[phxsuns]

What a sad day for many Suns fans, specifically Shawn Marion fans like myself. The deal is done, its a wrap. Shaq got his MRI today to see if anythings wrong. Everything went well. Well informed people are all saying the same. Shaq is coming to Phx.

Amare moves to power forward and Shaq becomes the starting center.

A part of me wants to hurl. Shaq's contract is horrendous, make that insane. And what a big change for the Suns, in mid season no less. This can go very very wrong.

But I guess I can see the positives:

- We won't get abused for so many offensive rebounds, which is really our weakness. Its extremely hard to beat us unless you completely kill us on the offensive glass.

-Fewer offensive boards given up= more running opportunities= more chances to score.

-A center to play with Amare, he hasn't had that since his rookie season. He's not a Center, never has been, and won't ever be.

-Kareem wasn't fast, and that worked out well for the Lakers.

-Doubling Shaq, on this team, surrounded by our shooters? Try it.

-A legit post presense, bolds well for the playoffs.

Then the cons:

-Gawd awful contract if he doesn't retire.

-Causes a potential problem with our offensive spacing.

-Marion IS our fast break, let no one tell you differently. Its Marion, followed by Nash, followed by Barbosa. We might be able to run as much with Shaq patrolling the paint, but we won't be nearly as effective without Marion's speed.

-Losing Marion, period. Our cornerstone rock for almost the last decade. Hardly gets tired, never gets injured, scores without needing plays, always guards the best player defensively, all hustle and heart. The man should retire in this uniform and only this uniform. Its sickening that he's being traded.

-We lose perimeter defense, but gain defense in the paint. Which is more important? I can make cases for both.

What a big risk for a team that currently has the best record in the West, its not like we are struggling or something. I just don't see why we'd do this unless something is going on internally. And if anyone thinks we will shoot like we did last Thursday on TNT for the Spurs game in a 7 game series knows nothing about basketball or this team specifically. But of course people like Barkley made it sound like the end of the world. Thats just one horrible shooting night, it happens to all teams and just happened a week ago when we played Chicago too. A bad shooting performance should not scare a GM into making a deal.

Kerr's GM rep is now on the line. He just gave the middle finger to D'antoni and his system.