-bunch collection of
Smurfs on a sugar rush? So risk away. But Ben Wallace - regrettable
free-agent signing in Chicago, less money due the next two seasons, 2
1/2 years younger than Shaq, more mobile, just as much of a drama
queen - would have been a risk. Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal - not as
bullish inside, a bigger financial hit the next two seasons, but a
defensive presence - also a risk.
Shaq is risk times 20. He has huge money coming and a growing history
of medical problems, most recently a bad hip that has cost him the
past three weeks. For all this, the Suns got a chance, and they might
have had one anyway.
Their real problem is he's not O'Neal anymore. Phoenix just made its
big play to acquire the guy who enters as the fourth-best center in
the Pacific Division this season, behind Andrew Bynum of the Lakers,
Chris Kaman of the Clippers and Brad Miller of the Kings, and that's
taking Stoudemire out of contention since the Suns obviously prefer
him as a power forward.
Taking the entire West, the very people the Suns just bet the desert
he can match up with, expands the list even more. Yao Ming if they
play the Rockets, Marcus Camby if they play the Nuggets, Tyson
Chandler if they play the Hornets - better, better and better. And it
still doesn't get Phoenix away from having to potentially use
Stoudemire to defend the star bigs on two other teams, the Spurs (Tim
Duncan) and Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki).
For pure theatrics, O'Neal-Bynum is the dream postseason cage match,
of course, former great Lakers center against current Lakers center on
a fast track to stardom - layered with the usual Shaq-Kobe Bryant-Los
Angeles story lines. There was already measurable tension between the
teams.
It can't be a hyper-showdown until the playoffs, when Bynum has had a
chance to recover from his knee injury and O'Neal from his hip injury.
By then, Shaq will really be on the clock with everyone tuning in to
see if he can dig down and summon the past. Only the Suns' hopes and
Kerr's reputation will be hanging in the balance.