The Suns in Real Life

There are two different ways to (mildly irrationally) rush to judgment on the Shaq trade after Saturday nights shocking defeat to the hands of the lowley Philadelphia 76ers:

1. It was a bad trade. O'Neal has disrupted the identity of this Suns teams, and this makes them a significantly worse off team.
2. We still have to wait and see. He's only playing in his second week since joining the team, and the move was a playoff move--designed to allow Phoenix to push the Suns over the top in the physical, defensive battle that the playoffs turn games into. We have to wait until the playoffs to truly get a fair assessment of the move.

Both arguments are rooted firmly in defensible waters--you could legitimately make a case for both of them--as our favorite friends in Bristol will continue to do for the remainder of the season (and likely beyond). But both of these arguments also demonstrate characteristics of classically oversimplified--dare I say Disneyfied--ESPN Cup Noodle thinking. There's a lack of imagination, long-term thinking and subtly here.

Has anyone stopped to look around for a second? To realize the rapid transformation the league, particularly the Western Conference that has taken place since the season began? The concentration of basketball capital is at unprecedented levels since the league expanded in the early 90's. The Gasol trade set into motion, a restructuring of philosophies in front offices across the league. Suddenly GM's and owners started remembered that they were in the entertainment business for once and started taking chances. After all, in the big picture this wasn't Obama-Hillary. This was fucking basketball. We're selling competition, not ourselves.

So here's the realization that slowly dawned upon my pea-sized sensibilities. There's another argument. The different one. The real one:

3. The Suns don't get significantly better or worse from the trade. What's changed isn't so much about what's happening with Dantoni and company in Phoenix-but the rest of the NBA.

If Marion is still there it doesn't matter. Because Gasol makes the Lakers too good. Because Manu Ginobili has elevated his game to superstar levles. Because Dallas has a new energy with Kidd running the break. And because Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets are for real. Maybe, last year--when a crooked ref destroyed the integrity of a series--and a Comissioner stuck to the politically correct move, instead of the right one--maybe last year was their best shot. Maybe the rest of the league, including a Boston, Detroit and maybe even Cleveland, caught up this year.

Even with Marion, the Suns didn't play well against the best teams in the league. They strutted out to the best record in the West by pounding on inferior teams in the Eastern Conference. But when they played against teams with a shot to taking home sweet Larry O', there's nothing there you'd write home to Mom about.

In the end, I think actual deal may end up a wash. They lose a 3-point, shooter and a guy who runs the floor and complements Nash's 90-foot game--but they gain a guy who has a defensive presence in the paint and someone who can take pressure off Amare Stodamire at both ends of the floor.

GM's are starting to figure out how to do their jobs. And just as the great Sacramento teams of the late 90's and early 00's ushered in early adopters to an egalitarian model of success but ultimately could never get over the hump-- perhaps Phoenix's fate is similar, as a natural extension of the multi-pronged high-powered offensive attack they invented. Remember, the Suns had Joe Johnson--they had Tim Thomas at his best, Kurt Thomas and they had Shawn Marion as the best player he will ever be.

The one wild card in all of this, though is Boris Diaw. It seems unlikely...I'll go as far as to say, it seems very unlikely. But if the Frenchman can miraculously find and pull out his offensive testicles, Phoenix could regain the X's and O's swagger that put them so close to the top just a couple years ago. The problem is, is that we've been waiting to see it for 2 seasons now, and we have yet to see the 2006 Boris Diaw. Too bad the time machine is in San Antonio.