When the trade was made, the Suns had the best overall record in the western conference (#1). After it was all said and done, with Shaq they got the 6 and lost home court in the first round. Last year, against the Spurs, granted the spurs won the series, but the Suns appeared to be the better team and royally got screwed by the ejections and by the gambling referee. With that being said, it still went 7 games and the suns nearly won. The winner of that series wins the west. Now, they are down 0-2 and the Spurs are clearly the better team, suns have no home court advantage in the 1st round. This isn't debatable IMO. BAD TRADE!!!!
And they are no longer a running team which is what made them great in the past. The spurs have way more fast break points than the suns so far in this series. BAD TRADE.
It's not as bad as the Kidd trade. Shaq has been doing decent so far in the series, I doubt Marion's presence would have changed the outcome of either of these games. The first one they basically lost because they gambled and let Duncan hit a lucky 3. If I was PHX I would live with that - a double OT game loss to the Spurs in SA. I think the bigger problem is that people like Barbosa aren't doing much.
This was a fair/good trade. Anything is better than the Kidd trade. Kidd is a great PG but he is no Nash or CP3 (or juiced up William, who is clearly following the lead of Bruiser)
They weren't going to win the championship with Marion. The Shaq trade is a solid one. If they had not met the spurs in the first round and got an easier opponent, they would've gotten more time to gel and would be dangerous in the next few rounds.
The funny thing with the trade was that Shaq supposedly would make them better "matchup" against the Spurs... The series is still not over, so the Suns still have a chance. But if they do lose the series, this was a horrible trade. Shaq's decline will be steep the next two years, and that's a lot of money on that contract.
Last year the series only went 6 games. The spurs were playing better than the suns to close the regular season last year, and, imo, were clearly the better team through the playoff series (even ignoring the ejections).
Steve Nash misses a once a season pair of FT's and Duncan makes his only 3 pointer of the season and the verdict is in.
Kind of funny that the Suns essentially made this move in the event that they played the Spurs. They killed them in a key regular season matchup, all looked well and now this: they drew the Spurs and they're down 0-2. Talk about plans backfiring.
From watching the first half last night, the Suns looked very impressive. They clearly have the ability to make the finals. It sounds weird, but from what I saw they have the ability to handle the Spurs, despite being down 0-2. In game 1, the Spurs got lucky. A Duncan 3? Are you kidding me? In last night's game, the Suns had that pesky Rockets-like offensive drought in the 3rd Q. I had to run an errand, so I only half watched and didn't see why they got shut down. But overall they look scary good. Amare is beasting thanks in part to Shaq's presence. They've just had the bad fortune of starting out the playoffs againts a resilient, veteran, chamionship pedigree team in the Spurs. So what happened? Did the Spurs ugly up the 3rd Q? Did the Suns just "miss shots they normally make"? Did the Suns stop attacking and settle for jumpers? I guess I'll just d/l it and find out for myself.
Spurs vs Suns is not about Shaq, it's always about coaching. The Suns have better talents and the Spurs have a better team. Popovich is obviously a better coach and San Antonio is a better team. In last game, Pop took advantages of Shaq's immobility and Amare's defenseless ass and send TP & Manu attack the paint in transition and in any chance. As a result, the Spurs outscored the Suns in transition (23-4) and in the paint (56-42). The Spurs are still the best defensive squad under Pop when they crank up their energy. It's not the 1st time the Spurs came out in 3rd quarter with adjustment in their defense and went on to hold their opponents within 15 pts in 3rd quarter. The fact is that the Spurs with Tim Duncan have always finished in top 3 in defensive rating (with 5 seasons in #1). Tim Duncan, who has anchored the best defensive team in last decade, has neven won DPOTY? WTF! That's why I never give a bleep to the DPOTY award. Marcus Camby??? That's only for media hype. The Spurs was not able to catch fire after all star break. However, I saw the Spurs caught fire in their last regular season game against the Jazz. So, here we go, the playoffs Spurs show up again. If the Spurs stay healthy, they will take the West. For the Suns, they will win only if Mike D'Antoni can coach better defense. But a team can at most hide 1 to 1.5 defensive liable players in its squad. The Suns, with Stoudamire and Nash, will never be a good enough defensive squad to beat the Spurs. Period.
Spurs are nightmare matchups for 29 teams in the league. Suns are just unfortunate to meet the Spurs in the first round, guess the loss to the Rockets really hurt them, though the Suns still have the chance to win the series. Imagine the Suns had met the other West Playoffs teams, there are no way softees like Gasol, Chandler, Camby, Dampier are able to stop the frontcourt of Shaq and Amare. Even our Mutombo will have problems with them in a 7 games series.
I don't agree that they appeared to be the better team. I think they were going to lose regardless if they got players suspended or not.
I'm going to go ahead and say Suns in 7. They will win both games at home and then you have best 2 out of 3 and I think Amare is about to go ballistic on San Antonio. Regardless of what happens this year the Suns are done contending after this season. We are going to see Nash fall off hard starting next season and Shaq is just going to continue his steep decline.
Only reason they got Shaq is to guard Duncan. That I can almost guarantee. And Gasol, but mainly Duncan. They prepared for this match up and they got and if they don't win the whole trade was for nought.
whether they are better than last season or not, you are clueless about what happened to the suns in last year's playoffs. first, the corrupt official only made one questionable call against the suns for the entire series, in the first half of a game, not the closing seconds. second, the suns players did not get ejected, they were suspended. the rule was clear to everybody except the suns. when memet okhur hit fabricio oberto in the face, nobody came off the spurs bench. they chose to remain eligible. i find it strange that rocket fan does not get this rule, maybe i should dredge up a picture of rudy tomjonavich's face in a pool of blood for you. third, the spurs got screwed by the officiating at the end of game 4. it happens that way sometimes, but it evens out in the end. that's why they play (up to) seven games. anybody who thinks it's rigged should watch another sport or league. fourth, the spurs beat the crap out of the suns in game 6. everybody played except robert horry, who was the first player ever to be suspended for two games for a blocking foul. how do people get to be so uninformed?
Spurs were clearly the better team then and they are now. Suns weren't screwed last year. It's a clear rule not to leave the bench and they did. Also, the Spurs IMO seemed to be the team getting screwed by shady officiating. Whats funny is that it seemed like the Spurs gave them a boost of false confidence. They made this trade just for the Spurs and got their wish. I always thought if the Suns were to win the series they would have to do it in 4 or 5, otherwise the Spurs will win a long series. Shaq was never a good defender to begin with and Amare makes the Nuggets look like a team full of Bruce Bowens. Duncan can get Shaq in foul trouble all day and Amare just gives it up on top of fouling. If it weren't for Shaq complaining to the refs about flopping he woulda been on the bench most of game 2. Funny how Shaq could complain about flopping then get the respect of the officials yet....... <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Q4ZD6GiwxA&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Q4ZD6GiwxA&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
