When The Suns Randomly Traded For Shaq

When The Suns Randomly Traded For Shaq

After multiple years of falling short in the playoffs, the Phoenix Suns decided to make a massive move during the 2008 season by trading for Shaq, sending out Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks in return. It was a confusing trade at the time just due to the Sun’s play style and it would end up aging horribly in the following years. Yeah, I mean a trade that made just no sense. You got Mike Danton who loves to play small ball lineups and push the pace. Steve Nash who loves to move the ball. Athletic slashers like Amari and Shawn Marion. And you bring in the diesel. Interesting choice. [Music] [Music] Before we start talking about Shaq’s trade to the Suns, please give the video a like, subscribe to the channel, and hit the notification bell so you never miss out on any new videos. So, before we talk about the trade itself and how the Suns played after the trade, let’s give you an idea of where both the Suns franchise and Shaq were at leading up to the move. We’ll start with the Suns first who just couldn’t quite break through during their 7 seconds or less era. You had Steve Nash run the show MVP in both 2005 and 2006. Mike Danton, he was the head coach orchestrating the offense. Amari was coming off an AllNBA first team season. You also had Shawn Marion who was an all-star. And then the supporting cast not half bad. Barbosa, defensive stoppers like Raja Bell and Boris Dia. But as mentioned, they just couldn’t quite break through in a tough Western Conference. In 2005, they had the best wreck in the league, but fell the Spurs in the conference finals. In ‘ 06, despite Joe Johnson being traded before the season, and Amari only playing three games the entire year, they once again make the conference finals. This time though, they follow the Mavericks in six games. And then in 2007, you win 61 games, but you’re knocked out in the second round by the Spurs. I mean, this series could have gone way differently if Omari and Borisia weren’t suspended, but they left the bench. They missed game five. Seems like a very exploitable loophole. Exactly. Throw one of your bums in there to like throw a punch and, you know, instigate a fight and then all the stars run off the bench. Oh, they’re all suspended now. Yeah. Robert Ory does that nasty ass just like shove Steve Nash in the scores table. But, you know, Amari and Boris Dia, they’re the main problem cuz they left the bench. Now on to Shaq. Of course, he was traded to the Heat during the 2004 off seasonason. Nearly made it to the finals in his first year there, but they’d lose to the Pistons in seven in the Eastern Conference Finals. Finished second in MVP voting to Steve Nash that season. Something he’s probably still bitter about to this day. And honestly, maybe he should have won it, but you know, Nash got it. Following year, the Heat win their first title in franchise history behind an incredible finals from Dwayne Wade. But in ’07, injuries to both Shaq and D. Wade really prevented the Heat from repeating. They were still healthy come playoff time, but they got swept by the Bulls in the first round. And that brings us to 0708. During the 07 offseason, the Suns signed Grant Hill in free agency. You know, Hill was clearly past his prime. Injuries really derailed him, but he was still a serviceable starter and the Suns maybe thought he could be a missing piece for them. They then traded Kurt Thomas in an attempt to clear some cap space. This was done because they were making a play for Kevin Garnett and there was mutual interest at this point, but the deal fell through because the Wolves were asking for both Amari and Marion in return for KG, which honestly makes the package they got from Boston in the very end just look pathetic. Like you start the negotiations with Amari and Shawn Marion, two allstars, and you end it with Al Jefferson and Gerald Green. Real solid job there, Kevin McCale. Like, godamn. And in response to this, Shawn Marion was kind of just fed up of being in trade rumors all the time. Like just tired of hearing his name there. And that makes sense. He wanted to move. He requested a trade. Did what Jaylen Brown has never been able to do, honestly. Yeah. But Shawn Marion, he’d remain on the roster going into the season. And the Suns boasted the best record in the Western Conference in early February. But that of all times is when they decide to trade for Shaq. Just one of the more confusing moves in NBA history. The Suns acquired Shaq and in response they sent out Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. And if you’re a younger fan of the NBA, you like you might not know this, but the mastermind behind this deal, Steve Kerr, a guy famous in the current NBA for loving low post dominant big man. Yeah, that’s what makes this even more confusing is like you were, you know, ironically saying, Steve Carrer, he loves small ball lineups. He doesn’t really like traditional big centers. I mean, how many times was Draymond Green played in center for those Warriors teams? I mean, he’s made it like seven, eight years with Cavon Looney as his starting center. Like, like I guess he learned his lesson, but that makes this move just even more confusing. Yeah. To defend the Suns a little bit. I mean, Marian had mentioned he wanted out. He was probably going to leave in free agency even if he wasn’t traded. And they really needed a true big to guard guys like Tim Duncan and Andrew Bayham come playoff time. But man, you want to talk about oil and water on the offensive end, like where you’re trying to run, you’re trying to shoot the ball, and you bring in the diesel, who at this point needed a lot more stops to refuel than he had in the past. Like, Shaq’s debut would take place actually against Kobe and the Lakers on February 20th. This was shortly after the Lakers made their big trade for a star big when they acquired Pasal. And Shaq, honestly, like he moved pretty well in this game. He had some nice moments. He had this one moment where like he dove for the ball out of bounds. His first bucket came on a big dunk. Him and Amari had this combined block on Vladimir Rodmanovich in the third. And then midway through the fourth, Steve Nash found Shaq on Alioop. This cut the Lakers lead down to just one, but ultimately Kobe, he drops 41 points in this game. He had some big plays late and the Lakers get a big win in Phoenix. Fast forward eight games later, the Suns are just three and six since acquiring Shaq, but they would ultimately bounce back with a seven-game win streak after that and they finish the season with 55 wins. That only gets them the six seed though because as we’ve said countless times on this channel, we’ll probably have to say it countless more times. The late 2000s and early 2010s Western Conference was just a difficult place to exist. But getting the six seed that matched them up with a familiar foe, the San Antonio Spurs in round one. They had a lot of chances to win game one in San Antonio. They were up three with just 20 seconds left until Michael Finley hit a three to tie the game. Leaning jumper by Barbosa was off on the next possession. So we go to overtime and once again the Suns found themselves up three late in OT. But Tim Duncan of all players hit a three off some abysmal defense by Shaq. I will say I think this was a designed play by the Spurs. I don’t know why but just the the way it goes like just the way Duncan gets so completely wide open. He’s not like a three-point shooter but he’s a solid mid-range shooter. I thought they were like you know what it. Let’s see if Timmy can can rescue us here cuz we know we could get him a wide openen shot. Duncan nails the shot. The Spurs would eventually win the game in double overtime. Spurs would win games two and three to take a commanding three-0 lead in the series and they eventually closed the Suns out in five. Shaq wasn’t great in this series. The Spurs deployed the infamous hack ashack strategy and Shaq only hit 50% of his free throws and you know they brought him in to like help on Tim Duncan, be able to play defense on Tim Duncan and Timmy kind of ate him alive. 24.8 points per game, 13.8 rebounds a game in this series. So, year one of the uh Shack experiment not off to a great start. And then the following off season, things quickly just went downhill. Mike Danton leaves. He became the coach of the Knicks. And to replace Danton, the Suns brought in Blazers legend Terry Porter. Didn’t even have to sneak the mention this time. Yeah, we didn’t. It just came naturally. In free agency, they would sign Matt Barnes to one-year deal. And they actually had a pretty good draft. You draft Robin Lopez with the 15th pick. I mean, that’s fine. But Snagging Goran Dragitch with the 45th pick in the second round, pretty damn good there. Yeah, that’s good. But in the regular season, they just got off to a mediocre start. They were just 11 and N through 20 games. The worst start since Nash had returned. This prompted Phoenix to trade Raja Bell and Boris Diao and a deal center around Jason Richardson. I mean, honestly, a pretty good trade on face value, but you’re giving up two more main pieces from those like successful conference finals teams a few seasons prior. Even after the move, the Suns really didn’t get much better. Like they were fighting just to make the playoffs. So, in the middle of February, again, just another massive shakeup. You fire Terry Porter just eight months into his tenure. This season was so interesting because this is the first season I started watching the NBA. And as I’m like learning everything, you know, about the NBA, learning who the players are and whatnot, like, oh, Steve Nash is super good and Mari’s super good. Oh, they got Shaq, right? You know, and I just remember like watching this team and seeing where they were in the standings and I’d be like, so why are they so bad? Like, it’s just like as a new fan at the time, I was always told how great all these players were. I’m just like, they’re not in the playoffs, though. Like, the Blazers were in the playoffs at this time and the Suns weren’t. The Suns did promote Alvin Gentry to replace Terry Porter, and he would slightly improve them, but shortly after he took over, Amari had eye surgery, which caused him to miss the rest of the season, and the Suns would eventually miss the playoffs for the first time in four years. Shaq on an individual level actually had a pretty good season in 2009. He made the All-Star team again, was co- MVP of that game with Kobe, finished third team AllNBA as well. But clearly his play style was not working with the other players on the roster, mainly with Steve Nash. And then during the offseason, they sent him to Cleveland in exchange for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovich, who they then bought out. So they basically just gave Shaq away for nothing. Like they did get a second round picking some cash. Oh, Lying died. So in conclusion, just a horrible trade for the Suns. Like there was probably no way to repair the relationship between Marion and Phoenix, but bringing in Shaq was like basically the worst option among star players like on Marion’s level. Like I don’t know if there was ever going to be a way to get KG. Maybe he could have thrown some like future picks and made it happen. That would have been an insanely good team with Amari there as well. They should have rang out Memphis and see if they could get Cassaul. Yeah, the Lakers got Cassaul forwami Brown. Honestly, and this trade like essentially just killed the 7 seconds or less Suns by itself. It ended any chance they had at competing in the Nash era. So, Steve Kerr, he’s forever going to be loved by the Warriors for, you know, coaching there, winning titles. He’s going to be loved by the Bulls for being a supporting cast piece during the Jordan years, but I really just don’t think Suns fans will ever forgive him because he just completely torpedoed this team. So, what do you guys think of this Shaq sons trade in hindsight? Was there ever a chance it was going to work? Or do you guys think like us and it was doomed from the start? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed the video, please consider giving a like because it really does help us out. And while you’re here, check out some of our other content as well. And don’t forget to subscribe to Synthetic Sports.

After 3 straight seasons of failing to break through in the West playoffs, the Suns made a massive move during the 2008 season. In early February they sent out Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Heat and in return received Shaquille O’Neal. It was a confusing trade at the same time due to Phoenix’s play style and almost two decades later it still makes no sense.

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